Carragee Consulting

~2014 I presented “Data Driven Decision-Making and the Art of Storytelling” at a Professional Pricing Society conference.

I was making a case for why Pricing Analysts needed to advance their skill of persuasion, not simply by generating reporting and then expecting “the numbers to speak for themselves”.

I was at a point in my career when I felt quite close to significant data which framed my view of business trajectories.

In pricing in 2009 I had known layoffs were coming before pink slips circulated because I could see our revenue and profits had tanked.

As a newer analysts I thought that if people were presented with what I saw daily that we would naturally interpret it similarly.

As I presented to our executives more often and observed their decisions I found that we did not have similar thoughts.

At first I worked on making fonts bigger, ensuring axes were labeled and cleaning up my visualizations.

I tried to stop using the dual axis bar/line chart and the multiple series line chart my coworkers referred to as the “Harold and the Purple Crayon Chart”.

It wasn’t enough.

Improving my reporting was like speaking in an echo chamber, or at best Plato’s cave.

When I had opportunities to discuss what I was observing I occasionally felt I was really communicating, but even then the opportunities for influence were few and far between.

I have a natural tendency to use analogies and references to books and events, leaning in to this has been helpful.

WIIFM – I learned the abbreviation for What’s in it for me? (so what?) and I’ve tried to align what I present with the motivations and incentives of my audience.

I’ve come to accept you need to agree to disagree (and move on) more often than you’d like and working on the fringes of what you can actually impact.

When people claim to be data driven, its more likely we mean we seek out data to confirm our existing beliefs because confidence feels good.

Going back to my own presentation I see that I had some theoretical recommendations, a good suggested reading list and some humorous pop culture references woven in.

Pulling together the talk reinforced some of my own ideas and made me more conscious of the times I am ignoring what I know about how people form options (mostly emotional) and pretending I can treat them like Econs (purely rational).

Actually changing my methods is still work in progress.