Hi #SmartCommunity friends. Welcome back to this very special series here on the Smart Community Podcast, all about data storytelling as part of my PhD research.
In this episode of the Smart Community podcast I have a fantastic chat with Kelly Henderson.
Kelly is Team Leader of Digital Innovation at Wellington City Council in New Zealand. With a background in architecture, urban development, and major transport and infrastructure projects, Kelly now brings a digital lens to local government innovation.
In this episode Kelly tells us about how Wellington City Council uses data visualisation and storytelling both internally for decision-making and externally for community engagement. Kelly and I discuss the challenges of creating consistent, accessible data dashboards across a large organisation, and the power of digital twins to make complex climate and urban data engaging for the public.
We talk about the importance of testing assumptions about audiences, the tension between transparency and accessibility in data sharing, and the need for future scenario planning in urban development. We finish our chat discussing Kelly’s advice about keeping data storytelling simple while embracing depth in data communication. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.
What we cover in this episode:
- Kelly Henderson’s background spanning architecture, urban development and her current role leading digital innovation at Wellington City Council
- How councils use data visualisation internally for decision-making and externally for community engagement, though often not as extensively as might be expected
- Wellington’s digital twin project for communicating climate change impacts and risk data to the community in accessible ways
- The challenge of inconsistent internal dashboards created across different council departments and the need for coordinated data storytelling
- Using transport sensor data and AI to prove the effectiveness of cycling infrastructure investments to elected members
- The tension between transparency requirements and making data truly accessible to the public through self-serve systems
- The importance of testing assumptions about audiences through user experience research and persona development
- How combining multiple data sources (transport, weather, retail spend) creates richer stories about urban dynamics
- The “TrackDem” project digitising council decision-making while navigating the challenge of political neutrality in data presentation
- Wellington’s “Changing City” digital twin tool using storytelling to contextualise climate data with historical landscape changes
- The risk aversion around sharing uncertain information early in major projects and the need for better scenario planning visualisation
- The Whakatutuki customer experience project aiming to create seamless, “forgettable” interactions with council services
- Challenges in measuring the impact of data storytelling on trust-building and community engagement
- The gap between technical data expertise and strategic thinking needed to bridge data analysis with decision-making needs
- The importance of adapting visualisations to different audience thinking styles and capabilities
Quotes:
“Often what a team internally thinks is the most important thing is not at all what like a member of the public actually cares about.”
“When you start visualising how many times a certain Councillor made certain kinds of decisions, it becomes a pretty strong visual.”
“ If I’m a resident of Wellington and I’m engaging with Council in all these ways already, I don’t need 300 different apps and I don’t want them either. I want a forgettable experience in my engagement with council… people have goals that they’re trying to do. They’re not trying to have an interaction with council, they’re just trying to live their lives.”
“When trust is low… we’re way less efficient. We’re spending all our time trying to justify decisions… when trust is higher, we can actually just get on with our work.”
“Don’t be afraid to bring in emotion and real sentiment and depth to what you’re doing… really all data is emotive and all you are doing is making it stronger with your storytelling.”
Links:
Wellington City Council – Our Changing City
City of Melbourne open data platform
Mātai Manapori – TrackDem council decision tracking system
Whakatutuki – customer experience platform
Connect:
Connect with Kelly Henderson on LinkedIn
Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community
Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube
Podcast Production by Perk Digital
This podcast is recorded on Yugarabul country and edited on Gaibal country. I pay my respects to traditional owners of country and their elders past and present. I also extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today. Here on the Smart Community Podcast, we talk about data, technology, communities and the future. First Nations peoples have been sharing knowledge, caring for country, and telling stories for tens of thousands of years. I honour that deep connection of storytelling and community connection as we continue our conversation together here today.
Disclaimer
The views, opinions, and perspectives expressed by guests on The Smart Community Podcast are solely those of the individual speakers. They do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or positions of the host, Zoe Eather, or of The Smart Community Podcast as a whole.
Any discussion of ideas, products, organisations, or services by podcast guests does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the host or the podcast. Listeners are encouraged to form their own opinions and seek professional advice where appropriate.
