Introduction
Communication is very essential in data science. When an individual completes his/her data science certification training and embarks on a project, the first step is to ask, “what value it will be adding to the project owner”. Data science requires the technical know-how to acquire data, target the relevant data and analyze the data, knowing the value it will add to the project owners streamlines the goal of the data scientist. Having a set goal and knowing the value that will be added by the project avails the data scientist the ease of explaining the process to non-data scientists.
How to Improve Your Data Science Communication Skills
After your data science certification training, there are steps to achieve efficient communication in data science presentations, these steps are discussed briefly below.
- Know your audience
- Make a targeted presentation
- Storytelling
- Use charts
- Give simple solutions
Know your audience:After your data science certification training, your audience molds your path of presentation. When making a data science presentation, it is imperative to know how your work ties into the job roles of the different professionals you will encounter. These professionals have different levels of expertise and goals, it is your duty to discern where data science is applicable in the field and level of expertise. Some of the audiences a data scientist will come across include, your team manager, stakeholders, and data engineers.
These different audiences require different presentation approaches. Below is a brief insight into three of these approaches and scenarios where they can best be applied.
- One-on-one: In a one on one presentation approach, the engagement of the individual is very important. Be sure to make use of a story that the individual can personally relate to, justified by facts and figures. This will help get a decision where one needs to be made. This approach most favors presentations to your team manager or a single stakeholder.
- Small intimate groups: If the small intimate group is a board of directors, make sure you have all your facts and figures double-checked before the presentation and make your presentation short and direct to the goal, and push a decision to them for ratification. If the small intimate group are teammates or prospects, make sure your presentation is all-inclusive and less formal. Always involve key personas in your presentation and ask key questions to keep their concentration. For both groups, especially the board, a little lobbying before the presentation can be beneficial.
- Large groups: When a group is over twenty people, it becomes a large group, and keeping everyone involved can be hard. The best way to keep the attention of a large group as this is to tell a compelling story as your presentation and then summarize it to be sure they all understand your presentation and to make them see your presentation as a solution they need.
Should the large group be a conference, an event or a data science certification training boot camp, where everybody might not see your slides and fine print, you must become the focus. Keeping your presentation short and to the point is important, as well as dressing well, because, at this point, you’re becoming a brand and should look the part.
Make a targeted presentation: A targeted presentation has to do with the story you build around your presentation based on the audience the project is being presented to. After your data science certification training, there is a simple framework to make a targeted presentation. First is-
– Understand the problem of the business that needs your project
– Confirm the business dynamics your project needs to be attuned to
– Check available data and formulate a hypothesis
– Build a solution model and weigh the impact of the solution on the business
– Draw clear action points for stakeholders to actualize.
Storytelling: Telling a story that your audience can relate to is essential in your presentation. Your story is meant to create awareness of an existing problem and an easy solution. Learn to frame your story in a context relevant to your audience and use interesting visualizations and narratives to pass your story across and never forget to summarize the essence of the story when you’re done.
Visualizations: The use of visuals in your presentation can never be overemphasized. Using charts and other visuals for your presentation gives your story a solid backbone and enhances your audience’s focus. Visuals as a presentation tool create a memory of your presentation and make it easy to understand. The art of using visualizations and the different types of visualizations, graphs, charts and so on, will be expatiated on in the course of your data science certification training.
Solution Based Approach: Make sure your presentation breaks every problem down into simple actionable solutions. Simple steps leading to simple solutions are easier to adhere to. When easy solutions to complicated problems are created, it makes your project easy to use and understand and this will be appreciated by your audience. A trained data scientist builds on technical data science skills by adding soft skills to enhance effective presentations. The image below summarizes this.
After completing a data science certification training, honing your presentation skills should come next. Some extra skills to be fine-tuned or developed after your data science certification training are:
Writing and publishing skills: This must be done as you will need to put your approach and findings in a report, send formal emails, write a proposal for your project, and publish your work on the internet.
Social media skills: Communicating in a semi-formal forum need some extra skills, learning how platforms like LinkedIn and other platforms work is very vital, this ensures that your works are put in the right circles and can potentially build a client base for you.
Manners and business ethics: Endeavour to learn the business ethics of your client, this helps you create a solution that does not in any way undermine any of the ethics and at the same time provides a solution. Manners deal with how you treat your client this involves, learning the correct spellings and pronunciation of names, politeness to seniors, open and honest communication, according to others their due respect, and being open-minded to other people’s interpretations of your presentation. All these help you to become a full-fledged data scientist after completing the data science certification training course. The most important of all is for you to keep learning as knowledge is the foundation for professionalism.