Data visualization is a hot sector, and it’s not hard to see why. By abstracting large volumes of information into easily consumable charts, organizations can clear productivity bottlenecks and let their users focus on driving value instead of getting bogged down in the raw numbers. In the first episode of SiliconANGLE’s new Building Blocks series, a few of the most prominent thought leaders in the industry offer a brief overview of the technology and its many benefits.

There’s three main topics covered in this first episode: what data visualization is, how it impacts business, and what individuals can do to better leverage data visualization.

Audience Audit founder Susan Baier and Jon Schwabish, an economist with the U.S. government, define data visualization as a means to make information easier to grasp and understand. Piedmont Healthcare’s Mark Jackson has a slightly different take:

“When you start to try to visualize data and produce information out of it, what you’re doing is trying to answer questions in the most efficient manner,” the executive explains. “Traditionally the way we have done information is take the data and throw it into a spreadsheet or crosstab and have people read through pages and pages of numbers. Data visualization is a way of making the answers to the questions pop.”

Data visualization is helping data scientists become more productive while making it easier for business users to communicate ideas with their peers and customers. Baier highlights that by empowering decision makers to look at a problem from all angles, data-driven charts also let organizations pursue opportunities that they would not be able identify otherwise.

Data visualization can have a transformative impact on individual productivity and the bottom line. Jackson details that Tableau and similar solutions can potentially “make you a very important person in whatever organization or whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish” by delivering unprecedented access to actionable data insights.

To see the entire Building Blocks episode, check out the video below.