As engineers and analysts, we spend a lot of time building dashboards, pipelines, and reports. But here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve learned:
📊Even the best-looking dashboard can still fail.
Why? Because if the audience doesn’t know what to do with it, the insight is wasted.
This happened to me multiple times — polishing a dashboard, sending it off, and then being asked: “Cool, but… what now?”
That’s when I started applying the Who, What, How framework (from Storytelling with Data). It’s simple, but powerful.
🔹 Who
Be crystal clear about your audience. Is it a VP making a budget decision? A PM prioritizing a feature? Another engineer debugging performance? Each requires a different lens.
🔹 What
Always tie data to an action. Don’t just show that user churn increased — recommend what should be done. Decide, approve, invest, support — make it actionable.
🔹 How
- Pick the right channel:
- Live deck = your voice carries nuance.
- Written doc/email = more detail, less control.
- Slideument = mix of both, often overused.
And don’t underestimate tone: urgent vs. celebratory vs. exploratory makes a difference.
Tools for Structuring Your Story
3-Minute Story: If you can’t explain it in 3 minutes, you probably don’t understand it well enough. This forces you to distill the essence.
Big Idea: Write down one sentence that combines your unique perspective + what’s at stake. That becomes the anchor for your narrative.
Storyboarding: Don’t open PowerPoint first. Use paper, a whiteboard, or Post-its to lay out the flow. It saves time and gets stakeholder buy-in before you over-invest in slides.
Why this matters for developers
We often think communication is “extra.” But if our work doesn’t drive decisions, it’s just numbers on a screen. By clarifying Who, What, and How, I’ve seen my work get adopted faster and conversations move from “interesting” to “decisive.”
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