Couch to dataviz workshop

Have you ever heard of a “couch to marathon” training program? The idea is that no matter your fitness level or experience running, you can train to run a marathon within a certain amount of time, given the right structured training.

This is the same, but the idea is to go from zero experience working with data all the way through to the ability to tell a cohesive and compelling data story, with visuals.

In this class, you will learn:

  • Data literacy (the critical thinking skills about how to think about and work with data)
  • Data analytics
    • Data cleaning and transformation with Excel (Power Query)
    • Data analytics (in Excel, including pivot tables and visualization)
  • Data storytelling & visualization concept development
  • Data visualization execution (in Excel & Power BI & some other tools)

Learning objectives:

  • Identifying patterns, trends, and outliers in data
  • Interpreting data and unearthing insights aligned to a business need
  • Focusing on the true “so what” in your data
  • Generating a compelling narrative based on data for any audience
  • Producing nuanced visualizations to bring your data to life to support and clarify your story
  • Applying best practices when presenting data to an audience

Who this is for:

  • People in any role in any organization with little to no experience working with data
  • People in any role in any organization with experience doing data analytics but who need help with data storytelling and visualization

This class will be limited to just 10 participants for the data literacy and analytics segment, and up to 20 for the data storytelling and visualization segment. In addition to the 8 weeks of content (4 hours per week in-class, plus some light homework between sessions), attendees will have access to Bill Shander for at least 1 hour of one-on-one mentoring/consulting sessions throughout the course, as needed. And there will be a cumulative capstone project you work on throughout the course – developing a data story from raw data to delivery

Because people who already know data analytics may need help just with data storytelling & visualization, the second half of the course is open to more people and can be attended without joining the first half.

More details:

This workshop is a combination of all of these workshops I currently offer:

Data Literacy and Analytics Workshop

Upskilling Excel and Power BI Workshop

Data Storytelling & Visualization Workshop

But this will go beyond what is offered in all of the above. The data analytics work will be more than just an introduction to some Excel skills and will also include an in-depth exploration of a data set as a group and individually. The data storytelling & visualization workshop will include a deeper dive into more knowledge and nuance around chart selection, annotation, and other more advanced data visualization concepts. And we will even cover creating visualizations in some tools, which I normally don’t cover in the main workshops.

Erin Souza – Charles River Associates

Bill Shander’s data visualization workshops have been well received across all roles and levels at our firm. Bill is clearly an expert on the topic and he is also a talented facilitator! His creativity and flexibility in the classroom bode well for true problem solving.

Erin Souza
Charles River Associates
Gretchen Hall – Strategy + Business Magazine

Bill started with a highly entertaining and informative history lesson on data visualization and then took our team through several exercises designed to give us the tools to think about our data and our content more interactively. It was an extremely successful session for us all.

Gretchen Hall
Strategy + Business Magazine
Kristina Gubanov

This was one of the best if not the best learning sessions I’ve seen at IX – immediate gains in my view and I already find myself adjusting how I present my data and I am sure others are as well.

Kristina Gubanov
Index Exchange
Jenny Rone – US Department of Agriculture

Bill’s class inspired my staff. For example, he effectively led a critique of some draft visualizations, provided pointers, and walked the staff through a ‘before and after’ demo. That “real life” activity, in particular, has helped challenge the staff’s creative thinking and transformed their process and deliverables. It was tons of fun!

Jenny Rone
US Department of Agriculture
Bridget D’Angelo – Nativo

Bill provided a two day training for our team of Sales, Client Success and Marketing. Not only was it fun and interactive, we all learned a lot and had many immediate ideas to implement. He tailored it to our industry making our takeaways clear and actionable. Using a mix of small group activity and larger group discussion kept us all engaged, even over Zoom. I’d highly recommend bringing in Bill and we look forward to continuing to work with him!

Bridget D'Angelo
Nativo
Susan Justus – Betterment

Bill is an engaging facilitator and very knowledgeable on the topic of Data Visualization. He has a unique way of mixing the lecture with activities to make for an impactful and hands-on learning experience. He also challenged us to think outside the box by providing helpful frameworks that are tangible and easy to apply immediately.

Susan Justus
Betterment
Melody Wilhelm

From the moment the team began working with Bill, our data visualizations improved, and we began to tell better stories. Bill’s relaxed style put the team at ease and helped open them up to the possibilities of using data to help tell impactful stories.

Melody Wiilhelm
Electronic Arts
Joe Procopio – International Monetary Fund

Bill Shander’s workshop was perhaps the most highly praised workshop our department’s staff training committee organized this year. Bill was happy to work closely with us before the workshop to help tailor its contents to make it more relevant for our organization’s communications objectives and staff’s current skill level. Everyone left the day energized and more confident in their ability to tackle future data visualization projects.

Joe Procopio
International Monetary Fund
Steve Smith – Knauf Insulation

I thought the session this morning was EXCELLENT!! Really useful, expertly delivered and engaging. I’ve seen quite a few talks on data visualization but this stood out and gave me things I’ll try and implement from now on.

Steve Smith
Knauf Insulation
Heather Huerta – CALPERs

We invited Bill to come share his expertise with 24 members of public affairs and stakeholder relations teams. Bill customized a dynamic workshop specific to our needs. Bill provided a format that was engaging, educational, and inspirational. Our team is excited to put to practice his methodology and tools including his memorable acronyms for distilling messages!

Heather Huerta
California Public Employees' Retirement System
Brian Rus – Acxiom

Bill led our analytics team through a full day virtual data storytelling workshop and did a fantastic job! There was excitement and energy throughout the day with the use breakout rooms and exercises to keep us engaged. Our team has a wide range of data visualization experience and everyone was able to contribute and learn in a collaborative environment. Bill kept the conversation friendly yet productive, and we received outstanding reviews from attendees after the event. I would recommend this workshop for any team that works with data.

Brian Rus
Acxiom
Katy Klaproth – Robins & Morton

Bill’s infographics workshop was tailored to my company and team’s needs, allowing us to develop infographics that will be used on presentations in the future. I would highly recommend this training to anyone looking for a way to tell their story in a visually impactful way!

Katy Klaproth
Robins & Morton
Rachel Richter – Dun & Bradstreet

As an Analytics & Insights team at a B2B company, we are in the depths of data and analysis all of the time and can become disconnected from the needs and preferences of our audience. Bill really helped us think about how to tell a compelling story and visualize data & insights in an engaging way. He worked through specific materials with us and gave us tips & tricks that will help bring our work to a new level.

Rachel Richter
Dun & Bradstreet

Research-Driven Best Practices

These workshops aren’t made up of just Bill’s opinions on design and visualization. They’re backed up by decades of academic research by the top minds in the field.