If correlation doesn’t imply causation, then what does?

As a data scientist, it is often quite frustrating to work with correlation and not be able to draw conclusive causality. The best way to confidently obtain causality is, usually, through randomized experiments, such as the ones we saw in Chapter 8, Advanced Statistics. One would have to split up the population groups into randomly sampled groups and run hypothesis tests to conclude, with a degree of certainty, that there is a true causation between variables.

Verbal communication

Apart from visual demonstrations of data, verbal communication is just as important when presenting results. If you are not merely uploading results or publishing, you are usually presenting data to a room of data scientists and executives or to a conference hall.

In any case, there are key areas to focus on when giving a verbal presentation, especially when the presentation regards findings in data.

There are generally two styles of oral presentation: one meant for more professional settings, including corporate offices where the problem at hand is usually tied directly to company performance or some other key performance indicator (KPI), and another meant more for a room of your peers where the key idea is to motivate the audience to care about your work.

It’s about telling a story

Whether it is a formal or casual presentation, people like to hear stories. When you are presenting results, you are not just spitting out facts and metrics; you are attempting to frame the minds of your audience to believe in and care about what you have to say.

When giving a presentation, always be aware of your audience and try to gauge their reactions/interest in what you are saying. If they seem unengaged, try to relate the problem to them. For example, you can begin with a punchy statement that is designed to grab attention and hint at the kind of content in the remainder of your speech:

Just think, when popular TV shows like Game of Thrones come back, your employees will all spend more time watching TV and therefore will have lower work performance.

Now, you have their attention. It’s about relating to your audience; whether it’s your boss or your mom’s friend, you have to find a way to make it relevant.