Data Visualization Skills

That Won't Put Anyone to Sleep

Bill’s LinkedIn Learning courses cover all kinds of skills related to communicating data. They’ll teach you how to create visualizations that wake people up, not zone out. These courses are for anyone tired of building beautiful (or maybe not so beautiful!) dashboards and reports… that no one ever looks at.

2+ Million LinkedIn Learners

37,000+ course shares

50,000+ Course likes

4.7/5 Rating Across all Courses

LinkedIn Learning Courses

A Lesson and Listen Series

Data Analytics, Data Visualization

Follow along with expert Bill Shander in this series exploring key themes in data visualization, data storytelling, and information design. Each episode is broken into two segments: a short lesson and a listening session where Bill interviews data storytelling and visualization experts about the episode theme. These conversations reveal the creative process, explore techniques and technologies used by working professionals, and illuminate some of the common challenges they face. This series is perfect for anyone interested in how information is presented to the mass market, including professionals in all levels of analytics, data science, and communications.

Building KPIs for Data-Driven Strategy

Key Performance Indicators, Strategic Data Analysis

Let’s face it. Your KPIs matter. But how can they support your overall business strategy? In this course, instructor Bill Shander shows you how to create measurable KPIs to support business strategy, incorporating metrics and following best practices for reporting. By the end of this course, you’ll be prepared to use visuals in your reporting and leverage both dynamic and static KPI tools.

Data Visualization for Data Analysts and Analytics

Data Visualization

As a data analyst, you probably already know how to build visualizations and use tools like Excel and Tableau. This course challenges you to go beyond the data, beyond the software, and start thinking more clearly and strategically about the foundations of great communication design. Bill Shander, founder of Beehive Media, focuses on the key challenges that analysts face trying to communicate complex information, and how visual communication can help. Bill takes a deep dive into important strategies for visual analysis. He then breaks down ten key components of great data visualizations—built in any program—and shows innovative ways of rethinking the slides, charts, diagrams, and dashboards you work with every day.

Picking the Right Chart for Your Data

Data Storytelling, Data Visualization

When selecting charts to showcase data, many people simply pick from the few choices available in Excel or other such software. This can be highly limiting, and can result in the selection of charts that fail to effectively convey whatever you’re trying to communicate. This course can help you think more strategically about your data, and provide you with the tools you need to pick the best visual display for the type of data you’re working with—and your ultimate communication goals. Main topics include getting to the key idea you’re trying to communicate; finding the right standard chart for your data type; and brainstorming and experimenting to come up with alternatives to the standards.

Data Visualization: Storytelling

Data Storytelling, Data Visualization

We are wired for story. We crave it. Storytelling has played an integral role in our ability to make progress as a species. It should come as no surprise, then, that presenting data and information in story form maximizes the effectiveness of our communication. We can create deeper emotional responses in our audience when we present data in story form. Join data visualization expert Bill Shander as he guides you through the process of turning “facts and figures” into “story” to engage and fulfill our human expectation for information. This course is intended for anyone who works with data and has to communicate it to others, whether a researcher, a data analyst, a consultant, a marketer, or a journalist. Bill shows you how to think about, and craft, stories from data by examining many compelling stories in detail.

Data Analytics with Observable

Data Analytics, Data Visualization

Observable is one of the most exciting (and constantly expanding) platforms to use for data analytics, visualization, storytelling, and collaboration. Its blend of easy-to-use click and drag features and customization makes it extremely popular for users across a wide range of skillsets. In this course, data analytics and visualization expert Bill Shander gives you an overview of the Observable platform, introducing the key features and functionalities with practical and tangible examples. Bill shows you how to get data into Observable, manipulate that data, and make visuals and reports with it. He demonstrates how to add interactivity to the reports, and how to make visuals in a variety of ways—some of which are one-click and others that offer more customizability with coding. By the end of the course, you will be able to spin up a new notebook, add data to it, and create a fully interactive data report.

Learning Data Visualization

Data Science, Data Visualization

Got a big idea? You need to get it across quickly and efficiently, or modern audiences will move on to the next story clamoring for their attention. Data visualization allows you to make the complex simple, the abstract tangible, and the invisible visible. In this course, Bill Shander shows how to think about your data, your audience, and your goals to create visuals that maximize impact. Plus, learn about human visual perception and chart selection strategies, which make all the difference when visualizing data.

Concept Visualization

Communication

If you want to convey abstract ideas and more straightforward concepts quickly and effectively, concept visualization is here to help. Visualizing a concept—as opposed to merely defining it—can turn a complex idea into a representation that’s engaging and easier to approach. In this course, instructor Bill Shander shows you how to leverage this sought-after skill to create visualizations that leave a mark. Learn what concept visualization is, why it works, how to do it, and why it’s so applicable across different industries and subject areas. Explore various types of effective concept visualization techniques such as process diagrams, metaphorical visualizations, schematics, complex renderings, and more. Bill offers a handful of tips and practical insights to guide you through the most important skills you need to know. By the end of this course, you’ll be ready to truly show your story, instead of just telling it on the page.

Presenting Data Effectively to Inform and Inspire

Data Presentation, Presentation Skills

We all deal with data, and at some point, we all need to be able to present it effectively to others. But how can you really make an impact? How can you make sure you’re conveying the information that matters most, and that you’re going to inspire your audience to action? In this course, instructor Bill Shander walks through how to plan for a data presentation: finding the story in your data, focusing on the “so what”, defining and reaching your audience, using visuals most effectively, editing your presentation, and presenting your data to an audience. Bill covers the whole gamut, from concept to execution, even including some presentation skills training.

Scrollytelling: Creating a One-Page Web Experience

Interactive Web Content, Single Page Applications

What is scrollytelling? What can you do with it, and what are some alternatives? In this course, instructor Bill Shander answers these questions and more. Bill begins with a definition and example of scrollytelling, then gives you examples of its benefits for user engagement and narrative experience. He presents some alternative ways to tell stories on your website and offers some pros and cons for each. Bill goes over the technical components of what makes a scrollytelling experience and goes over some options for technologies you can use to create such experiences. He walks you through the complete process of turning your idea into a scrollytelling masterpiece using one particular approach, then concludes with useful advice on cleaning it up to deliver the best possible experience to your users.

“I definitely would recommend this course! Armed with the knowledge from this course, I will be better suited to tackle the issue of reporting and effective intelligence dissemination.”

Roy Shaw — Linkedin Learner

“Powerful course on how to use data visualization tools and strategies to tell a story and help make decisions.”

Fabio Batista dos Santos — Linkedin Learner

“A must, for everyone. I cannot stress enough the importance of storytelling; this course nails it in a very easy, friendly, logical, and progressive way (As storytelling does). I loved it and recommend it.”

Zack Linder – Linkedin Learner

Stop Gussing What

Your Stakeholders Want

Want better results with fewer bad requests? Start by getting inside your stakeholders’ heads, without the guesswork.