Dan Roam visited eBay on Thursday to give a workshop on Visual Thinking. I thought I might learn how to produce better charts and diagrams but instead I got a whole new way to think about problems and visualizations. He gave countless examples of how you can discover great data often buried within a 40 page powerpoint deck and share it in a simple visual way.
Not only is Dan Roam perhaps the best visualizer of a generation but he’s reflected on how he approaches his work so that others can repeat it. Here’s how he approaches it:
- Look – Collect and scan your data. Decide what problem you’re trying to solve.
- See – Find patterns in the data (Who? What? When? How? Why?)
- Imagine – Describe your data by capturing it your “mind’s eye”.
- Show – Select the right framework (e.g. Measurement? Time line?)
Dan discusses the importance of identifying patterns in your data and then finding ways to communicate those patterns to others. As I’m finding in other business literature no matter what the field effective pattern recognition and communication seems to separate the best from the average.
Examples:
- Measurement: Comparing using Harvey Balls is a classic approach. Focus on simplicity (simple 2d colors vs. fancy 3d charts) to put the data front an center.
- Flow chart: Dan’s got a great example of Walmart Sustainability on his blog.
If you’d like to learn more about visual thinking check out Dan’s blog and stay tuned for the release of his book The Back of the Napkin. Finally, I highly recommend his training workshop. I took the 1/2 day visual thinking workshop and left wanting more.
Update:
- Dan’s posted a chapter of a potential upcoming book The Million Dollar Chart.
- A company now sells interesting visualization posters: HistoryShots
