What is data storytelling?

Data storytelling is the concept of building a compelling narrative based on complex data and analytics that help tell your story and influence and inform a particular audience.

Why data storytelling is important

Data storytelling is very similar to human storytelling but provides the added benefits of deeper insights and supporting evidence through graphs and charts. Through data storytelling, complicated information is simplified so that your audience can engage with your content and make critical decisions quicker and more confidently.

Effective data storytelling is important because it simplifies complexity, drives action, increases engagement, and adds context to data. A strong data story:

Adds value to data and insights.
Makes it easier to understand complex information.
Highlights key points.
Adds a human touch.
Explains the “why” behind numbers to help audiences see the bigger picture.
Speeds up decision making.

Helps you build credibility as a thought leader.

Making sure your data story is valuable

Good data storytelling means analyzing all the raw data you’ve gathered to confirm a hypothesis and, hopefully, the determined change you’d like see come from introducing your data story.

After reviewing all the data, begin your story. Sometimes it can be tempting to cherry-pick data sets that only support your theory, but look at the whole picture. Look at what the data is telling you and communicate a clear data story to your team with the right tools. It can be overwhelming when you have a lot of data sets available, but it helps to structure how you’d like to tell your story.

Think about your theory. What do you want to prove or disprove? What do you think the data will tell you?
Collect data. Collate the data you’ll need to develop your story.

Define the purpose of your story. Using the data you gathered, you should be able to write what the goal of your story is in a single sentence.

Think about what you want to say. Outline everything from the intro to the conclusion.

Ask questions. Were you right or wrong in your hypothesis? How do these answers shape the narrative of your data story?

Create a goal for your audience. What actions would you like them to take after reading your story?

You want to make sure that you’re not only looking at data that supports your theory, but also the data that doesn’t. You don’t have to add every single piece of data available. Use data sets that help guide your narrative unbiased. Your data story should always point to how it can help support an action or change that will help your business.

Using data visualization and storytelling together

Data visualization plays a significant role in determining how receptive your audience is to receiving complex information. Data visualization helps transform boundless amounts of data into something simpler and digestible. Here, you can supply the visuals needed to support your story. Effective data visualizations can help:

Reveal patterns, trends, and findings from an unbiased viewpoint.

Provide context, interpret results, and articulate insights.

Streamline data so your audience can process information.

Improve audience engagement.

Most of these findings and insights are more easily understood through a data dashboard built with data visualization tools.

Using data dashboards to enhance data storytelling

A data dashboard is a tool used for information management and business intelligence (BI). By organizing and displaying important information in an easy-to-understand format in a single location, data dashboards help storytellers connect the narrative to the data by clearly showing patterns, trends, and key insights that support the story’s message.

The benefits of utilizing a dashboard for your data are:

Providing a clear view of trends and patterns to reinforce the story’s main points.

Highlighting key performance indicators and metrics that directly support the narrative.

Allowing audiences to interact with data and explore insights that add depth to the story.

Offering context and comparison, so the "why" behind the numbers is easier to understand.

The key components of data storytelling

Data storytelling and data visualization work together through a structured approach that blends three essential elements—narrative, visuals, and data—to communicate insights with clarity and impact. As you build your data story, weaving these elements together helps you present a concise, compelling explanation of your theory and guides users toward the actions you want them to take.

Use data as the foundation of your story

Data gives your story credibility. Choose only the metrics that matter most to your audience, focusing on patterns that clearly support your message. Tools like Power BI’s augmented analytics can help you quickly surface meaningful insights that strengthen your narrative.

Create visuals to make insights clear

Visuals make complex information easier to grasp. Use clean, readable charts and graphics that highlight key comparisons or trends without overwhelming your audience. Business analytics tools can help you build clear, intuitive dashboards that enhance your story at a glance.

Craft a narrative that connects data and visuals

A strong narrative explains why the data matters and guides readers toward meaningful takeaways. Connect each visual to a clear insight, shaping your information into a story that informs and influences.

When you combine narrative, visuals, and data, you create a clear story that moves people to act. Pairing emotion with evidence helps your audience understand the impact and make confident decisions. When these three elements work together, your data story becomes a practical tool that drives alignment, informs strategy, and accelerates change.

Data storytelling examples

Data storytelling is the art of presenting data with a contextual narrative. There are a few different ways to present your data story. A data dashboard presents all available data so you’re able to create your narrative. Below are a few examples of eye-catching data storytelling.

Source: Microsoft Power BI Blog

A dashboard presents all your information front and center. While your dashboard might provide some context, you will need to build your narrative and connect the dots. Simplicity works best. Just providing an intro sentence with a data-driven graphic is often the quickest way to tell a short data story.

Source: Microsoft Power BI

Another data storytelling example of connecting two or more data visualizations—a call center analysis that shows customer satisfaction based on subject, percentage of satisfied and unsatisfied customers, total number of satisfied and unsatisfied customers, and other smaller stories that together tell a larger story.

Source: Microsoft Power BI

Infographics are a form of data storytelling, as well as a quick way to tell a visually appealing data story. An infographic can consist of individual data visualizations that help tell your story but might not provide much narrative (like the example above).

Data storytelling is changing how we consume information

There’s a possibility that data storytelling has the potential to make a huge shift in changing the face of how we consume data and analytics. Data storytelling adds a human touch to the sometimes-indecipherable numbers and figures raw data presents to us. Building a narrative is a major component of the process, but creating a strong story is dependent on your being able to understand and translate that information from an unbiased point of view. Microsoft Power BI can help you tell that story.

Starting your data story with Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI can help you craft the story you want to tell. With an intuitive dashboard that deciphers data and shares insights, you can present data-driven visualizations that help support your narrative and influence your audience to make smarter decisions. Tell your data story your way to achieve your organizational goals, cement your business as an industry thought leader, and influence your audience to make a change.

Learn more about Power BI