Concise: Why Less is More in Data Storytelling

If everything is important, nothing is remembered.

A client once presented a 60-slide deck to their leadership team. It had everything: regression outputs, pivot tables, exploratory charts. By slide 20, attention was already fading. By slide 40, people were checking emails.

We reframed the story into just three points:

1. Sales had dropped 20% in the last quarter.

2. Repeat customers had fallen by 50% year-on-year.

3. If nothing changed, projected losses would hit $5 million in the next 12 months.

4. 
   

That version took 10 minutes. The CEO got it instantly and asked, “What are our options?” A decision was made in the same meeting.

The analysis hadn’t changed. But the story had. That’s the power of being concise.

Why Conciseness Matters

Our brains are not built to handle endless detail. Cognitive science shows we can only juggle about 3–4 items in working memory at a time (Cowan, 2001). Overload it, and the message collapses.

This is why:

• 10 charts = overwhelm.

• 3 points = recall, repeat, and act.

Conciseness isn’t about hiding complexity. It’s about making complexity usable. Think of it like reducing a sauce — you’re not throwing ingredients away. You’re concentrating flavor so it leaves an impression.

The Psychology of Three

Why do so many powerful ideas come in threes? Because three is the sweet spot between too little and too much.

• Memory: Three items are easiest to recall. Four already feels heavy.

• Rhetoric: Great speeches use triplets — “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

• Education: Generations grew up with the 3Rs — Reading, Writing, Arithmetic.

• Marketing: Campaigns thrive on threes — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; Netflix’s “Watch Anywhere. Cancel Anytime. No Ads.”

• Business: Steve Jobs structured Apple launches around three big product reveals — never more.

Three feels complete. Two feels unfinished. Four feels like overload.

Conciseness and WIIFM

Conciseness forces you to focus not just on what you want to say, but on what your audience needs to hear. In other words, it sharpens WIIFM: What’s in it for me?

Example: Instead of showing 15 churn charts, frame it this way:

• “Customer churn rose from 15% to 20% this year. At this rate, we stand to lose $5 million in recurring revenue next year. The cause: 50% fewer repeat customers.”

That’s the audience’s WIIFM: clear, quantified, urgent.

Practical Ways to Get Concise

1. Start with the “one thing”Ask: “If my audience remembers only one thing, what should it be?” Everything else should support that.

   
   

2. Use the Rule of Three Frame your story as: What changed? Why? What next?

   • Example: Sales dropped 20%. Repeat customers fell 50%. Projected loss $5M unless we act.

     
     

3. Kill your darlings Not every chart belongs in the main story. Move supporting visuals to an appendix or keep them ready for Q&A.

   
   

4. Use analogies Replace long explanations with something relatable:

   • “Our customer base is like a leaky bucket. Unless we plug the holes, no amount of new customers will keep us afloat.”

     
     

Why Concise Stories Drive Action

Conciseness doesn’t just make stories digestible. It changes how leaders respond:

• Respect for time: Audiences trust storytellers who cut the noise.

  
  

• Confidence in clarity: If you can explain it briefly and with numbers, you show mastery.

  
  

• Repeatability: Leaders don’t retell 60-slide decks. But they will repeat:

  • “Sales down 20%.”

  • “Repeat customers halved.”

  • “$5M at risk.”

    
    

Three points. Numbers clear. Action urgent.

Closing: Less is More

Conciseness is not about dumbing down. It’s about sharpening up.

In a noisy world, the concise story is the one that cuts through. It’s the one leaders remember, repeat, and act on.

So the next time you’re tempted to add one more chart, ask yourself: “If everything is important, will anything be remembered?”

💡 Next in this series: Coherent — Why Connecting the Dots Matters in Data Storytelling.