Brent Dykes: LinkedIn Content Strategy & Writing Style

Whenever your chart uses a legend, you add cognitive load to the equation. It may seem like a minor inconvenience if someone has to glance back and forth between a chart and its legend, but those lit…

A single statistic in isolation doesn’t communicate much. A number like 68% might look impressive, but without context, it’s an empty figure. What gives a number meaning is comparison. Without a co…

Some people feel uncomfortable steering the audience toward a particular takeaway. They worry that data storytelling isn’t “objective” and feel that the data should simply speak for itself. What the…

Many people continue to believe dashboards tell data stories. They don’t. And they were never designed to (despite what tool vendors say). Dashboards are great for monitoring key metrics and helping…

Most executives support using data—until the data tells a story they don’t want to hear. When results fall short of expectations, leaders react. And those reactions can either shut down an insight or…

I’m sorry, but a chart isn’t a data story. It’s just a piece. When you share a single chart without context, your audience is forced to assemble the rest of the puzzle on their own. And most of the…