Teaching

Data storytelling and applied research methods for professionals

Philosophy

Good data teaching uses datasets with documented flaws, not cleaned-up pedagogical examples. Real data has sampling gaps, contested measurements, uncertain scores, and design choices someone made on a Thursday afternoon without writing them down. That’s what professionals actually encounter — and that’s what I build teaching materials around.

The six concepts I return to most often:

Construct validity Sampling and bias Multidimensional measurement Uncertainty communication Visualization design Narrative framing

Teaching materials

The Hip-Hop Periodic Table — Data Storytelling Module

A complete 90-minute session built around a dataset of 139 hip-hop artists scored across five lyricism dimensions. Designed for professional and executive audiences. Includes an interactive Quarto dashboard, data dictionary, source bibliography, and facilitator guide.

Concepts covered: All six above.

Deliverables available:

  • Interactive dashboard — live Quarto site
  • Data dictionary (Word) — variable definitions, rubrics, source bibliography
  • Excel workbook — full dataset with scoring rubric and era analysis sheets
  • Facilitator README — session structure, discussion questions by tab
TipSession design note

I open this module by asking executives to rate their favorite rapper on lyricism — 1 to 10, right now, no thinking. After they do, I ask what they just measured. That question takes 45 minutes to properly answer, and by the end the room is arguing about construct validity using their own KPIs.

Topics available for custom sessions

Measurement and metrics

  • Building defensible KPIs from first principles
  • When composite scores help and when they lie
  • Communicating confidence and uncertainty to non-technical stakeholders
  • The politics of how organizational metrics get designed

Data visualization

  • Choosing chart types that match your argument
  • Designing for uncertainty, not false precision
  • Interactive vs. static — when each is appropriate
  • Common visualization mistakes in executive reporting

Get in touch about custom session design, keynotes, or workshop facilitation: your@email.com