Data that persuades
How to prove your point
Ian
Lurie
CEO,
Portent
This is the ‘narrated’ version of
my presentation from SES San
Francisco, 2012. You’ll see
explanations in little black boxes
like this one.
San
Francisco|
August
13–17

If you have questions after you
read this, shoot ‘em to me on
Twitter. I’m happy to answer.
ME: @PORTENTINT

Also, I’ve put links to books,
examples, etc. on a bit.ly link
bundle at this link.
portent.co/sesdata
Yes, like this, no ‘m’.

I’m not a fan of bullets. They
give slides a bad name. So I’ve
banned them from this
presentation.
This presentation is
certified 100% bullet-free.

I came up with the idea for this
presentation after receiving a
graph that looked like this:
7000
6000
5000
4000
Jun-­‐12
3000
Jul-­‐12
2000
Aug-­‐12
1000
0
Alfalfa
Timothy
Chewy
Pigloos
Hay
Treats
@portentint

Why the @#$! would you do this?
7000
6000
5000
4000
Jun-­‐12
3000
Jul-­‐12
2000
Aug-­‐12
1000
0
I couldn’t figure out why people
would do this to innocent, Timothy
Chewy
Alfalfa
Pigloos
helpless data. This graph is Hay
Treats
awful.
@portentint

Why the @#$! would you do this?
7000
6000
5000
4000
Jun-­‐12
3000
Jul-­‐12
2000
Aug-­‐12
1000
0
Even worse, it was created by a
Alfalfa
Timothy
Chewy
Pigloos
marketing ‘professional’ to give to
Hay
Treats
her boss (I changed the products
to protect the innocent)
@portentint

Why the @#$! would you do this?
7000
6000
5000
4000
Jun-­‐12
3000
Jul-­‐12
2000
Aug-­‐12
1000
0
Alfalfa
Timothy
Chewy
Pigloos
Would you take this seriously? Can
Hay
Treats
even figure out what the story
you
is behind this data?
@portentint

Why the @#$! would you do this?
7000
6000
5000
4000
Jun-­‐12
3000
Jul-­‐12
2000
Aug-­‐12
1000
0
Alfalfa
Timothy
Chewy
Pigloos
Hay
Treats
Then I found out her boss asked
for it this way to show to his boss.
Grrrrrrr… @portentint

Of course, this isn’t really our problem, right? I
mean, we’re SEOs and PPC’ers and such. Our job
isn’t data presentation – it’s giving good advice
about rankings and ads and stuff.
WHY SHOULD, TOO
AND YOU
I CARE

WRONG. SO WRONG. We face a
few huge problems we can only fix if
we know how to present data in a
compelling way.
WHY SHOULD, TOO
AND YOU
I CARE

The problem right now is that we
approach data the same way we
approach food.
DATA = FOOD

If a little data’s good…
Data good!!!

…more’s better! So we pig out. We
create these awful spreadsheets and
charts, export dozens of pages from
analytics software and let our clients
and bosses stuff themselves. But they
don’t get any useful info from it.
More data better!!!

Whoa, hey now,
let's not get
personal.
So our clients with end up
fatter than Grizzlies, but with
no idea what to do next. The
data is totally overwhelming
and actionably worthless.

We need to serve our clients
little, well-prepared servings of
super-dense, useful
information. Not 32 Big Macs.
I’ll lay off the food
metaphor now.

YOUR CAREER ISN’T ABOUT BEING
RIGHT
Because here’s the thing: Being right
doesn’t get you paid. It doesn’t get you
promoted. It doesn’t get you business.
Being right is how you make sure you
don’t screw your clients/bosses with
bad information.

YOUR CAREER IS ABOUT BEING
UNDERSTOOD
If you want the fact that you’re right to
matter – if you want to really succeed
in your career as a marketer – you
need to be understood. In our
business, that comes down to data,
and good presentation of that data.

IF YOU WANT PERSUASIVE
You have to be persuasive. But
that doesn’t mean the prettiest
graph, or the loudest argument,
or the best skills as a debater.

BE THE PERSON THEY
ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND
You want to be persuasive? Be
the one person that your client
can actually understand. That’s
how you grow your career,
and become awesome.

HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT
3 STRATEGIC TIPS
First off, three basic rules you
have to know.

LIZARD. APE. HUMAN.
Before you prepare your report,
repeat the phrase “Lizard, Ape,
Human”. It’ll help you remember
how people consume
information, and keep your report
focused.

According to Donald Norman, we
respond to information on three
levels: Visceral (fight or flight),
Behavioral (like or hate), and
Reflective (meaning).
VISCERAL
BEHAVIORAL
REFLECTIVE
From The Design of Everyday Things,
Donald Norman

it's true. I'm a
visceral guy.
When you drop a report on my desk (I am a boss, after all), my first
reaction is visceral. It comes from my lizard brain, and it’s a very simple
yes/no response. A ‘yes’ means I’ll look long enough to form an opinion.
A ‘no’ means I’m probably going to do everything I can to ignore the
data you so lovingly prepared for me. Choice of color, layout, report
clutter and such can affect this response.

not as smart
as humans?
Whatever.
Then I’ll look a little more closely. This is closer to the ape-driven part of
my brain. It’s an emotional response, but not totally driven by a look at the
data. A well-designed bit of data graphics can make a huge difference
here, because the ape-brain isn’t quite as smart as the human-brain, but it’s
very nuanced. At this point, I’m looking for something to ponder.

does this mean
I'm an apex
predator? Sweet!
Now, finally, I hit the reflective response. The visceral and emotional
response shape the reflective one. If my first reaction was “ew” and my
second was “I can’t believe I paid for this,” my reflective response is
going to be “Who can I hire to replace you?”
If my visceral reaction was “huh!” and my behavioral was “I had no idea!”
my reflective response will be “I need to dig deeper! Get in here!”

WHAT. WHY. WHAT NOW?
Getting the right visceral response is about information design. I’ll talk
about that in minute. Getting the right behavioral and reflective response
is about answering the right questions:
What story does the data tell?
Why did that story happen?
What should we as a company do next, based on the what and why?

WHAT: SEO & PPC are on an upswing.
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging
May-­‐12
$669.00
$643.00
$1,005.00
$767.00
Jun-­‐12
$850.00
$1,500.00
$647.00
$1,074.00
Jul-­‐12
$2,500.00
$2,340.00
$619.00
$687.00
Understand that data isn’t a bunch of
numbers. It’s a story – a narrative – of
how your marketing, product and
company are working. It’s up to you to
dig out that story.

New landers launched July 1.
SEO content strategy ongoing
as of May 1.
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging
May-­‐12
$669.00
$643.00
$1,005.00
$767.00
Jun-­‐12
$850.00
$1,500.00
$647.00
$1,074.00
Jul-­‐12
$2,500.00
$2,340.00
$619.00
$687.00
It’s not enough to just say “SEO and PPC are
doing well!”
You need to explain why. Otherwise, you’re no
better than a Google Analytics report, and I
don’t need to pay you.

Why?
PPC
Conversion
rate
6%
Landers go live June 1 5.00%
5%
What explains the change? Look 4.00%
4%
at the data. Think this through,
thoroughly, before you even try
3%
to create a report or
presentation. Do the research.
2%
1.10%
1.00%
1.00%
1%
0.75%
0.40%
0%
Jan-­‐12
Feb-­‐12
Mar-­‐12
Apr-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12

Next
Test more landers.
Continue SEO. There’s a lag.
Then, be ready with next steps.
These examples are over-
simplified, obviously. But you get
the idea. Because any boss/client
will ask what to do next.

WHAT. WHY. NEXT.
Don’t forget: Answer these three
questions. Yes, this is a repeat
slide. It’s that important.

ESTABLISH CONTEXT
The last strategic tip: Don’t
present data in a vacuum.
@portentint

SEO
&
PPC
performance
$1,400.00
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
While this chart tells me SEO
$600.00
and PPC are improving, it doesn’t
$400.00
tell me how they’re doing
compared to my other channels.
$200.00
I read it and say ‘so what’?
$-­‐
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12

Sales
by
channel
$1,200.00
Ah HAH. Now I see the whole
equation. SEO’s out-performing
all other channels. This is data in
context. It helps me make a
smart decision.
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

Lizard. Ape. Human.
What. Why. What next.
Provide context.
Three big strategic tips that’ll
add depth to your reports.
But you still have to get past that
first, visceral assessment. And,
you have to provide clarity when
the reader looks more closely.

13 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT DATA
Time to get tactical. Here are a
bunch of little tips that’ll help
make your reports more
consumable.

1 DON’T MAKE THEM READ
Pretend your brain is a computer.
Every individual ‘chunk’ of
information you have to process
is a task. More tasks = more
work. More work = grumpy boss.
@portentint

PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging
May-­‐12
$669.00
$643.00
$1,005.00
$767.00
Jun-­‐12
$850.00
$1,500.00
$647.00
$1,074.00
Jul-­‐12
$2,500.00
$2,340.00
$619.00
$687.00
Tabular data like this forces me
to perform at least 12, and as
many as 19, individual tasks, just
to get the story that PPC and
SEO are moving up.

A simple line chart requires at most 2 tasks. Phew. Much
better. The moral? Don’t make me read. Reading was the last
thing we learned to do. We’ve been looking for patterns,
though, for hundreds of thousands of years. Our brains are
better at it, and we can take in a pattern shown in an image in
a few seconds.
Visceral, ftw!
SEO
&
PPC
performance
$1,400.00
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
$600.00
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12

FOLLOW TUFTE’S LAWS
Above all else, show the data.
Maximize data-ink ratio.
Erase non-data ink.
Erase redundant data ink.
Revise and edit.
From The Visual Display of Quantitative Data,
by Edward Tufte
Next, a bunch of fantastic tips to
follow, from the top data
visualization guru on the planet,
Edward Tufte. Read his books! @portentint

2 ABOVE ALL ELSE, SHOW THE DATA
His best, first rule: Show the
damned data!!!!
@portentint

Remember, my brain has to
perform tasks. Every additional
bit of junk on the page interferes
with my ability to ‘see’ the data.
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

By simply deleting the weird
vegetable icons, you’ll get one
step closer to just showing the
data. Nice.
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

One way to show the data first
is to maximize the ratio of data
to ink.
3 MAXIMIZE DATA-INK RATIO
@portentint

All the ink used to show the 3D
effects are a total waste. They in
no way help me understand this
data. In fact, they may get in the
way, since the blue ‘May’ bars
are partly hidden.
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

See how much better that is?
I’m using fewer pixels for
decoration, and more for data.
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

Take another step by removing
more non-data ink.
4 REMOVE NON-DATA INK
@portentint

For example, the gridlines in this graph aren’t
really helping. I can tell you that, as your boss,
I’m not going to trace across them.
Remember the story – you’re trying to show a
trend, and relative performance. The grid isn’t
$1,200.00
helping with that.
$1,000.00
$800.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

Bye-bye, grid. Nice knowing you.
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

5 REMOVE REDUNDANT DATA INK
Remove data ink (pixels, if you’re
an onscreen person) that repeats
the message, too. In this example:
I don’t need to show the Y-axis
values in $200 increments. Again,
this is about trending. The small
increments introduce a lot of
redundant ink.
@portentint

This tells the data’s story just as
well, but my visceral reaction is a
lot better now. My fevered little
brain doesn’t have to perform as
many tasks.
$1,200.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

As a reminder, there is
where we started.
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$400.00
$200.00
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

This is the end result.
Much better, yes?
$1,200.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

Most important: Don’t treat your reports
and data graphics as fragile models. You
can tear them apart, revise them and
generally tweak them to make ‘em more
readable. Revise and edit!
6 REVISE & EDIT
@portentint

For example, I decided the grid was helpful after
all, because it made it easier for folks to compare
bars on the far-right of the chart. I didn’t want to
add ink, so I added a white line across at the
$600 increment. Revise and edit.
$1,200.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

FOLLOW TUFTE’S LAWS
Above all else, show the data.
Maximize data-ink ratio.
Erase non-data ink.
Erase redundant data ink.
Revise and edit.
From The Visual Display of Quantitative Data,
by Edward Tufte
There’s no way I can do Tufte justice in a few
slides. Read his stuff. Follow his 5 laws. Join the
data nerds. It’s nice here. They have cookies.*
@portentint

*Not crappy cookies, like chocolate chip cookies
that turn out to be oatmeal raisin (shudder) or
those nasty, chocolate-free sugar cookies. We’re
talking cookies with honkin’ huge chocolate
chunks in them so large they make your cheeks
hurt. Data nerd-dom is a nice place.
@portentint

7 USE SMALL MULTIPLES
Small multiples help you break up complex
datasets and compare them. Tufte and a bunch
of other writers talk about them. I’m not sure who
came up with the idea. It wasn’t me, though.
@portentint

Sales
by
month
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
PPC
$600.00
SEO
E-­‐mail
$400.00
Take this example. It’s a little
Begging
confusing. Which line is which? I have
to do a lot of work to interpret it.
$200.00
$-­‐
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12

Sales by channel
PPC
SEO
$1,400.00
$1,400.00
$1,200.00
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
$800.00
$600.00
$600.00
$400.00
$400.00
$200.00
$200.00
$-­‐
$-­‐
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
E-­‐mail
Begging
$1,400.00
$1,400.00
$1,200.00
$1,200.00
$1,000.00
$1,000.00
$800.00
$800.00
$600.00
$600.00
$400.00
$400.00
$200.00
$200.00
$-­‐
$-­‐
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
Small multiples means breaking those
4 series into a grid of matching
graphs. Much easier to compare.

Sales by channel
PPC
SEO
$1,050.00
$1,250.00
$1,000.00
$1,150.00
$950.00
$1,050.00
$900.00
$950.00
$850.00
$800.00
$850.00
$750.00
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
E-­‐mail
Begging
$1,140.00
$1,160.00
$1,120.00
$1,150.00
$1,100.00
$1,140.00
$1,080.00
$1,130.00
$1,060.00
$1,040.00
$1,120.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
You can compress the y-axes if you
want to, to emphasize change…

Sales by channel
PPC
SEO
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,250.00
$1,250.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$1,050.00
$1,050.00
$950.00
$950.00
$850.00
$850.00
$750.00
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
E-­‐mail
Begging
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,250.00
$1,250.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$1,050.00
$1,050.00
$950.00
$950.00
$850.00
$850.00
$750.00
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12

Sales by channel
PPC
SEO
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$950.00
$950.00
$750.00
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
E-­‐mail
Begging
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$950.00
$950.00
$750.00
But I recommend using the same range on every
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
graph. Here, I have each chart Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
starting Jul-­‐12
$750,
at
instead of 0, because it makes the changes more
obvious. But it’s still apples-to-apples.

BSG despair-o-meter
Season
1
Season
2
9
9
9
9
9
9
8
Episode quality
1-­‐5
6-­‐10
11-­‐15
16-­‐20
1-­‐5
6-­‐10
11-­‐15
16-­‐20
Season
3
Season
4
10
9
9
7
7
6
4
2
1-­‐5
6-­‐10
11-­‐15
16-­‐20
1-­‐5
6-­‐10
11-­‐15
16-­‐20
A personal favorite: My Battlestar Galactica Despair-O-Meter compares
episode quality season by season. Small multiples fight the Cylon menace.

8 USE NATURAL COLORS
Anything you can do to tap our instinctive ability to respond
to stimuli makes data more digestible. That includes using
natural colors, instead of…
@portentint

…eye-gougingly bad colors.
Sales by channel
$1,200.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

Ah. Much better, yes?
$1,200.00
Sales by channel
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

9 USE CONTRASTING
NATURAL COLORS
Yes, but still a little hard to read,
because all the blues ran together. So,
try to use contrasting natural colors.
@portentint

From Tim Beard
http://portent.co/NHy5QD
Tim Beard has this great palette you can
use. It’s a whole set of natural colors.

This isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot easier to
look at, and it’s easy to distinguish one
series from another.
Sales by channel
$1,200.00
May-­‐12
$600.00
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
$-­‐
PPC
SEO
E-­‐mail
Begging

Pie charts suck. Seriously. I’ve never seen
a pie chart that couldn’t be improved by
using another type of chart.
10 SAY NO TO PIE CHARTS
@portentint

How exactly am I supposed to
see the difference between, Orders by channel
say, 4% and 8%? Do they
really look like they’re
separated by a factor of 2?
No. Pie charts tend to conceal
distinctions.

Orders by channel
70
Turn the same thing into a bar
chart, and suddenly it’s a lot
60
easier to see the entire range
of results.
50
40
30
20
10
0
SEO
PPC
E-­‐mail
Display
Direct

11 USE CONSISTENT PROPORTIONS
If you’re using small multiples, or
even presenting several pages of
charts, use the same proportions
on all of them.
@portentint

Sales by channel
PPC
SEO
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$950.00
$950.00
$750.00
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
E-­‐mail
Begging
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$950.00
Here, using different proportions
$950.00
makes it look like the change over
$750.00
time for PPC and SEO$750.00
is about
May-­‐12
the same as Jul-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
e-mail and begging. I May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
won’t look at the numbers, first. I’ll
look at the lines. Be sure they tell
an accurate story.

Sales by channel
PPC
SEO
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$950.00
$950.00
$750.00
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
E-­‐mail
Begging
$1,350.00
$1,350.00
$1,150.00
$1,150.00
$950.00
$950.00
$750.00
$750.00
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
May-­‐12
Jun-­‐12
Jul-­‐12
See the difference?

12 GO 45 DEGREES
Stephen Few talks about
trending data in his book, Now
You See It. A lot of people ask
him what the best size/shape is
for a line graph.
@portentint

Sales
$450,000
$400,000
$350,000
$300,000
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
$100,000
His answer: Don’t worry about
$50,000
the size. Instead, set the
$-­‐
proportions so the average slope
Jan-­‐11
Feb-­‐11
Mar-­‐11
45 degrees. That tends to be Aug-­‐11
Sep-­‐11
is Apr-­‐11
May-­‐11
Jun-­‐11
Jul-­‐11
easiest to read.

13 SHOW TRENDS
Remember, above all, show the
data! That includes trends.
@portentint

Sales
$450,000
$400,000
$350,000
$300,000
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
It’s not easy to see this is an
$100,000
upward trend.
$50,000
$-­‐
Jan-­‐11
Feb-­‐11
Mar-­‐11
Apr-­‐11
May-­‐11
Jun-­‐11
Jul-­‐11
Aug-­‐11
Sep-­‐11

Sales
$450,000
$400,000
$350,000
$300,000
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
Add a trendline. Now I can see
$100,000
the trend in a second.
$50,000
$-­‐
Jan-­‐11
Feb-­‐11
Mar-­‐11
Apr-­‐11
May-­‐11
Jun-­‐11
Jul-­‐11
Aug-­‐11
Sep-­‐11

DON’T BE THESE GUYS
There are the tactics. Now, a
couple of examples of what can
happen when you ignore the
tactics and the strategy of great
data visualization, and just crank
out one crappy report after
another.

No clear story. No what, when,
what’s next. Huge amounts of
non-data ink and just visual trash.

This is actually so bad that it
looks equally informative
backwards…

And even upside-down. If your
report looks just as useful(less)
upside-down, start again.

Total Clicks Compared to Total Monthly Spending
$7,000.00 6,000
$6,000.00 5,000
$5,000.00
4,000
Spending
$4,000.00
Clicks
3,000
$3,000.00
2,000
$2,000.00
$1,000.00 1,000
If I just pull out two graphs, I
$- 0
Dec-10
think there’s a story. The story of
Jan-11
Feb-11
Mar-11
Apr-11
May-11
Jun-11
Jul-11
Aug-11
Sep-11
Oct-11
Nov-11
a very bored analyst, playing
Historical Average
with shading filters in Excel.
Clicks
Conversions Compared to Total Monthly Spending
$7,000.00 18
$6,000.00 16
14
$5,000.00
12
Conversions
Spending
$4,000.00 10
$3,000.00 8
6
$2,000.00
4
$1,000.00 2
$- 0
Dec-10
Jan-11
Feb-11
Mar-11
Apr-11
May-11
Jun-11
Jul-11
Aug-11
Sep-11
Oct-11
Nov-11
Spending Conversions

OR

20 Conversions
15
10
5
0
Take 2 minutes to remove non-
Dec-10
Feb-11
Apr-11
Jun-11
Aug-11
Oct-11
data ink, apply small multiples
and such, and suddenly there’s a
bit more information.
$8,000
Spend
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
$-
Dec-10
Feb-11
Apr-11
Jun-11
Aug-11
Oct-11

20 Conversions
15
10
5
0
Dec-10
Feb-11
Apr-11
Jun-11
Aug-11
Oct-11
The data isn’t bad. The
presentation was awful.
$8,000
Spend
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
$-
Dec-10
Feb-11
Apr-11
Jun-11
Aug-11
Oct-11

DON’T BE THESE GUYS
Sometimes, though, the data is
bad, too. Take this last example.

Monthly
PPC
visitors
1,200
1,000
800
Unique
Visitors
600
400
200
This report is supposed to show my
PPC campaign performance. But it
0
only shows me clicks!!! I don’t care
Jan
Feb
about clicks!!! IMay
March
April
wantJune
know what
to July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2008
319
405
667
926
1,121
913
817
520
433
331
267
204
2009
239
those clicks cost and earn. This 722
a
780
992
1,073
889
862
is 567
199
133
86
2010
253
397
100% useless crap graphic.
618
741
573
456
463
402
370
333
192
153
2011
217
322
511
640
931
793
603
526
390
357
250
262
2012
339
405
581

AN OBLIGATION
I hope you find this helpful. My point,
again: Your job is as much explainer as
expert. Learn to find and tell the story
in the data, and learn to do it well. It’ll
put you head-and-shoulders above
your competition.

AN OBLIGATION
And, to me, there’s an ethical
obligation for us as experts. It’s our job
to provide good, actionable advice.
Not ‘good’ and ‘actionable’ from our
own perspective, but from our clients’.

AN OBLIGATION
The businesses of the people you
work for depend on that. Take it
seriously.
Plus: Cookies. We have them.
Data nerds, unite.

@PORTENTINT
IAN@PORTENT.COM
PORTENT.CO/SESDATA
Note: Excel was only tool used to
create the charts & graphs in this
presentation. You don’t need fancy
stuff.