Writing & Presenting Actionable Research Reports: Insights, Storytelling, Data Visualization On-Site Training

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• What decision makers want from a marketing research study and how to bridge the communication gap between researchers and decision makers.
• How to analyze your audience and to organize your report or presentation to meet the varying needs of senior management, middle management and technical staff.
• Tools and practices that increase your ability to identify insights from data.
• How to enhance the look and feel of your presentation with graphics and visuals.
• How to avoid/correct numerous specific flaws commonly found in reports and presentations.
• How to present your findings succinctly to decision makers so they will listen, engage and act upon your recommendations.

WORKSHOP AGENDA

SESSION 1: REPORT WRITING AND PRESENTATION STRATEGIES

• What makes for a killer report or presentation
• Why the traditional report is falling out of favor
• Different types of report options
• Evaluation criteria for reports
• How to write a persuasive report

SESSION 2: LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR A SUCCESSFUL REPORT/PRESENTATION

• Report writing framework for creating actionable reports
• How the audience can impact your presentation or report
• How to ascertain the background, key questions to be answered, and stakeholder actions that support the business issues and decisions
• Impediments to obtaining this information & how to overcome them
• Workshop activity -- apply the framework to your own reports

SESSION 3: DEVELOPING INSIGHTS FOR BUSINESS IMPACT

• How insights should be the focal point of your report
• Definition of insight
• Insight examples moving from a finding to an insight
• Exercise to enhance insight productivity using your reports

SESSION 4: STORYTELLING

• The role of the storytelling report
• What are the components of a good story
• The background behind storytelling and how do we apply this to our day-to-day work
• Various storytelling frameworks
• The use of storyboards to tell your story

SESSION 5: PREPARING THE RESEARCH REPORT/ PRESENTATION SKILLS

• Preparing and structuring the report/presentation
• Titles/headlines/opening slides
• Critical success factors, do’s and don’ts
• Presentation tips and tricks
• How to manage anxiety and stress
• Building credibility, showing confidence, connecting with your audience
• Short workshop to practice presentation skills

SESSION 6: PRACTICAL VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUES

• Basic graphic design and data visualization principles
• Leading resources for enhancing the look, feel and flow of your report
• Common graphical errors
• Workshop on chart types and how to select the best chart
• Checklist of items that need to be decided upon as you create your report
• Workshop: Choosing the best way to present the information moving from lots of data to what does the data mean
• Creating infographics that inform
• Before and after slides

SESSION 7: CONSTRUCTING AN ACTIONABLE PRESENTATION (WORKSHOP)

• Review workshop information
• Develop and lay out the business story using a storyboard
• Apply storytelling principles to construct your team presentation
• Use PowerPoint to create a team presentation based on skills and tips covered in the course
• Present storytelling deck
• Assessment of team presentations and feedback from the seminar leader