Data literacy is one of the hottest topics in the business world today. Although most people think of literacy in terms of reading and receiving information, literacy is a two‐way street that also involves writing and delivering information. The presentation of data‐driven material is, therefore, a core component of data literacy. The onus isn't just on your audience to be ready to understand and receive the information you provide. The responsibility is also on you to present and explain your information in a way that can be effectively received by your audience. You must also help the audience understand what they stand to gain by acting on the information.

This book focuses on common errors that presenters make when delivering a data‐driven presentation to a live audience. The negative effects of these errors are only magnified when presenting to nontechnical audiences, and the errors drastically undercut the impact of your presentation while lessening your personal credibility. Although presenting information in a clear, crisp, effective fashion enables you to stand out, it takes diligence and practice to do that consistently.

In the context of this book, a data‐driven presentation is one that contains summarized data, analysis results, survey outcomes, results of experiments, or any other type of data derived to support the presentation. Also note that presentation in context of this book applies to a slide deck prepared for a live presentation and to how the presenter verbally delivers the compelling story that the deck supports. The live presentation can be in person, virtual, or a mix of both.

Although many of the tips in the book also apply to written content, the book is all about making live data‐driven presentations. There are many books on different aspects of delivering data‐driven content, such as performing analysis, creating visualizations, storytelling, presentation skills, and more. However, this is the only book that pulls from each of those subject areas and applies a lens focusing exclusively on the live presentation of data‐driven content.

The tips that follow are derived from my 30+ years of presenting data‐driven information to mostly nontechnical audiences. I have delivered hundreds and hundreds of presentations to companies and conferences myself, and I have been present in a similar number of presentations by others. Every tip in this book reflects a mistake that I have made and/or that I have seen others make. Ironically, some of the mistakes that seem so obvious as to make you say, “I'd never do that, so why did it get included in this book?” are the mistakes I see most often! I've always wished someone had taught me these lessons so that I didn't have to learn them the hard way on my own, hence, my motivation to write this book and provide the lessons to readers as a way to pay it forward.

This book is needed now more than ever. Analytics and data continue to rise in prominence, and virtually anyone in the professional workforce today must deal with data, as a presenter and as a consumer of presentations. Although universities teach the theory behind how to generate analytics and data, they do not spend time on how to effectively present that information to others. Most continuing education and corporate training courses are similarly focused on generating technical results, not effectively delivering those results to an audience. Due to this, people still learn what they know about how to present data‐driven information on the job, and, frankly, most people aren't very good at it! If you learn to present data‐driven information well, you will increase your effectiveness, your credibility, your career success, and the number of business outcomes you influence.

This book is meant to be a handbook that you keep on your desk so that you can refer to it on an ongoing basis during presentation development. Just like athletes continue to practice basic skills throughout their careers, it is also necessary to constantly refresh yourself on how to create and deliver data‐driven information effectively and to routinely practice the basics.