Using dense, detailed charts in presentations can be challenging for an audience to grasp, especially when time and attention are limited. Every bar, label, and number vies for their attention, sending their eyes darting across the chart, decoding patterns, searching for key insights.
You, the presenter, understand this data perfectly. You’ve probably been deeply immersed in it for weeks. You see the trends, the outliers, the key takeaways—they’re obvious to you. But for your audience, who are seeing this data for the first time, it’s overwhelming.
What should be crucial insights or strategic points that significantly impact their understanding become just another set of figures on a crowded slide. Important events or decisions that should highlight pivotal moments in the data's narrative get lost among trivial details.
This disconnect leaves your audience struggling. They want to grasp the significance of what you’re presenting, but the complexity of the information splits their attention. On one side, they’re trying to listen to you explain, and on the other, they’re wrestling with a chart that demands too much cognitive effort. The result? They aren’t fully engaged with either the visual or your explanation.
Consider this scenario: You present a bar chart of your Q3 email campaigns results and point out, “Our Q3 email campaigns drove a 40% increase in open rates, but conversions remained flat compared to Q2. Let’s break down why this happened and how we can turn this engagement into sales.”
While it’s a great setup for delivering meaningful insights, if the data isn't immediately clear or the Q3 data points aren’t distinct, your audience might spend crucial moments searching for the relevant information on the graph, likely missing the context and explanation you’re providing. They’re scanning the chart, hunting for Q3, and by the time they locate it—or give up trying—they’ve missed most of what you said.
This is where a data reveal instead of showing all the data all at once can transform your presentation. By revealing the chart in stages, you ensure your audience sees exactly what matters at the right moment. You’re not just simplifying the visual—you’re guiding their understanding, holding their attention, and making the insights stick.
Data reveal in action: Break it into layers
Your job when sharing data is to make the most important insights stand out. The audience doesn’t need every detail all at once—they need the right detail at the right time. By revealing the data in stages, you make it easier for them to follow along, stay engaged, and actually understand the story you’re telling. This approach doesn’t just simplify the data—it makes it stick. It helps people see the big picture, take action, and connect with the meaning behind the numbers
Here’s how you can reveal data insights in layers or across a series of slides:
- Build the Foundation: Start with either context, the big picture, or a focused setup to ground your audience.
- Layer in Insights: Gradually add details, data, or elements to build toward the main point, keeping the audience engaged and focused. Each new element builds on the last, helping your audience connect the dots without feeling overwhelmed.
- Deliver the Payoff: Reveal the full story with all its layers, ensuring the audience sees the big takeaway or conclusion in context.
The goal is to provide clear pathways that allow the audience to grasp the big picture without getting lost in the minutiae.
At the ConvertKit Craft + Commerce 2024 conference, Chenell Basilio delivered a keynote that executed this strategy brilliantly. While discussing Sahil Bloom's newsletter success, she used a line graph to tell the story step-by-step. Initially, she displayed only the early segment of the graph, omitting data labels and stopping just before the dramatic uptick. This deliberate choice engaged her audience, building both anticipation and clarity as the narrative unfolded.
Here’s how she structured her reveal:
- Initial view (9:33): Chenell starts with a partial timeline showcasing early growth stages of "Sahil Bloom’s Growth Timeline." This selective reveal focuses attention on the early stage, prepping the audience for a significant development.
- Complete reveal (10:29): Later, she unveils the full timeline up to 2023. This expanded view not only tracks a significant rise post-2020 but also highlights "The 'Ask'"—a strategic move that catalyzed substantial growth.
By labeling just this pivotal moment, Chenell effectively simplifies the visual narrative, steering the audience's focus toward this key strategy and its impact on growth. Chenell’s deliberate choice to label only "The 'Ask'" in the slide, and avoid clutter from other data points, directs focus effectively without overwhelming the audience.
This simplicity in design helps tell a compelling story, underscoring how a well-timed strategy can lead to substantial growth. Her approach demonstrates how refining data presentation to focus on key moments can make a significant impact on how the information is received and understood.
Why It Matters
Visual complexity can obstruct understanding. By stripping back unnecessary details and presenting data progressively, you help your audience connect with your message, fostering alignment and inspiring action.
Try It
Find a data-heavy slide you've used in the past and create 3-5 duplicates of it. Begin by 'turning off' or hiding non-essential elements like secondary data points, excessive labels, or intricate grid lines. Focus on the most critical data point or insight. Then, reintroduce elements one at a time, assessing whether each addition makes the key message clearer or adds unnecessary clutter. This exercise will help you see how much or how little information is really needed to get your main takeaways across.
Until next week,
Meghan
Founder, The Good Deck
P.S. If this slice of slide wisdom sparked some joy or aha-moments, why not spread the love? Shoot this over to someone who could jazz up their presentation game. Let's help everyone kill it in their next meeting! 🎉
