Before & After: Better Data Stories in 15 Minutes

Good data stories are designed, not discovered. This focused session shows how small, deliberate changes turn baffling charts into decision-ready narratives. Using before-and-after makeovers drawn from HR and people analytics, we cover visual priorities, clear comparisons, contextual annotations, and explicit next steps. You’ll leave with simple templates for transforming dashboards, alerts, and updates – including practical ways to handle streaming metrics and AI-generated notes without losing trust.

• A repeatable makeover flow: remove clutter, focus comparisons, label directly, and state the ask.
• Chart choices that speed sense-making: lines vs bars, small multiples, and when to show rates of change.
• Context and causality: baselines, thresholds, and short annotations that explain the shift.
• From dashboard to decision: explicit owner, time horizon, and the next step.
• Real-time and AI-assisted notes: alert priority, cooldowns, provenance tags, and bias checks.
• People analytics examples: attrition risk, hiring backlog, skills coverage, and pay-equity monitoring.

• Use a simple before-and-after method to turn any people metric into a clear narrative.
• Redesign a dashboard tile to highlight the change, why it matters, and what to do.
• Set alert and annotation standards that cut noise while maintaining provenance and fairness.
• Instrument adoption with decision latency, action rates, and overrides to refine stories.
• Create an executive summary that links people data to cost, capacity, risk, or growth.

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

CEO · storytelling with data

Leaders are asked to act on people metrics faster than ever, while automation can trigger changes without a human in the loop. Poorly framed visuals waste time, erode trust, and slow adoption. Clear before-and-after standards turn streaming dashboards and AI annotations into decisions that stand up to CFO, audit, and regulatory scrutiny – reducing rework and risk.