The time has finally arrived for the finale of training, Dashboard Week! During training myself and the rest of DS53 had heard plenty of whispers about it. From the stress induced, to the quirky data provided, it loomed over our heads like a dark cloud in December. While we have the daily blogs to write after each Dashboard Challenge, I thought it would be worthwhile to talk a bit more about the week as a whole, and hopefully impart some useful advice for future cohorts that have made it to the final hurdle of Data School training.
Overview
The structure for dashboard week is as follows; each day has its own challenge assigned (although sometimes a 2 day dashboard is in the offing), where a blog post details the challenge for the day. The various combinations of formats of the challenge can vary from coach to coach, day to day. Maybe you will be provided a dataset, maybe you will have to access it with guidance, or maybe create it yourself. A dashboard may have to be built in Tableau or PowerBI, or maybe some work in Alteryx is required before you can even get in to that stage. The possibilities are endless, and the challenges are normally tailored to each cohort, so I will do my best to balance drawing on my own experience and general advice for the week.
Approach
As someone who thinks logically, having the right approach was an integral part of getting through the week. I felt that many get overwhelmed by the potential list of things that can go wrong, where as I find it better to frame work in a context that reduces the extraneous outcomes and focused on what I can control. At the end of the day, it is simply a dashboard made with data that has a deadline, nothing new to any DSer.
Time Management
As each day provides you with five and a half hours (assuming you do the right thing and take at least half an hour for lunch), it leaves little wiggle room should you not try to maximise the time through a well thought out plan. Below is the rough time schedule I tried to stick with during the week, allowing for flexibility depending on if a day required more data prep, or focused on the insight in to a topic rather than design.
- 9:00 - 9:15 Understanding the brief, turning it into a set of tasks to complete
- 9:15 - 10:00 Browsing the data, completing a small write up about the fields contained, what information I will use for the dashboard, formulating any data preparation will be required.
- 10:10 - 11:00 Browsing example dashboards, going through ideas for charts or insights that I want to create. Refining a user story and narrative I want to pursue, and then rough sketching in Figma the layout I want to have.
- 11:10 - 12:00 Conducting data preparation, including creating any calculated fields or transformations that may be required for certain charts.
- 12:10 - 12:30 Testing charts I believe may have issues, and identifying if I need to adjust my sketch or data preparation in any way.
- 13:00 - 14:00 Building charts, creating calculations required for the insights.
- 14:10 - 15:10 Finishing up any building, and formatting my dashboard to fit in with the intended design for the dashboard.
- 15:10 - 15:30 Think through what I will present, how I will present it and any next steps I would like to implement.
I would recommend having a short break every hour and a lunch break. It can feel that it is at a cost to getting your dashboard completed, however providing your mind the opportunity to have breathing space during a busy day is integral to performing at a high intensity for an extended period of time. I felt it helped my mind to absorb what I had just been working on, and remove the frustrating occurrence of the mind going blank when needing an idea or trying to fix an issue that could pop up.
Efficient Working
Part of dashboard week includes requiring a blog to be posted at the end of each day about the dashboard. The standard structure appears to be including the brief, outlining the data, the plan you created and set out to complete, any challenges and findings you had, and finally a reflection on the day. Blogging at the best of times can find its way to the backseat rather easily, and Dashboard Week is no exception. A useful approach is having the structure set out before you start the day, and to write down the blog information as you go along throughout the day. Not only does this give you time to reflect and check yourself if you are going astray, but saves the time having to rush a sub-par blog at the end of the day in the last few minutes after presentations have been completed.
Presenting
Similarly to blogging, this can often be an afterthought when you are hellbent on completing a dashboard before 15:30. However, taking just 10 minutes to think about what you would like to talk about and ensuring everything is in order before you stand up to present makes a huge difference. You come across more confident which boosts the impression of the work you have completed, you are able to answer questions from the coaches and the audience in a more authoritative town, and you feel much more comfortable in your own skin knowing what you want to talk about, rather than stumbling in the moment to remember what you have done.
DO NOT GET STUCK
I am guilty of this at the best of times, but make sure you do not spend too much of your time being stuck at one stage of the process. For example, if the data preparation stage brings about more issues than you initially expected, it is very tempting to feel overwhelmed, and feel the pressure to crack on and finish it, at the expense of the time you have allocated to other sections of the work you have to complete on the day. My biggest piece of advice is to not do this. Sure, give yourself some time to try and resolve the issue, but once you have been struggling with the issue for more than around 15 minutes, you should consider pivoting your plan.
This is definitely a key skill to learn as a consultant. Being adaptable to a situation, and rather being proactive in a manner that ensures the product is delivered will help you move forward on any project you take on.
Final Thoughts
Training has been a whirlwind. With so much learnt from a technical standpoint, as well as a consulting skillset point of view, the overarching feeling I have is that it has been incredibly fun. The Information Lab is a wonderful environment to work in, where you have the platform to push yourself as far as possible, within a supportive network of experts in their field. Never have I had such a good time learning so much, and I can only feel thankful for having the opportunity to be a part of the Data School.
A special appreciation for my fellow colleagues in DS53. We completed 8 Client Projects together, taught the public, learnt various softwares, and most importantly, have had an abundance of laughs and memories that I will cherish.
I look forward to starting my placement in a week's time. I hope the weekly blogs have been helpful to those in the Data School, or those looking to join!