Excel Chart Tutorial: Recreating McKinsey-Style Visualizations

Want to elevate your data visualization skills in Excel? In this article, we'll show you how to recreate three highly impactful McKinsey-style charts, even if you are not an advanced user. By mastering these techniques, you'll be able to present data insights clearly and impress your audience. We will explore features in Excel that you may not know existed and provide free downloadable resources so you can practice these data visualization skills.

Radial Bar Chart: Visualizing Impact Across Sectors

The radial bar chart is a visually striking way to Present data, essentially a bar Chart curved into a circle. It's particularly useful for showcasing proportional relationships, such as the impact of technology across different sectors.

Let’s walk through creating one.

First, ensure you have the necessary data. We’ll need two columns: Sector and Percentage. You can download a free dataset to follow along. Begin by modifying the dataset slightly to include the Helper column, which is necessary to have the radial data extend 100% along the ring. Remove the gridlines on the spreadsheet (ALT + W + V + G is a keyboard shortcut) to make visual creation easier. Now insert the donut chart from pie chart options. Delete the unneeded legend. From here we format the data series by selecting the donut and decreasing the donut hole size. We must ensure that each remaining percentage is changed to “no fill.” Finally, grab the proper color from the McKinsey source to complete the look. Now for the labels. Here, a simple text box can create a professional and dynamic display of the information. The radial bar chart excels at simplifying complex data, making it accessible and engaging for any audience. This type of visual will increase the audience engagement, and that is the main goal when presenting visual data.

This is a highly sought after McKinsey skill.

Cleaning and Organizing Data for Charting

Before diving into the charts, it's essential to prepare the data properly. Here's how:

• Data Integrity: Double-check your data for accuracy. Mistakes can lead to misleading visualizations.
• Consistent Formatting: Ensure all values are formatted consistently, particularly percentages and numbers. Use the 'Format Cells' option to maintain uniformity.

• Sorting Data: Sort data to highlight trends. For example, arranging sectors in descending order by percentage can quickly showcase the most impacted areas.

  Proper data handling is the foundation of effective visualizations. You'll make the most of your data by investing time in initial data preparation.

Maximizing Impact with Radial Bar Charts

Here's how to make the most of your radial bar charts:

1. Focus on Key Metrics: Highlight the most important data points. Use color and labels sparingly to draw attention to essential insights.
2. Tell a Story: Ensure your chart communicates a clear message. Use a concise title and annotations to guide the audience.

3. Customize for Clarity: Adjust the gap width and color to improve readability. Overcrowded charts can be confusing.

   This type of format is critical when you need to highlight important points and simplify data. The easier the information can be digested, the higher engagement you'll receive with the audience.

Mastering an Unnamed Chart for Trend Analysis

The column chart is a workhorse for visualizing data, but this unique approach will level up its effectiveness. It is particularly useful for illustrating quarterly trends over several years.

When creating the column chart in excel, consider these points:

1. Select the dataset, making sure to select columns for “Quarter”, “Divestiture” and “Merger or Aquisition”
2. Insert a standard, clustered column chart
3. From this chart, change series chart type of Divestiture to “Stacked Column.”
4. Change Series Overlap to 100%
5. Insert Shape for chart key or visual guide.

By using the same base structure, you can easily understand and create this impactful visualization.

Powerfully Showing Off Data with Stacked Bar Charts

Using a stacked bar chart is the perfect way to combine multiple points into one visual. With it, you can demonstrate women of color losing out to white women and men as they climb the corporate ladder. To get started with this chart, take these points into consideration:

1. Start with the Relevant data

   

2. Select “Chart Area” with left click, then “Format Chart Area” with right click

3. Select “View” then “Gridlines” then deselect to remove gridlines

4. Select data series by clicking twice to select the orange data bars, then on “Fill” tab click “No Fill”

5. Adjust graph data as needed to remove distracting information

This stacked bar chart is an amazing option when needing to highlight many data points in one visual. For this reason, it is often a fan favorite.

PowerPoint for Business & Finance Course

To prepare you for that, we’ve built a PowerPoint for business and finance Course and what we teach is industry focused.

So aside from the typical lessons on shortcuts, formatting and charts, we have case studies that replicate the type of work you might be assigned in your day to day.