Data Storytelling Jobs Part 2: Quickly Find Community Insights

Welcome back to part two of our data storytelling series! If you missed the first post, you can read it here. 

mySidewalk is on a mission to democratize data and equip changemakers with tools to build stronger, more resilient communities. We do this through a full-stack data storytelling platform.

We believe that data storytelling is a natural routine — a practiced method that’s baked into everyday workflows for organizations, foundations, universities, nonprofits and so many others. With access to complete, consistent and connected data, it’s easier to find insights and make decisions to powerfully impact your community. This helps you craft and share powerful data stories in less time and with greater impact. 

mySidewalk has pinpointed three core jobs of data storytelling that make it easy to adopt community data into daily workflows. They are: 

1. Gives you access to the best data about places.
2. Makes it easy to find community insights.
3. Helps you quickly build and share impactful data stories.

You’ll only find these attributes in the mySidewalk full-stack data storytelling platform. Let’s take a closer look at the second job of data storytelling. 

Quickly Find Insights for Your Community 

Let’s say you’ve done your research and explored the mySidewalk data library and its 6 billion data points from more than 40 trusted sources. You did a deep dive of the granular geographies available to you, maybe going as far as the ZIP code level or census block group. You’re saving time wrangling data, and you’re feeling confident in the community data indicators you’ve selected. 

But what’s next? 

It’s time to quickly find insights about your community. Our goal is to make it easy for you to make analyses and find insights about place-based data. Unlike competitors, mySidewalk gives you the power to uncover insights and make analyses like a data scientist — no data expertise needed. That’s what it means to unlock the power of community data for everyone. 

Our data tools make it easy to: 

1. Compare indicators across space and time.
2. Develop complex data visualizations without needing a data science background.
3. Analyze the data to understand what it means for your community.

Compare Indicators Across Space and Time 

In Seek, you can search for data indicators across different spaces and different times. You’ll find three Time options: current, historical and projection. To make data selection easier, we grouped together time elements from the selection menu. When you click the drop down menu under the Time column, you’ll notice that all the available options are ordered numerically from historical to current and lastly, projection. 

Develop Complex Data Visualizations 

Chart helps you create beautiful, powerful data visualizations with zero GIS background required. There are several data visualization tools to choose from: map, table, bar chart, pie chart, time series, progress tracker, callout, correlations and goals. Our simple point-and-click user interface makes it easy to select the visualization type, upload your data layer (or mySidewalk data layers) and customize it. 

Analyze Data to Glean Community Insights 

Finally, it’s time to put everything together. Once you select data indicators and create a data visualization or two, you’re ready to connect the dots and discover insights. That may look like closing the gap for digital inclusion or adding a new grocery store to a neighborhood that’s in a food desert.  

Whatever insights you find, you hold the power to quickly and easily inform your stakeholders, implement policies and make changes to help your community succeed. You’ll save time and be the go-to data expert that your team needs. Plus, you can make data storytelling a natural part of your everyday workflow. 

The best part? You can do it all in our full-stack data storytelling platform — no data expertise required. 

If you’re ready to see how data storytelling can positively impact your community, let’s chat. 

To learn more about our full-stack data storytelling platform, click the button below.