LIVE ONLINE COURSE
ON GIVING MEANING
TO COMPLEX DATA
11 APR 2023 - 18 MAY 2023
Duration:
6 WEEKS
TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS
5 PM PST / 8 PM EST
Learn how to unlock value from data with crystal clear visualizations — and create an end-to-end data story for a real business!
Join Kevin Hartman, ex-Google, for this hands-on exploration of effective data visualization and storytelling.
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU, IF…
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YOU WANT TO TELL DATA STORIES FROM END TO END
Learn how to plan out a story you want to tell, identify the data you will need, analyze data and find patterns. Start getting the most out of data viz tools to create clear, effective visuals for your audience.
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YOU WANT TO PRESENT DATA
Discover the role of dashboards and other tools for communicating data insights effectively. Practice presenting your own data story, backed up by supporting evidence.
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YOU WANT TO BUILD ADVANCED VISUALIZATIONS
How do the other guys get their dataviz to look so good? Learn how to leverage advanced tools like R Studio and Jupyter Notebook (Python) to tell compelling data stories.
Wouldn't it be great if the data really did speak for itself?
But since you know it doesn't, why not get help landing the right data message from a Google data leader?
This course teaches expert approaches to visualizing patterns in data and coaxing out clear stories that stand up to scrutiny. You'll finish with a client-ready dataviz, dashboard, and presentation.
Online learning never felt so personal.
Learn data visualization in the course that combines live instruction from a proven analytics leader with live labs and instructor office hours!
Case Study
Projects
Upgrade your technical skills with live training. This course lets you add to your toolbox requisite tools for professional data visualization like Excel, mySQL, R Studio, Jupyter Notebook, and Tableau.
HARTMAN LinkedIn Profile
- Former Chief Analytics Evangelist at Google
- Over 20 years of experience helping leading organizations get meaning from data
- 6-time winner of the Advertising Research Foundation Ogilvy Award
- Oversaw the design of marketing insights and strategies behind campaigns that earned 5 Cannes Lions, 5 Effies, over 50 Tempos, and dozens of other awards
- Noted speaker and author of Digital Marketing Analytics: In Theory And In Practice (2020)
COURSE INTRODUCTION
Get introduced to the major pillars of successful data visualization.
- Introducing data visualization
- Why this skill?
- Major frameworks
- Major tools
Assignment #01: Explore the provided dataset for Divvy. What stories do you anticipate unlocking here?
Learn how to create a planning guide for yourself and other analysts before starting a visualization.
- Building a successful data story
- Minto Pyramid Principle
- In-class exercise: Planning a data story for Divvy
Project #01: Use the provided dataset to help Divvy rebalance their bike system, or tackle your own business challenge. Your deliverable will be a Minto-style plan for your data story.
Get familiar with software tools used to analyze data for patterns indicating the presence of a story.
- Preparing data for analysis with Excel, SQL, and R/Python
- Finding patterns in data
- Converting plans to story outlines
- In-class exercise: Interpreting patterns in Divvy visuals
Assignment #02: Respond to the provided questions to better understand your organization's data analysis priorities and opportunities.
Kevin explains how software tools R and Python are used to reveal and visualize sophisticated patterns in complex data.
- Understanding data visualization in R
- Understanding data visualization in Python
- Advanced data visualization techniques
- In-class exercise: Interpreting patterns in advanced Divvy visuals
Assignment #03: Produce a data visualization based on a provided Divvy dataset (or, use data from your own company) using R or Python.
Use software tools (including SQL, Google Sheets, Tableau, and R) to gather and analyze data from the Divvy database. You will first perform exploratory data analysis to look for patterns in Divvy data that indicate the presence of a story. Then, you will use visuals to inform their interpretation of the Key Questions in a plan. Convert your plan into a solid outline for a data story.
Project #02: Refer to the Divvy case study and database to analyze data for patterns indicating the presence of a story. Use the tools demoed in class to create exploratory analysis charts.
Understand a framework for evaluating dataviz and the first pillar of that framework: the sophisticated use of contrast.
- Brain science & visual interpretation basics
- The components of good visual form
- Understanding contrast in dataviz
- In-class exercise: Improving the use of contrast in data visualizations
Understand the second pillar of the framework for evaluating dataviz, clear meaning, and learn how to spot and counter bad practices that lead to the manipulation of a chart’s meaning.
- What makes clear meaning in dataviz
- Spotting bad dataviz: Biases and manipulations
- In-class exercise: Improving unclear data visualizations
Understand the third and final pillar of the framework for evaluating dataviz, refined execution.
- Refined execution in dataviz
- Why prioritize?
- In-class exercise: Improving refined execution in data visualizations
- In-class exercise: Improving all elements of good dataviz
Assignment #04: Evaluate a provided Divvy dataviz (or, alternatively, a dataviz from work at your own company) using the framework introduced during lecture. Offer recommendations for how the dataviz can be improved.
This lab focuses on converting the efficiently generated, yet visually lacking, visuals produced during the Exploratory Data Analysis lab into “client-ready” visualizations that effortlessly communicate insight.
You will be challenged to demonstrate a sophisticated use of contrast to attract the audience’s attention to important patterns in the data. Use this technique to create a clear expression of meaning through the effective use of common chart elements, and a level of refined execution that minimizes distractions.
Then, generate visuals using tools including Excel, R, Tableau, and/or Power BI. A presentation software, such as Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Keynote, will serve as the canvas for your output.
Project #03: Client-ready Dataviz
Start working on your presentation for the Divvy executive team. Use the provided data set to create a series of client-ready charts from provided Divvy data (or, alternatively, data from your own company).
Learn the skills needed to effectively present dataviz and persuade stakeholders at every level of the organization.
- The ‘McCandless Method’ of data storytelling
- Stakeholders needs & methods of persuasion
- Ensuring a successful presentation
- In-class exercise: Writing a ‘McCandless Method’-style narrative for a dataviz
Project #04: Write a McCandless Method-style narrative for one of the dataviz you've created for the Divvy executive team (or, alternatively, a dataviz you created from your own company’s data). Record yourself presenting the narrative and submit to Kevin for feedback.
Understand the fundamentals of good dashboard design and approaches used to create dashboards in popular tools like Tableau and Power BI.
- Dashboard fundamentals
- Tableau & Power BI for dashboards
- Understanding the proper role dashboards should play
- Building a communication plan around the dashboard
In this lab, you'll gain a practical understanding of the proper (and improper) use of dashboards, as well as the basics elements of effective dashboard design. Get hands-on with Tableau or Power BI to build a dashboard and apply the rules of effective dashboard design to create a “client-ready” deliverable for Divvy.
Project #05: The Divvy executive team believes it's important to stay on top of the patterns and trends you've found in the data. Bring together all the work you've done so far to create a dashboard for Divvy built in Tableau, Power BI, or another dashboarding tool of your choice.
What our students say
"I absolutely love the format! Working through real life scenarios makes it super applicable and easy to translate the learning into practical takeaways. I also enjoy that the assignments are straightforward enough to get through but you can make them more complex to get more learning out of the course. It really is a format where you get out what you put in"
"This course is transforming how I look at data and will have a profound impact on my business as an affiliate marketing SaaS startup. I think this is perhaps one of the most underrated courses any professional could take and one that would impact anybody regardless of industry or profession. My expectations of this course were blown out of the water and I will use these new skills for life."
"The best thing are the in class lesson so we can the feedback with the teacher, also great resources for every lesson so far."
"Kevin Hartman is a very dynamic instructor with a wealth of knowledge. He is also very helpful and personable. Even after the first class I found myself looking at data from a completely different lens."
"Instructor is knowledgeable and very involved. Treats everyone fairly. Divvy scenario has interesting aspects to explore."
"Professors knowledge and passion about the material and subject matter. Enjoy positive energy when his is speaking. Very motivating."
"Info is presented in a way that allows me to apply it to my own career."
"I appreciate the structure and the data access! It's given me enough direction to really work on learning new things, which has been challenging for me without tangible projects."
"Kevin has a plethora of knowledge in Data Analysis and visualization. In every class, he shares enormous information in a way that makes the entire class with multiple skillsets to adapt and absorb. For the assignments and project, he gives detailed comments that helps us explore and challenge ourselves. Love attending his office hours as he shares these nuggets of information and is open to clarify any of our questions. I wish the classes were longer, can't get enough from Kevin in every class. Never felt a low moment during the class."