Whatever you’re going through, I hope this podcast provides inspiration, education, and entertainment during these difficult times.
Today’s guest is one of our newest rockstars, Mary Ann Prunier, Director of Business Analytics and Contract Pricing at AliMed—a company that provides clinical supplies to hospitals. Mary Ann shares her journey from marketing, to being a nightmare superuser and now to heading up the company’s first Business Analytics team. Tune in as Mary Ann describes her transformation as she successfully weaves storytelling into her business analytics team and organization. Lots of golden nuggets in here!
[On Data Storytelling] “It’s more than the visualizations that you create. It is also what you write and what you say.” [15:36]
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3 Knowledge Bombs
- Mary Ann on Storytelling: It’s not only about what you draw, but what you say and write.
- Mary Ann on Communicating Data: Get across information to another person based on a set of facts, and make sure that they understand it.
- Mary Ann on Sticking to Your Story: Don’t overload and overwhelm with information (analysis paralysis).
In this episode, you'll learn:
- [09:10] Mary Ann’s BI Master Class—Three fundamental storytelling lessons:
- Lesson 1: How to weave storytelling into BI team and make it work.
- Lesson 2: How to get business/staff on board with storytelling.
- Lesson 3: How to use BI storytelling framework to be successful.
- [13:13] - Mary Ann’s Inspiration: How do you get into statistics as a career?
- [15:33] - What is storytelling?
- [16:43] - First Aha Moment: How to utilize PowerPivot, PowerMap, and PowerView to make interactive data exploration and visualization presentations.
- [19:59] - Super Creators and Users on Steroids: Coming from marketing, not IT perspective.
- [20:53] - Next step in storytelling: Power BI models and pivot table nirvana.
- [25:53] - Time for Change: How to train staff to use Power BI models—not necessary.
- [28:13] - Weave in storytelling by attending BI Data Storytelling Mastery Accelerator.
- [33:16] - Stick to your story, don’t overload and overwhelm with information.
- [37:53] - Skepticism: How to convince others in business to get on board.
- [39:03] - Pull vs. Push: Get started by practicing via an internal BI project.
- [42:33] - [42:33] When a story experiences some bumps and doesn’t go as planned.
- [44:33] Mary Ann’s Recommendations:
- Find formal self-taught and expert-led online or in-person training.
- Follow best practices and frameworks.
- Don’t stay stagnate; always be learning to stay relevant.
- [45:23] - Key Quote: Don’t hesitate to also get formal consulting and training. - Mary Ann Prunier
- [58:08] - VIP: Being on the hot seat, sharing real-world examples, and getting feedback.
- Right-click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.
“From an IT perspective, we were your typical nightmare users where we were diving into the data, we were creating all these reports in Excel.” [19:49]
Links and Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Connect to Mary Ann Prunier via LinkedIn | BI Data Storytelling Mastery Group on Facebook
- Mary Ann recommends reading
- The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
- Developer tools Mary Ann uses:
- Tableau
- PowerMap, Power Pivot, Power View
- Realtime board for visual storyboarding Miro
- Mary Ann has taken these BI Brainz courses
- Become a Chief Data Storyteller
- BI Data Storytelling (BIDS) Accelerator Workshops - Register today for the next upcoming class!
- Mary Ann likes these websites
- Mary Ann Prunier works at AliMed
- Download BI Brainz’s Free products
- BIDF Blueprint - Mico’s silly spreadsheet
- Analytics Design Guide Template
- A Message from Mico about the BI Dashboard Formula - Mico’s ideal weight!
- Keep up-to-date with BI Brainz Blog!
- Contact us at BIDF Beta Email
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