- Podcast Addict

Sep 09 2024 10 ep. 39 mins 3

Podcast artwork

This is a podcast made by a lifelong analyst. I cover topics including Excel, data analysis, and tools for sharing data. In addition to data analysis topics, I may also cover topics related to software engineering and building applications. I also do a roundup of my favorite podcasts and episodes.

News Education Technology

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Dear Analyst #132: How the semantic layer translates your physical data into user-centric business data with Frances O’Rafferty

Sep 09 2024 35 mins

When you think of your data warehouse, the "semantic layer" may not be the first thing that pops in your mind. Prior to reading Frances O'Rafferty's blog post on this topic, I didn't even know this was a concept that mattered in the data stack. To be honest, the concept is still a bit confusing to me since I'm not building data warehouses and data products all day. Frances grew up

Dear Analyst #131: Key insights and best practices from writing SQL for 15+ years with Ergest Xheblati

Aug 04 2024 47 mins

If you could only learn one programming language for the rest of your career, what would be it be? You could Google the most popular programming languages and just pick the one of the top 3 and off you go (FYI they are Python, C++, and C). Or, you could pick measly #10 and build a thriving career out of it. Ergest Xheblati didn't just pick SQL and decide to bet his career on it. H

Dear Analyst #130: What happens when we rely too much on Excel spreadsheets and shadow IT takes over?

Jun 23 2024 45 mins

This is a replay of an episode from the Make Sense podcast with Lindsay Tabas. In the 1990s, large enterprises typically bought software in a tops-down approach. IT teams would get get Oracle software or Microsoft Office and get their entire organization to use the software. Since these tools are the default IT "blessed" tools, people start putting everything in these tools. Th

Dear Analyst #129: How to scale self-serve analytics tools to thousands of users at Datadog with Jean-Mathieu Saponaro

Jun 17 2024 31 mins

When you're organization is small, a centralized data team can take care of all the internal data tooling, reporting, and requests for all departments. As the team grows from 100 to thousands of people, a centralized data team simply cannot handle the number of requests and doesn't have the domain knowledge of all the departments. Jean-Mathieu Saponaro (JM) has experienced this tr

Dear Analyst #128: What is citizen development and how to build solutions with spreadsheets?

This is a replay of an episode from the Citizen Development Live podcast with Neil Miller. Citizen development is a relatively new term I learned about a year ago or so. To me, it's using no-code tools at scale within a large enterprise. It's a term that covers the population of people who are not developers, programmers, and software engineers by trade but know how to build ap

Dear Analyst #127: Spreadsheets vs. Jira: Which one is better for your team?

May 13 2024 36 mins

I wasn't sure if this topic should be it's own episode but it's been on my mind ever since I came back from Atlassian Team '24 (Atlassian's annual conference). At the conference, I had the opportunity to meet with a few people who are just as interested in spreadsheets as I am. We talked specifically how Jira can best work with spreadsheets (Excel or Google Sheets) and different w

Dear Analyst #126: How to data storytelling and create amazing data visualizations with Amanda Makulec

Apr 14 2024 44 mins

With an undergraduate degree in zoology and a master's in public health, you wouldn't expect Amanda Makulec to lead a successful career in data analytics and data visualization. As we've seen with multiple guests on the podcast, the path to a career in data analytics is windy and unexpected. It was the intersection of public health and data visualization that got Amanda interested

Dear Analyst #125: How to identify Taylor Swift’s most underrated songs using data with Andrew Firriolo

Mar 24 2024 37 mins

Sometimes pop culture and data analysis meet and the result is something interesting, thought-provoking, and of course controversial. How can one use data to prove definitely which Taylor Swift songs are the most underrated? Isn't this a question for your heart to answer? Andrew Firriolo sought to answer this question over the last few months and the results are interesting (if yo

Dear Analyst #124: Navigating people, politics and analytics solutions at large companies with Alex Kolokolov

Feb 04 2024 38 mins

We sometimes forget that a large organization is composed of groups and divisions. Within these groups, there are teams and individuals looking to advance their careers. Sometimes at the expense of others. When your advancement depends on the success of your project, the benefits of that project to your company may be suspect and the tools you use to complete that project may not

Dear Analyst #123: Telling data stories about rugby and the NBA with Ben Wylie

Jan 14 2024 37 mins

When you think of data journalism, you might think of The New York Times' nifty data visualizations and the Times' embrace of data literacy for all their journalists. Outside of The New York Times, I haven't met anyone who does data journalism and data storytelling full-time until I spoke with Ben Wylie. Ben is the lead financial journalist at a financial publication in London. Li