During the sport-free weeks of the lockdown, some of the void in potential coverage has been filled by sports reporters and pundits posing different challenges to formulate ‘best of’ lists and fantasy teams.
This made me wonder about a similar discussion in the context of data visualisation, and specifically the notion of a dream team. If you could form a team of skilled practitioners, each bringing a different core strength to the table, who would make the team?
And so, based on my ‘Seven Hats of Visualisation Design‘ concept, which considers the ideal profile of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and attributes that make up the perfect all-round visualisation capability, I have been thinking about the idea of the ‘”Seven Hats” Dream Team Challenge’.
The idea is that you formulate a dream team of 7 people, selecting each person based on their ability to demonstrate at least one of the core competencies as profiled in the image below: A Director, Communicator, Journalist, Analyst, Scientist, Designer, and Technology.
Any one individual you pick will probably have a broader range of skills than just the particular specialty for which you have selected them, but the challenge is find the right overall blend.
There are millions of possible teams that I can immediately think of, but this was just one of the first I noted down, based on talented people I know across the data visualisation field at large. I imposed two rules to restrict my choices: selecting only a maximum of 4 people of the same gender and a maximum of 4 people based in the same country.
- DIRECTOR: Amanda Cox
- COMMUNICATOR: Lisa Charlotte Rost
- JOURNALIST: Mona Chalabi
- ANALYST: @jburnmurdoch
- SCIENTIST: Steve Haroz
- DESIGNER: Alberto Lucas López
- TECHNOLOGIST: Nadieh Bremer
In my training courses I talk a lot about the idea that we can’t all expect to be good at everything. We often have to think about developing our capabilities, collectively, thinking about collaborations with others to bring the breadth of competencies together.
Anyway, give it a go! Have a think about a dream team based on recognised talents from across the field, or think more in terms of the capabilities amongst your work colleagues.