Data visualization rule #1: Don't tell me; Show me.

Thoughtfully designed data visualizations will show your market research insights with drama and impact. But creating them should not create drama for you. This is where Harmoni comes in.

You know the situation: someone scarily senior (or just scary) wants an update on what your latest market research data is saying about performance against key metrics, and they want it within the hour.

Experience tells you they're not going to be happy if you send through a bunch of sprawling tables and super-detailed reports. They want simple, well-designed charts and dashboards that make the key trends and metrics blindingly obvious (preferably with all those trends moving in the right direction).

And they're not wrong to want this. The facts may live in the numbers, but it's persuasive visualizations that create understanding and insight and inspire action.

The thing is, though, you and I know it's not easy to create those "simple" charts and dashboards. Depending on the tools you're using, it can be anything but easy. Effective and impactful visualizations require design thinking, power-user software skills, and lots of time.

And creating those impactful visualizations is just the start. Then you have to add critical information like sample size and statistical significance. You might even need to add nets, averages, or weightings manually. (Yikes—have I really already used 45 minutes of that hour I had??)

Harmoni turns your facts into presentation-ready dashboards.

Harmoni is an integrated data management and visualization tool. Unlike other platforms, it's designed to meet the specific needs of market researchers.

You can import multiple data sources – SPSS, SQL, Excel, CSV and more – then use them together in your analysis. Harmoni also supports leading data collection platforms like Voxco and FocusVision Decipher, allowing you to pull in data from these platforms in real-time.

Not only that, but Harmoni's automation tools make organizing your data a breeze. Harmoni preserves your meta tags, labels and time information to keep everything in line, and you can merge data tables. At all times, Harmoni keeps track of statistical significance and highlights figures that are getting a little thin.

But the ease of creating visualizations is where the real magic happens. When we demonstrate Harmoni, it literally makes researchers gasp.

But the ease of creating visualizations is where the real magic happens. When we demonstrate Harmoni, it literally makes researchers gasp. And little wonder.

Creating a chart starts by merely dragging and dropping your items of interest onto the canvas. Drag another item in, and the chart updates to become a comparison. Wrong perspective? Just switch the axes with the press of a button. You can then change your table into a visual with a single click. Harmoni will even suggest the best graph type for your data—although naturally, you can also choose the most appropriate type of chart yourself. 

There are the standard line charts, bar charts, stacked bar charts, and area charts. And of course, the carb-rich charts that start to sound very appealing at around 3:00 in the afternoon: pie charts and sprinkles charts. (OK, plot charts, but I was on a roll.) (A cinnamon roll. Mmmm...)

None of this is earth-shattering. You can do all that in Excel. But Harmoni has a few tricks that can make even hardened market researchers weep with relief. With the tick of an option button, you can:

• Label each data point with values
• Highlight any statistically significant data point in a different color
• Add the percentage or change since the last report to each figure
• Re-calculate the percentage for specific responses
• Suppress items with no results

These market-research-friendly touches are what make Harmoni unique.

A canvas for continuity

Individual charts are great, but they're just the start. Assembling them into a compelling presentation is the next challenge. And if you're using the wrong software, you'll find you have a lot less time for analyzing the insights behind the information.

Harmoni makes it easy. You can set up and save different data views, just like slides in a PowerPoint presentation. In Harmoni, we call these "stories." You can save these for regular use (or, if your manager is enamored with PowerPoint, you can export them to PowerPoint as well).

You can also use Harmoni's dashboard feature to craft a set of stories, including titles, tables, charts, commentaries, images—even live links to other online content. All of this is designed to help your visualizations tell a compelling and accurate story about the insights you've uncovered.

You can spend more time looking for the anomalies and changes that point to potentially business-transforming insights.

As the data is updated, your charts and tables update as well – but without changing colors, position, or style.

You can show up-to-the-minute dynamic data, or set a date range to compare historical or seasonal data.

Your core stories, the ones that track standard KPIs and key metrics, take care of themselves, leaving you with more time to look for the anomalies and changes that point to potentially business-transforming insights.

Could Harmoni bring more calm to your role?

Don't take my word for it, though. Seeing is believing. If you'd like to see Harmoni in action, we'd love to show it to you, either in person or in a video call.

Book a demo today