Data visualization expert Stephen Few makes a point I have made for a long time. And does not take it far enough. Telling a story is great, powerful, expressive and convincing. So use that technique if you like. But storytelling methods can just as well lead you to a narrative that is not in the data.
Better to let someone interact with data to tell the story they see, rather than wrap a preformed narrative around it. The latter happens too often, have seen it many times in the well funded and staffed enterprise. People will actively look for data to confirm their bias, their story ... then further select data to confirm the model. Dangerous way to model.
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Well said, Franz. When you start with "the story", you end up coercing the facts into supporting it. When you start with the facts and you present them clearly, the story writes itself. #PickleTruth
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