Data-Driven Story
Scope: Five of the Silicon Valley Counties, 2015-16
Final Assignment - Certificate in Storytelling & Content Strategy, University of Washington, 2017-18
Introduction
We were expected to build a data-driven story derived from real datasets. The story should:
Introduce a theme
Illustrate a fact-based story, highlighting interesting trends or outliers from the dataset(s)
Include a proper closure, which could be a forecast or a final thought
Since I have been living in the Bay Area for the last four years and have been feeling the pinch of the housing price surges firsthand, I could not think of any other topic that I could connect to more. Moreover, I was curious to find out if and how the authorities are trying to resolve this issue.
Approach
I knew that the topic was current and well discussed. So the number of related datasets and sources of information could be overwhelming. Therefore, it was important for me to set my own objective, which was to present a short, crisp and focused story with a purpose of raising awareness.
To achieve the objective, I,
Concentrated on a specific geography
Studied the datasets only over a period of two to three years
Referred to limited, yet relevant and authentic sources of information
Highlighted not more than two to three correlations to present the problem
I chose my information sources carefully. They had to be authentic, trustworthy and unbiased. I referred to:
The residential building permits dataset shared by the State of California
Well known local publishers - for their reports and articles on the housing crisis:
Private real estate companies - for their research data on the same subject:
Focusing only on the five Silicon Valley counties and restricting the research between 2015-17 made it simpler to handle the datasets. I decided on the most recent years, which had enough data for reference.
After stating the geography and timeline, I established the problem by presenting media reports and data and depicted the following three correlations that were some of the most important factors, as per my research:
Housing vs. Job Creation (that attracts more population to the area)
Housing vs. Population Growth
Housing Price vs. Income (which defines affordability)
Lastly, since it was an awareness presentation, I wanted to leave the viewers with a philosophical afterthought. To create a stronger end, I reiterated some of the facts and numbers through a summary, highlighting the outliers and then ended it with a strong quote by Thomas Sigsgaard, a famous Scandinavian architect.
The Presentation
Challenges
Choosing the right sources of information
For any curated vs. original content one of the biggest decisions is to choose the right sources of information. In this case, the entire research and finding was supposed to be based on datasets and information provided by external authorities. So authenticity and trustworthiness was of utmost importance. I tried to select the sources based on their overall public acceptance and included a fair share of Government and private sources for unbiased opinions and research material.
It taught me the importance of genuineness. Specially when as a society, we are trying to fight fake news and information everywhere around us, as content specialists, it is more important than ever for us to present both sides of a coin and enable the user to form informed opinions and take right decisions.
Dissecting the raw datasets into more useful information chunks
Given the amount of available information, dissecting the raw datasets and shortlisting the relevant pieces of information was a huge task. I stuck to my objective of narrowing it down to exactly what I needed, by:
Creating pivot tables to find interesting facts and trends hidden within a dataset
Focusing only on the meaningful fields affecting those findings
Researching to find any supporting information or theory to reinstate the facts and trends
This process made me realize how quality will always win over quantity when it comes to data and information. We are being almost choked with information all the time but if it is not trustworthy, meaningful and timely it is of no use to the user, on the contrary it can do more harm than help.
Finding the right correlations to identify the underlying issues
This assignment required a basic knowledge of how a real estate market works and specialized understanding of the uniqueness of the Silicon Valley housing market. Moreover, lack of an Subject Matter Expert (SME) made it tougher for me to get started with the available datasets and information.
Finally, it was my Instructional Design background that helped me through. It is an Instructional Designer's biggest strength to rise above any subject matter expertise to design interesting and engaging learning experiences to achieve the desired learning outcome. Reading through a subject and understanding it enough to ask smart questions to the right person at the right time is a required skill. Therefore, to find the right correlation, I started by:
Learning about the key factors that drive a real estate market
Understanding the uniqueness of the Silicon Valley real estate market and its key influencers
Analyzing the datasets against each of the factors and drawing a correlation with the housing data
Identifying the gaps and inconsistencies in the correlation
Finding out what the government and private authorities had done, are doing and are planning to do in future to address the issues
Working through this challenge reinstated the learning that “correlation does not imply causation”. I presented the correlation only to highlight the disparity between the demand and supply that could be aggravating the already existing problem. Such social and economic subjects are too vast to be addressed so briefly. Hence, my intention was only to build an awareness.
Deciding on how to end the story
While I was clear about the objective of creating awareness, I had taken a lot of time to decide the end. I wanted it to be philosophical and thought provoking. I did not want to keep the data hanging loose without a purpose.
From a storytelling point of view, it was important to draw it to a proper closure by providing some take-aways for the reader — something to remember. I considered a quote from an architect known for his sustainable design philosophy in harmony with nature and evolution. It aligned with the following points:
Relevant to the subject
Realistic, not be too poetic
Thought provoking
Straight forward
A writer called Brandon Sanderson had once said, "The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon". I could understand what he meant only on completion of this project.