ScotT Berinato
Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review
Scott Berinato is is the author of Good Charts: The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations. Even though he's a writer, he's also a self-described "dataviz geek" who loves the challenge of finding visual solutions to commuincations and data challenges. He speaks frequently on the topic of data visualization and leads workshops to help others improve their chart skills.
Scott is a Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review, where he created successful visual storytelling formats. He writes and edits regularly for HBR and HBR.org, focused mostly on stories about data, science, and technology. When HBR redesigned in 2010, Scott created the front section of the magazine, Idea Watch, launching successful features such as "Defend Your Research." He led a team that launched HBR's iPad app, and more recently led the creation of HBR's Big Idea, a bi-monthly digital longform event.
Prior to joining HBR, Scott was executive editor at IDG where he wrote and edited for CIO magazine and helped create and launch CSO magazine. In addition to writing and editing feature articles, he was a columnist writing about security in a post-9/11 world. He is a six-time winner of the Jesse H. Neal award (the "Pulitzers of the business press") for best feature article of the year and two-time winner of the Grand Neal Award for the year's best overall contribution to the business press. Scott was awarded the McAllister Fellowship for his contributions to the business press and, through it, was able to return to his alma mater, Medill, to teach writing.
Prior to IDG, Scott was a beat reporter at PC Week, where he covered the Microsoft anti-trust trial and the rise of the Internet, among other major tech events.
Scott holds a masters degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He's currently at work on his next project, The Good Charts Workbook.
Contributions
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When presenting to a room full of people, you have just 410 milliseconds to get their attention and keep it. Putting data into sentences or bullet points - what Scott refers to as statistical rhetoric - is not nearly as impactful or memorable as a visualisation. The power of data visualisation is slowly being recognised across our industry, but having a visual aid doesn’t solve everything. Harvard research suggests that showing an audience a bad chart or a visual that they don’t understand, results in them judging the data less credibly. So what makes a good graphic?
The point of data visualisation is to lead the audience to meaning as quickly as possible. Style and design play a crucial role but if a beautiful chart doesn’t lead to meaning then it’s not a good chart. What matters most is the context: ensuring you sending the right message to the right audience in the right way. This approach also aids the design process and presentation method. Translating complex data into meaningful, elegant graphs tells a coherent story that the audience can understand and believe.