This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Satyam Gupta
As engineers and analysts, we spend a lot of time building dashboards, pipelines, and reports. But here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve learned:
📊Even the best-looking dashboard can still fail.
Why? Because if the audience doesn’t know what to do with it, the insight is wasted.
This happened to me multiple times — polishing a dashboard, sending it off, and then being asked: “Cool, but… what now?”
That’s when I started applying the Who, What, How framework (from Storytelling with Data). It’s simple, but powerful.
🔹 Who
Be crystal clear about your audience. Is it a VP making a budget decision? A PM prioritizing a feature? Another engineer debugging performance? Each requires a different lens.
🔹 What
Always tie data to an action. Don’t just show that user churn increased — recommend what should be done. Decide, approve, invest, support — make it actionable.
🔹 How
- Pick the right channel:
- Live deck = your voice carries nuance.
- Written doc/email = more detail, less control.
- Slideument = mix of both, often overused.
And don’t underestimate tone: urgent vs. celebratory vs. exploratory makes a difference.
Tools for Structuring Your Story
3-Minute Story: If you can’t explain it in 3 minutes, you probably don’t understand it well enough. This forces you to distill the essence.
Big Idea: Write down one sentence that combines your unique perspective + what’s at stake. That becomes the anchor for your narrative.
Storyboarding: Don’t open PowerPoint first. Use paper, a whiteboard, or Post-its to lay out the flow. It saves time and gets stakeholder buy-in before you over-invest in slides.
Why this matters for developers
We often think communication is “extra.” But if our work doesn’t drive decisions, it’s just numbers on a screen. By clarifying Who, What, and How, I’ve seen my work get adopted faster and conversations move from “interesting” to “decisive.”
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Satyam Gupta
Satyam Gupta | Sciencx (2025-09-10T19:48:12+00:00) Communicating with Data: A Simple Framework That Changed My Approach. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/09/10/communicating-with-data-a-simple-framework-that-changed-my-approach/
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