22-25 April 2026 
Draw the Change: Visual Thinking for Data Leaders
Proposed session for SQLBits 2026TL; DR
Data initiatives fail when people do not share a clear understanding. This session shows how visual thinking helps data leaders explain strategy, align stakeholders, and make complex data and AI topics tangible using simple drawings anyone can apply.
Session Details
Data-driven transformation isn’t just about technology. It’s about helping people see, understand, and align around complex ideas such as data strategy, AI initiatives, governance, and organizational change.
This session is for data leaders, analytics managers, product owners, and transformation leads who regularly struggle to align diverse stakeholders around data and AI topics. If your conversations get stuck in slides, dashboards, definitions, or abstract frameworks, this talk offers a different way forward.
Many data initiatives stall not because the technology is wrong, but because people lack a shared mental model. Slides and reports often overwhelm or obscure the message, leading to misalignment, slow decision-making, and repeated rework.
In this 50-minute session, you will learn how visual thinking and simple drawing techniques can be used as leadership and communication tools to make complex data topics tangible, human, and actionable.
Drawing is not about artistic talent. It is about slowing down thinking, simplifying complexity, and creating shared understanding. A simple sketch on a whiteboard or tablet can bridge silos, surface hidden assumptions, and turn abstract data strategies into conversations people can actively engage in.
Based on four years of drawing in data strategy workshops, AI programs, and conference keynotes, this session blends real-world examples with practical techniques that can be applied immediately.
You will leave this session with practical visual techniques, concrete examples, and a new way of thinking about communication, enabling you to draw the change you want to see, align people faster, and make data strategy stick across your organization.
This session is for data leaders, analytics managers, product owners, and transformation leads who regularly struggle to align diverse stakeholders around data and AI topics. If your conversations get stuck in slides, dashboards, definitions, or abstract frameworks, this talk offers a different way forward.
Many data initiatives stall not because the technology is wrong, but because people lack a shared mental model. Slides and reports often overwhelm or obscure the message, leading to misalignment, slow decision-making, and repeated rework.
In this 50-minute session, you will learn how visual thinking and simple drawing techniques can be used as leadership and communication tools to make complex data topics tangible, human, and actionable.
Drawing is not about artistic talent. It is about slowing down thinking, simplifying complexity, and creating shared understanding. A simple sketch on a whiteboard or tablet can bridge silos, surface hidden assumptions, and turn abstract data strategies into conversations people can actively engage in.
Based on four years of drawing in data strategy workshops, AI programs, and conference keynotes, this session blends real-world examples with practical techniques that can be applied immediately.
You will leave this session with practical visual techniques, concrete examples, and a new way of thinking about communication, enabling you to draw the change you want to see, align people faster, and make data strategy stick across your organization.
3 things you'll get out of this session
- How to use simple visual thinking techniques to explain data strategy, AI initiatives, and governance topics with clarity
- How to draw effectively, even without drawing skills, to align stakeholders and create shared understanding
- Practical visual patterns and tools you can apply immediately in meetings, workshops, and leadership communication