I would guess that most of you reading this are very comfortable looking at data for insights and answers. You might even prefer to provide a result set instead of a picture or chart to a user when they are asking for help with data analysis. However, do you add any words to your analysis to help? Any descriptions, summaries, or conclusions that could be drawn from the data or the picture?

I ran across a blog asking about the right ratio of words to data. The post uses the childhood story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Many of you might know the story and have drawn your own conclusions of what the story shows or means. If you read this post, you will find a very different interpretation. While some of you may not think that's a valid interpretation, it's possible that some thought that when they first heard the story.

The point of the post is that we can provide data and pictures, but others might interpret things differently. Each of us has our own point of view, our own experiences, and our mood. That last one might lead us to focus on a piece of data or a part of the picture that the author didn't intend for us to focus on, or didn't think was relevant. Without any sort of guidance on the narration from the author, we don't know how closely our interpretation matches theirs.

Many of us have certainly seen others spin data, especially aggregates and statistics, to suit a narrative. However, the idea of providing some narrative isn't to hide or mislead, but rather give context to what you see in the report. As the blog notes, don't leave their interpretation to chance. Give them a "well-crafted, objectively reasonable narrative that is supported by your data."

Or, if you don't have one, let them know that and ask them to send you one back showing what they see or what they expect.