PinnedWelcomeIt’s nice to meet you — About Me Hello and welcome! My name is Vicky and I’ve worked as a data engineer, data scientist, and most recently a data analyst. I started writing to discuss my experiences and provide advice I found lacking during my data analytics journey. …Data Science3 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Jun 84 BigQuery SQL Shortcuts That Can Simplify Your QueriesCheck if your database has them too — The most common advice when you start learning SQL is to practice the basic statements because they’ll work across multiple databases. The downside is you may never discover database-specific syntax that can simplify your queries because there’s never any need to read the documentation. This was the case for me…Sql4 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·May 21How Data Scientists Can Reduce Data Wrangling Time with a Data MartWhat’s a data mart and why data scientists should use one — As a data scientist, you can spend up to 80% of your time cleaning and transforming data in order to generate actionable insights and build machine learning models to create business impact. Now imagine a world where you can spend more time on analysis and model development instead of cleaning…Data Science5 min read
Published in DataDrivenInvestor·Apr 30How to Create a Dashboard Stakeholders Want To UseA marketing case study — In a previous article, I discussed reasons why your dashboards are ignored but how do you decide if you should create a dashboard or an ad hoc report for stakeholders. …Business Intelligence4 min read
Published in DataDrivenInvestor·Apr 163 Mistakes Data Analysts Should Avoid With StakeholdersAnd what to do instead — When I first became a data analyst I made my fair share of mistakes dealing with stakeholders. Today I’d like to share my experience and what I learned to give you a head start on how to work effectively with your stakeholders. 1. Don’t assume stakeholders know what they want I was once asked by a stakeholder to…Data Science3 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Mar 28My 3-Step Method to Create a Story With DataTips to generate relevant and actionable insights — Data storytelling is an important soft skill to develop as a data professional but there’s not much information to guide you on where to start. When I first became a data analyst I didn’t have a clue how to approach this. …Data Science4 min read
Published in DataDrivenInvestor·Mar 22Product Analytics for Subscription BusinessesWhat to expect as a product analyst — Gartner predicts that “by 2023, 75% of organizations selling direct to consumers will offer subscription services”. Subscription businesses aren’t going away and you’re likely to work with this type of business model in the future. …Product Management5 min read
Published in Towards Data Science·Feb 14Lessons Learned From Failed Product ExperimentsNo statistical significance can still yield valuable insights — When I first became a product analyst I assumed product experiments were similar to ones I evaluated as a marketing data analyst — but I was wrong. When a marketing A/B test wasn’t statistically significant, we moved on to the test but after working on product A/B tests, I realized…Product Management5 min read
Published in DataDrivenInvestor·Feb 11What Data Analysts Should Know About Product AnalyticsWhat to expect as a product analyst — When I first became a product analyst, I thought it would be an easy transition from my prior data roles supporting marketing. Little did I realize there was a learning curve with product analytics. …Data Science5 min read
Published in DataDrivenInvestor·Feb 7How Data Scientists Can Develop Business AcumenMaster this essential soft skill to stand out from the crowd — Many data scientists focus on learning technical skills but spend little time developing the soft skills needed to become successful. Common soft skills often mentioned for success are communication and data storytelling but business acumen is an essential skill that will help you stand out from the crowd. Today I…Data Science3 min read
