Uphill battles at the Data School

by Daniel Watt

As a new year begins, I’d like to share with you my biggest challenges of being in the Data School.

Working as part of a big team

In my previous job roles I was very independent. I worked as part of an organisation but was given the freedom to drive projects along mostly how I wanted. At the Data School I have had the chance to work on and manage team projects with my seven colleagues. Getting to grips with the different skills and personalities of the data-schoolers has been one of the keys to our project weeks being more productive.

Days when my brain melted

I have learnt new skills every day at the data school, but some training days have been particularly intense. Having just been introduced to Alteryx we did a day of back to back training puzzles that really had my brain overheating. I realised the next week that what I’d learnt that day had stuck – so I appreciated being pushed hard that day.

Getting stuck down rabbit holes

To accelerate my development, I often look for new techniques to try out in my work. The danger with this is that you occasionally get completely stuck and have nothing to show for an afternoon’s work. Fortunately, the Data School coaches, other Data Schoolers and the Tableau community have often been able to help.

Having to choose

On the train home each day my notebook often fills with ideas of vizzes I could build with what I learnt in class earlier that day. There are not enough hours in the day to devote to some of the cool stuff that I have learnt and want to put into practice. I feel like I’m at an all you can eat buffet with sixty seconds to get the best food on my plate!

 

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Daniel Watt

Fri 06 Jan 2017

Thu 05 Jan 2017