Excalidraw, Tableau Prep and a whole bunch of introductions. First week of The Data School done and it's been great. Everyone here is so friendly and I've learnt so much. The week was packed with sessions from our cohort coach (Serena Purslow), Robbin Vernooij and Lorna Brown. Let's get into the most important things I've figured out so far.
The Prep Before The Prep
Turns out, having a method to prepare your data is actually pretty useful. Understanding the data that you're working with and then having a picture of what you want it to become is super important. It makes it so much easier to understand the steps you need to take to make that transformation happen. This planning step will help so much when you go on to actually go on to clean and transform the data for analysis.
I will be honest, using Excalidraw was rough to start with but I got into it more as the sessions went on. It's a great tool to integrate your sketches and drawings with your notes to keep up with that all important documentation.
Intro to Tableau
Tableau prep seems like a great little tool for simple data cleaning and transformation. Learning techniques and concepts like pivoting, aggregation and granularity can be tough at times but using diagrams and examples really helps to get your head around them. Practise makes perfect so trying to engage with the tasks and documenting them well really helps to stay on track and consolidate everything you've learnt.
Next Steps
Everyone I speak to here has a completely different perspective and a new bit of advice to take onboard (although, everyone seems to have a shared experience when it comes to client projects). For the next 4 months I really want to learn as much as I can but also, socialise as much as I can.