Using Data Smarter online course
Insight Agents are the original experts in data storytelling, and we’ve been running live training courses – on different dimensions of this key skillset for success in the modern knowledge economy – since 2015.
Initially, our training courses were all run in person, usually at our clients’ or industry trade association offices. With the constraints of COVID, we quickly evolved delivery to run our training courses online.
Throughout the challenging pandemic years, our trainers worked hard to ensure that learning outcomes could continue to be met and engagement remained strong – despite the rapid onset of Zoom and Teams fatigue. Since 2020, our trainers have led more than 200 training and development sessions online. Despite the ubiquity of video conference calls, we have sustained our high feedback and delegate satisfaction scores no matter how our training is delivered.
Different strokes for different folks
We appreciate that different people learn in different ways, and not everyone has the appetite, time, or budget to attend live training courses in-person or online. To meet this need, we’ve developed Using Data Smarter, a self-paced, modular course on the fundamentals of data storytelling. This proven, step-by-step system has three, core modules.

1. Asking Smarter Questions
Discover the impact of the forgotten art of asking smarter questions to help you surface the data you need to make sense of your world.
2. Sourcing Genuine Insights
Learn how to move from data to insight, using Insight Agents’ pioneering STEP Prism of InsightTM model and our framework for writing insights.
3. Becoming a Data Storyteller
The rules for effective data storytelling are simple, enabling you to tell more compelling data-driven stories. This module shows you how.

Most training courses in data storytelling are in fact courses on data visualisation. Our approach at Insight Agents is fundamentally different. We believe that, until and unless you’ve answered the all-important question “So what?” – revealing what the data mean – any amount of whizzy use of Tableau, PowerBI, or even Midjourney is irrelevant and often distracting. You must crack the narrative in the numbers first. Then and only then can you visualise the “So what?” and go on to address the more useful questions “Now what? What should we do as a result?”.
Any time, any place, anywhere
Using Data Smarter runs seamlessly across laptops, tablets, and mobiles, allowing you to dip in and out of the course on any device wherever you are – at home, on the move, or in the office.
The three modules in the course include a comprehensive series of short videos presented by Insight Agents’ Founder and Chief Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles. Each module also provides a set of practical frameworks and actionable templates so that you can put the learnings into practice straightaway. These include The World’s Best Briefing Template, Know Your Audience with a Pen Portrait, and The Six Golden Rules of Data Storytelling.
Continuity of learning
Many people who have been through our in-person training have gone on to subscribe to Using Data Smarter. The online course provides fantastic continuity of learning from our in-person training courses. Buying a seat at Using Data Smarter gives users lifetime access to all the videos and resources, templates and frameworks. This approach has been particularly popular with research, insights, and analytics professionals in some of our biggest, global corporate clients. These include both AstraZeneca and Novartis.
You can find out more about Using Data Smarter – including a detailed breakdown of the syllabus, information on all the resources in the course, common FAQs, and links to buy seats on the course for you and your team – by visiting this page.