00:00:01 Introduction

Ross Connard introduces himself as the co-founder and Creative Director of We2. He explains that for the past 10 years, We2 has supported multilateral and mission-driven organizations in showcasing their success and presenting data to various stakeholders to advance their missions. He acknowledges that while he has a communication design background, many in the audience come from the data side. Therefore, instead of a lecture on graphic design, he has created a straightforward, actionable framework for everyone, regardless of their design capacity. He mentions that the webinar will include audience participation, real-world examples, and a tool at the end to help implement the framework.

00:01:45 The importance of data and why it gets ignored

Ross praises the importance of data to the M&E and program staff audience, noting that data helps make better decisions, brings money to organizations, helps people in need, and allows organizations to do more with less. He cites examples like COVID dashboards and cyclone warnings in Bangladesh. However, he points out that data sometimes gets ignored because society has shifted to an attention economy with many things competing for our focus. He shares a shocking statistic: 87% of the World Bank's policy reports were never cited, and 31% were never downloaded. He emphasizes that the biggest risk to data is not that it is wrong, but that nobody acts on it.

00:04:04 The audience perspective on data consumption

Ross asks the audience to imagine being a program manager preparing for a coordination meeting in 10 minutes. A colleague sends a complex, confusing graphic (a SitRep example) and asks where to focus. Ross explains that such graphics can leave the audience feeling confused about relevance and required actions. He highlights the difference between how data is collected (focused on accuracy, detail, and completeness) and how it is consumed (focused on quick understanding, trust, and actionable insights). He notes that while the data author cares deeply about the information, interest decreases as it reaches internal audiences, external audiences, and the public. Thoughtful presentation using empathy and design is needed to combat this.

00:07:59 From data to decision-making

Ross presents a slide showing the steps from data to decision. He explains that M&E professionals focus on collection and analysis, which are crucial. However, the webinar focuses on the visualization and communication based on that data. If collection and analysis are flawed, the decision will be flawed. Similarly, if the data is correct but the visualization and storytelling are poor, the information remains undigested and unactionable.

00:09:00 The 3Cs framework

Ross introduces the 3Cs framework to combat the issue of good information getting ignored in an attention economy. People decide in half a second if information is relevant, so it must be appealing and clear. The 3Cs stand for Compelling, Consequential, and Clear. Compelling means grabbing the audience's attention through visual communication, an engaging story, and conciseness. Consequential means proving the information matters to the audience by identifying the audience, defining a clear action, and choosing the appropriate medium. Clear means ensuring the audience can understand the message through a supported takeaway, appropriate charts, and a logical hierarchy.

00:12:40 Compelling communication

Ross dives deeper into the first C, Compelling, which answers the question, "Why should I pay attention?" It captures attention and encourages the audience to invest time. He breaks it down into three points. First, visually communicative means visuals should help communicate meaning instantly. Adding an icon or photo to a chart can increase digestibility. For example, a pie chart with a donation icon immediately communicates that it is about financial need. Second, an engaging story means communications should create curiosity and encourage continued attention, following a narrative arc. This involves inciting curiosity through beautiful layout, powerful images, or catchy headlines, presenting the climax with impact or evidence, and providing an audience action to relieve the curiosity. Third, concise means all unnecessary information should be removed. He compares a wordy sentence about 3.2 million people requiring assistance to a concise version, asking which one people are more inclined to read.

00:16:50 Compelling example and poll

Ross shares an example project for IOM regarding missing migrants, aimed at donors and governments in Eastern and Southern Africa to encourage policy change. He asks the audience to review the executive summary and launches a poll to evaluate if it is visually communicative, has an engaging story, and is concise. The poll results show 90% agree it is visually communicative, 83% agree the story is engaging, but only 61% agree it is concise. Ross agrees with the assessment, noting that while it is visually appealing and tells a full story, it is borderline concise due to the amount of information needed to persuade the audience to act on recommendations.

00:21:00 Consequential communication

Ross moves to the second C, Consequential, which answers, "Why does this matter to me?" After grabbing attention, you have a fraction of a second to show relevance before the audience dismisses it. This involves identifying the audience to understand who the data will inform and what their decision drivers are. Different audiences have different needs, such as leadership seeking alignment, donors seeking impact, partners seeking coordination, staff seeking growth, and communities seeking life improvement. It also involves defining a clear action, which is the next logical step the audience should take. This is often forgotten but is crucial. Examples include reviewing recommendations for policy, scheduling a briefing for funding, or joining a working group for coordination. Finally, it involves choosing the appropriate medium that suits the audience and purpose. Ross provides a table comparing different media, such as posters, which are good for attention but bad for dense information, versus handouts.

00:26:31 Consequential example

Ross presents a project for a crisis response training program called SPARC. The original materials were highly technical and abstract, making them neither compelling nor consequential. We2 helped the client identify two distinct audiences: internal leadership and external staff. They created separate bifold brochures for each. The leadership brochure focused on institutional benefits, alignment, and a clear action to support the program by reaching out via email. The staff brochure focused on career benefits, colleague testimonials, and a clear action to enroll by visiting linked resources. By tailoring the message to each audience, the communications became simple, appealing, and consequential.

00:30:35 Clear communication

Ross introduces the final C, Clear, which asks, "Can I understand it?" This ensures the audience can comprehend the information without unnecessary effort or confusion. He breaks it down into three categories. First, a supported takeaway means the evidence must support the conclusion, and the conclusion should be written directly on the charts. Instead of making the audience figure out the data, tell them the takeaway, such as "Funding needs grew by three times," and use the data to support it. Second, chart choice means selecting the right chart depends on the goal, whether it is comparison, parts of a whole, time, or geography. Ross recommends resources like Datawrapper and ActivityInfo webinars for guidance on chart selection. Third, logical hierarchy means organizing the page layout, titles, and subheads to guide the viewer's eye. People scan in a zigzag motion starting from the top left in left-to-right languages. Important information should be in the top left, and clear titles should explain what is being shown.

00:35:34 Clear example and poll

Ross presents a funding appeal document aimed at Member State donors and partners. He launches a poll asking if there is a supported takeaway, appropriate chart choice, and logical hierarchy. The results show 91% agree the takeaway is supported, 85% agree the chart choice is appropriate, and 80% agree there is a logical hierarchy. Ross discusses the results, noting that the donut charts clearly show people in need versus people targeted, the chart choices fit the available space well, and the layout logically guides the eye from the people in need to the funding ask.

00:40:07 ActivityInfo live demonstration

Ross hands the presentation over to Firas El Kurdi for a live example using ActivityInfo. Firas emphasizes that the 3Cs depend on the audience, noting that what works for a coordinator might overwhelm a donor. He presents a case study of IOM coordinating a cyclone response in Mozambique. He shows a plain, functional notebook used by coordinators to answer weekly questions about sector progress and gaps. The notebook includes overview tables, maps, and charts that can be sliced by sector, partner, or location.

00:44:04 The importance of data architecture

Firas explains how the clean notebook is generated without manual effort, highlighting the underlying data model. The model consists of reference forms for partners, locations, and sectors connected to a monthly reporting form. This relational structure ensures every submitted figure is automatically tied to the correct categories. He demonstrates the system from an implementing partner's perspective, showing how they only see their own reporting form. Firas then builds a pivot table in under 10 seconds, proving that good visualization starts with good data architecture. If the data is not structured to answer the question, no chart can rescue it.

00:47:32 Power BI dashboard for external audiences

Firas explains that while coordinators need functional notebooks, donors and the public need something that earns their attention quickly. He hands it back to Ross, who showcases a Power BI dashboard built by We2 using the same ActivityInfo dataset, connected live via API. Ross asks the audience to mentally evaluate the dashboard using the 3Cs. The dashboard is visually compelling, consequential for donors, and clear, with a specific action to read more about the crisis. Firas demonstrates the live connection by updating a number in ActivityInfo, which immediately reflects on the interactive Power BI dashboard.

00:51:17 Visual storytelling assessment tool and Q&A

Ross acknowledges that it is difficult to be objective about one's own work. To help, he introduces an AI-powered visual storytelling assessment tool based on the 3Cs framework. Users can upload their communication, provide basic context, and receive an email analyzing the work with recommendations for improvement. He provides a QR code to join the waitlist for the tool and another to connect with him on LinkedIn for feedback. The webinar concludes with a Q&A session, where Ross addresses questions about making dashboards useful for non-technical decision-makers by understanding their needs and talking to relevant departments. He also clarifies the difference between data findings, which is what the data says, and insights, which is what the data means in context.