Starting the third week at the Data School, I was looking forward to learning a new software and building on the first two weeks.
The week began with learning the calculations and functions within Tableau. From Numbers and Strings, to Date, Type Conversation, Logical, Aggregate, User, Table Calculation and Spatial; we each took a section and taught the content to each other. This lead into Stats 101 where we covered the main Descriptive Statistics, and as a bonus learnt how to create our own Control Charts!
Tuesday was the first taste of PowerBI and PowerQuery. We went back to the basics of loading and transforming data, making different basic charts and how to customise them. My first ever upload based on the "Top 50 Netflix Films" was created, which I have embedded below. The week had a bit of jumbling around, with our Makeover Monday becoming Makeover Tuesday as well.
Diving into Data Modelling, we revised Fact and Dimension Tables whilst learning about Primary Keys and their function within joining tables together. We built a data model old school style (post-it notes and paper), which helped to drive home the knowledge, followed by the usual data prep challenges.
For the Consulting Content of the week, we had an insightful session with Justinas Aleksiejus on how to run a successful client project from the perspective of a Project Manager. Understanding the PM duties, how to work well within a team and the bonus tips he provided us will prove invaluable with our own client projects beginning in the not too distant future. We had a stage by stage mock run of the first day on a Client project, with a Coach acting as a client providing us with a brief on their business. We were tasked with asking questions about the data and business, reviewing the mock data, and creating mock ups of potential dashboards. This process definitely provided myself with a learning curve of where I need to step up during the process in future.
As usual, Friday brought about the client projects, where we were required to create design and technical sketches for a client, building on another person's work from last week. This provided an interesting challenge of trying to quickly get up to speed with the information, and sketch quickly which unfortunately for me is far from my strong suit. Nevertheless, another good humbling and learning opportunity provided me with a lot to build on in the next couple of weeks before things get serious!