Translating Data for the Masses — One NCAA Basketball Game at a Time

Sometimes, I’m stumped when people ask me what I do for a living. When I reply that I help organizations communicate better with and about data, or call myself a data translator, I see the gaze of the person I’m talking to fog over. You may be familiar with this look — it’s a common reaction many people have once data or numbers are introduced into a conversation.

A perfect example to demonstrate what being a data translator means came up this past weekend. My partner and a bunch of his college buddies are huge UNC basketball fans, and on Saturday, the Tar Heels (UNC) played Duke — a fierce and famed rivalry. The game was tight — much closer than anyone who has been following either team this season could have expected. In the post-game recap conversation, our friend shared this analysis of the probability of the Tar Heels winning the game out to the group. I sensed the immediate opportunity to translate this chart for the members of our group chat that do not have a master’s degree in statistics.

Thanks to Luke Benz (@recspecs730) for putting out this (and many other) visualizations about college hoops on his Twitter feed.

This chart demonstrates the hope, and ultimate defeat, that Tar Heel fans felt throughout the game. But if you’re unfamiliar with an output like this one…