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1. FOUNDATIONS: DATA, DATA, EVERYWHERE

2. ASK QUESTIONS TO MAKE DATA-DRIVEN
DECISIONS
Overview of data analysis - 5 sections (Microsoft Course)
● Descriptive : answer questions about what has happened based on historical data
and summarize large datasets to describe outcomes to stakeholders (KPIs & ROI).
● Diagnostic : answer questions about why events happened and use the findings
from descriptive analytics to discover the cause of these events (Identify, Collect,
Use statistics to explain).
● Predictive : answer questions about what will happen in the future and use
historical data to identify trends and determine if they're likely to recur (Machine &
Deep Learning).
● Prescriptive : answer questions about which actions should be taken to achieve a
goal or target and allows businesses to make informed decisions in the face of
uncertainty.
● Cognitive : attempt to draw inferences from existing data and patterns, derive
conclusions based on existing knowledge bases, and then add these findings back
into the knowledge base for future inferences, a self-learning feedback loop

3. PREPARE DATA FOR EXPLORATION

COLLECTING DATA : Data types and structures

● Data sources : if you will collect the data using your own resources or receive from

another party.

○ First-party data is data that you collect yourself.

○ Second-party data is collected directly by another group and then sold.

○ Third-party data is sold by a provider that didn’t collect the data themselves.

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DATA FORMATS

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 Data Format Definition Examples

Primary data Collected by a - Data from an interview you conducted - Data

researcher from from a survey returned from 20 participants -
first-hand sources Data from questionnaires you got back from a
group of workers

Secondary data Gathered by other - Data you bought from a local data analytics
people or from firm’s customer profiles - Demographic data
other research collected by a university - Census data gathered
by the federal government

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 Data Format Definition Examples

Internal data Data that lives inside - Wages of employees across different
a company’s own business units tracked by HR - Sales data by
systems store location - Product inventory levels across
distribution centers

External data Data that lives - National average wages for the various
outside of a company positions throughout your organization -
or organization Credit reports for customers of an auto
dealership

Data Format Definition Examples

Continuous data Data that is measured - Height of kids in third grade classes (52.5
and can have almost inches, 65.7 inches) - Runtime markers in a
any numeric value video - Temperature

Discrete data Data that is counted - Number of people who visit a hospital on a
and has a limited daily basis (10, 20, 200) - Room’s maximum
number of values capacity allowed - Tickets sold in the current
month

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 Data Format Definition Examples

Qualitative Subjective and explanatory - Exercise activity most enjoyed -

measures of qualities and Favorite brands of most loyal customers
characteristics - Fashion preferences of young adults

Quantitative Specific and objective - Percentage of board certified doctors

measures of numerical who are women - Population of
facts elephants in Africa - Distance from
Earth to Mars

Data Format Definition Examples

Nominal A type of qualitative - First time customer, returning customer,

data that isn’t regular customer - New job applicant, existing
categorized with a set applicant, internal applicant - New listing,
order reduced price listing, foreclosure

Ordinal A type of qualitative - Movie ratings (number of stars: 1 star, 2

data with a set order stars, 3 stars) - Ranked-choice voting
or scale selections (1st, 2nd, 3rd) - Income level (low
income, middle income, high income)

Data Format Definition Examples

Structured data Data organized in a certain format, - Expense reports - Tax

like rows and columns returns - Store inventory

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 Unstructured data Data that isn’t organized in any - Social media posts - Emails -
easily identifiable manner Videos

THE STRUCTURE OF DATA

DATA MODELLING

Data modeling is the process of creating diagrams that visually represent how data is

organized and structured. These visual representations are called data models.

3 levels :

● Conceptual data modeling gives a high-level view of the data structure, such as

how data interacts across an organization.

● Logical data modeling focuses on the technical details of a database such as

relationships, attributes, and entities.

● Physical data modeling depicts how a database operates. A physical data model

defines all entities and attributes used; for example, it includes table names, column

names, and data types for the database.

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Data credibility : ROCCC (Reliable, Original, Comprehensive, Current, Cited)

Aspects of data ethics : Ownership, Transaction transparency, Consent, Currency, Privacy,

Openness

Data privacy :

● Protection from unauthorized access to our private data

● Freedom from inappropriate use of our data

● The right to inspect, update, or correct our data

● Ability to give consent to use our data

● Legal right to access our data

In depth guide : SQL best practices —----------------Link PDF file —---------------

4. PROCESS DATA FROM DIRTY TO CLEAN

Clean data + Alignment to business objective + Additional data cleaning + Newly

discovered variables + Constraints = Accurate conclusions

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Link to template: Sample Size Calculator

Link to template: Margin of Error Calculator

Types of dirty data

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Common data-cleaning pitfalls

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 ● Top ten ways to clean your data: Review an orderly guide to data cleaning in

Microsoft Excel.

● 10 Google Workspace tips to clean up data: Learn best practices for data cleaning in

Google Sheets.

Workflow automation. 3 resources :

● Towards Data Science’s Automating Scientific Data Analysis
● MIT News’ Automating Big-Data Analysis
● TechnologyAdvice’s 10 of the Best Options for Workflow Automation Software

Advanced functions for speedy data cleaning

5. ANALYZE DATA TO ANSWER QUESTIONS

4 phases of analysis :

● Organize data : sorting ≠ filtering

● Format and adjust data

● Get input from others

● Transform data

6 types of data validation :

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 ● Purpose: Check that the data matches the data type defined for a field.
● Example: Data values for school grades 1-12 must be a numeric data type.
● Limitations: The data value 13 would pass the data type validation but would be an
unacceptable value. For this case, data range validation is also needed.

● Purpose: Check that the data falls within an acceptable range of values defined for
the field.
● Example: Data values for school grades should be values between 1 and 12.
● Limitations: The data value 11.5 would be in the data range and would also pass as
a numeric data type. But, it would be unacceptable because there aren't half grades.
For this case, data constraint validation is also needed.

● Purpose: Check that the data meets certain conditions or criteria for a field. This
includes the type of data entered as well as other attributes of the field, such as
number of characters.
● Example: Content constraint: Data values for school grades 1-12 must be whole
numbers.
● Limitations: The data value 13 is a whole number and would pass the content
constraint validation. But, it would be unacceptable since 13 isn’t a recognized
school grade. For this case, data range validation is also needed.

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 ● Purpose: Check that the data makes sense in the context of other related data.
● Example: Data values for product shipping dates can’t be earlier than product
production dates.
● Limitations: Data might be consistent but still incorrect or inaccurate. A shipping
date could be later than a production date and still be wrong.

● Purpose: Check that the data follows or conforms to a set structure.

● Example: Web pages must follow a prescribed structure to be displayed properly.
● Limitations: A data structure might be correct with the data still incorrect or
inaccurate. Content on a web page could be displayed properly and still contain the
wrong information.

● Purpose: Check that the application code systematically performs any of the
previously mentioned validations during user data input.
● Example: Common problems discovered during code validation include: more than
one data type allowed, data range checking not done, or ending of text strings not
well defined.
● Limitations: Code validation might not validate all possible variations with data
input.

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6. Data visualization: 2 ways of approching this framework

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Nine basic principles of design

Designing a chart in 60 minutes

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Design thinking for data visualization involves five phases:

1. Empathize: Thinking about the emotions and needs of the target audience for the
data visualization
2. Define: Figuring out exactly what your audience needs from the data
3. Ideate: Generating ideas for data visualization
4. Prototype: Putting visualizations together for testing and feedback
5. Test: Showing prototype visualizations to people before stakeholders see them

How to choose a data visualization (PDF Link)

Best practices for slide decks:

● Include a title, subtitle, and date

● Use a logical sequence of slides
● Provide an agenda with a timeline
● Limit the amount of text on slides. Your audience should be able to scan each block
of text on your slides within 5 seconds
● Start with the business task. Focus on the business task and frame the information
in the context of the business task.

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 ● Establish the initial hypothesis
● Show what business metrics you used
● Use visualizations
● Introduce the graphic by name
● Provide a title for each graph
● Go from the general to the specific
● Use speaker notes to help you remember talking points
● Include key takeaways

Good data presentation:

● Title and date the presentation was last updated

● Flow or table of contents
● Transition slides
● Visual introduction to the data (also used as a repeated theme)
● Animated bullet points
● Annotations on top of visuals
● Logic and progression
● Limitations to the data (caveats) - what the data can’t tell you

Telling your data story (tips and tricks to present your

data and results)
Use the following tips and sample layout to build your own presentation. (PDF Link)

Tip 1: Know your flow

Just like in any good story, a data story must have a good plot (theme and flow), good
dialogue (talking points), and a great ending or big reveal (results and conclusions). One
flow could be an overview of what was analyzed followed by resulting trends and potential
areas for further exploration.

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In order to develop the right flow for your presentation, keep your audience in mind. Ask
yourself these two questions to help you define the overall flow and build out your
presentation.

Who is my audience?

● If your intended audience is executives, board members, directors, or other C-level

(C-Suite) executives, your storytelling should be kept at a high level. This audience
will want to hear about your story but might not have time to hear the entire story.
Executives tend to focus on endings that encourage improving, correcting, or
inventing things. Keep your presentation brief and spend most of your time on your
results and recommendations. Refer to an upcoming topic in this reading—Tip 3:
end with your recommendations.
● If your intended audience is stakeholders and managers, they might have more time
to learn about how you performed your analysis and they might ask more data-
specific questions. Be prepared with talking points about the aspects of your
analysis that led you to your final results and conclusions.
● If your intended audience is other analysts and individual contributors, you will have
the most freedom—and perhaps the most time—to go more deeply into the data,
processes, and results.

What is the purpose of my presentation?

● If the goal of your presentation is to request or recommend something at the end,

like a sales pitch, you can have each slide work toward the recommendations at the
end.
● If the goal of your presentation is to focus on the results of your analysis, each slide
can help mark the path to the results. Be sure to include plenty of breadcrumbs
(views of the data analysis steps) to demonstrate the path you took with the data.

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 ● If the goal of your presentation is to provide a report on the data analysis, your
slides should clearly summarize your data and key findings. In this case, it is alright
to let the data be the star or speak for itself.

Tip 2: Prepare talking points and limit text on slides

As you create each slide in your presentation, prepare talking points (also called speaker
notes) on what you will say.

Don’t forget that you will be talking at the same time that your audience is reading your
slides. If your slides start becoming more like documents, you should rethink what you will
say so that you can remove some text from the slides. Make it easy for your audience to
skim read the slides while still paying attention to what you are saying. In general, follow
the five-second rule. Your audience should not be spending more than five seconds
reading any block of text on a slide.

Knowing exactly what you will say when explaining each slide throughout your
presentation also creates a natural flow to your story. Talking points help you avoid

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awkward pauses between topics. Slides that summarize data can also be repetitive (and
boring). If you prepare a variety of interesting talking points about the data, you can keep
your audience alert and paying attention to the data and its analysis.

Tip 3: End with your recommendations

When climbing a mountain, getting to the top is the goal. Making recommendations at the
end of your presentation is like getting to the mountaintop.

● Use one slide for your recommendations at the end. Be clear and concise.
● If you are recommending that something be done, provide next steps and describe
what you would consider a successful outcome.

Tip 4: Allow enough time for the presentation and questions

Assume that everyone in your audience is busy. Keep your presentation on topic and as
short as possible by:

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 ● Being aware of your timing. This applies to the total number of slides and the time
you spend on each slide.
● Presenting your data efficiently. Make sure that every slide tells a unique and
important part of your data story. If a slide isn’t that unique, you might think about
combining the information on that slide with another slide.
● Saving enough time for questions at the end or allowing enough time to answer
questions throughout your presentation.

Putting it all together: Your slide deck layout

In this section, we will describe how to put everything together in a sample slide deck
layout.

First slide: Agenda

Provide a high-level bulleted list of the topics you will cover and the amount of time you will
spend on each. Every company’s norms are different, but in general, most presentations
run from 30 minutes to an hour at most. Here is an example of a 30-minute agenda:

● Introductions (4 minutes)
● Project overview and goals (5 minutes)
● Data and analysis (10 minutes)
● Recommendations (3 minutes)
● Actionable steps (3 minutes)
● Questions (5 minutes)

Second slide: Purpose

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Everyone might not be familiar with your project or know why it is important. They didn’t
spend the last couple of weeks thinking about the analysis and results of your project like
you did. This slide summarizes the purpose of the project and why it is important to the
business for your audience.

Here is an example of a purpose statement:

Service center consolidation is an important cost savings initiative. The aim of this project was to
determine the impact of service center consolidation on customer response times.

Third slide: Data/analysis

First, It really is possible to tell your data story in a single slide if you summarize the key
things about your data and analysis. You may have supporting slides with additional data
or information in an appendix at the end of the presentation.

But, if you choose to tell your story using more than one slide, keep the following in mind:

● Slides typically have a logical order (beginning, middle, and end) to fully build the
story.
● Each slide should logically introduce the slide that follows it. Visual cues from the
slides or verbal cues from your talking points should let the audience know when
you will go on to the next slide.
● Remember not to use too much text on the slides. When in doubt, refer back to the
second tip on preparing talking points and limiting the text on slides.
● The high-level information that people read from the slides shouldn’t be the same
as the information you provide in your talking points. There should be a nice
balance between the two to tell a good story. You don’t want to simply read or say
the words on the slides.

For extra visuals on the slides, use animations. For example, you can:

● Fade in one bullet point at a time as you discuss each on a slide.

● Only display the visual that is relevant to what you are talking about (fade out non-
relevant visuals).
● Use arrows or callouts to point to a specific area of a visual that you are using.

Fourth slide: Recommendations

If you have been telling your story well in the previous slides, the recommendations will be
obvious to your audience. This is when you might get a lot of questions about how your
data supports your recommendations. Be ready to communicate how your data backs up
your conclusion or recommendations in different ways. Having multiple words to state the
same thing also helps if someone is having difficulty with one particular explanation.

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Fifth slide: Call to action

Sometimes the call to action can be combined with the recommendations slide. If there are
multiple actions or activities recommended, a separate slide is best.

Recall our example of a purpose statement: Service center consolidation is an important cost
savings initiative. The aim of this project was to determine the impact of service center
consolidation on customer response times.

Suppose the data analysis showed that service center consolidation negatively impacted
customer response times. A call to action might be to examine if processes need to change
to bring customer response times back to what they were before the consolidation.

Wrapping it up: Getting feedback

After you present to your audience, think about how you told your data story and how you
can get feedback for improvement. Consider asking your manager or another data analyst
for candid thoughts about your storytelling and presentation overall. Feedback is great to
help you improve. When you have to write a brand new data story (or a sequel to the one
you already told), you will be ready to impress your audience even more!

Preparing for the Q & A

Before the presentation

1. Assemble and prepare your questions.
2. Discuss your presentation with your manager, other analysts, or other friendly
contacts in your organization.
3. Ask a manager or other analysts what sort of questions were normally asked by
your specific audience in the past.
4. Seek comments, feedback, and questions on the deck or the document of your
analysis.
5. At least 24 hours ahead of the presentation, try and brainstorm tricky questions or
unclear parts you may come across- this helps avoid surprises.
6. It never hurts to practice what you will be presenting, to account for any missing
information or simply to calm your nerves.

During the presentation

1. Be prepared to respond to the things that you find and effectively and accurately
explain your findings.

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 2. Address potential questions that may come up.
3. Avoid having a single question derail a presentation and propose following-up
offline.
4. Put supplementary visualizations and content in the appendix to help answer
questions.

Sharing your findings during your presentation

7. Data Analysis with R

Vectors and list in R

What makes a great pitch

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There is a certain question that you will probably be asked throughout your career,
especially during professional interviews: “Tell me about yourself?” This can be tricky to
answer well, but the goal is to positively and accurately represent yourself using your past
and present experiences and skills–essentially, you need to pitch yourself. In this reading,
you will learn how to promote yourself as an effective and highly skilled data analyst in a
job interview. Even if you don’t have any professional data analysis work on your resume
yet, experience and skills you gained from previous work of any kind can be useful to share
if you pitch it the right way.

To help you prepare, here are some possible questions you might be asked in an interview,
including technical questions to assess specific practical knowledge and questions that
require you to apply your own personal experiences.

Technical questions
● “What are your preferred tools for analysis?” This is a chance to demonstrate that you
are well-versed in data analysis, with proficiency in SQL, Excel, and R programming.
● “How do you maintain integrity in your data?” Reliability and accuracy are essential
parts of good data analysis, and any issues with your data can have a major impact

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 on data-driven business decisions. Be prepared to discuss the methods you use for
error checking and validation.
● “Do you understand different SQL functions and the roles they play?” SQL is arguably
one of the most important skills for you to have as a data analyst. This is an
opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of different types of SQL functions
and their value or result.

Personal experience questions

● “Was there a time when you took initiative during a project and what was the outcome?”
This question can come in many forms with slightly different wording, but the goal is
to understand your leadership abilities and how you have used them in the past.
● “What was the most challenging project you have ever been faced with?” This question is
usually meant to assess your problem-solving and interpersonal skills. Come to the
interview prepared with several different examples of how you successfully
navigated a difficult project or situation in the past.
● “How would you explain a complex topic to a stakeholder who was unfamiliar with it?”
This question helps your interviewer get a sense of how skilled you are at
communicating effectively in high-pressure or sensitive circumstances.
● “How do you cope when things don’t go according to plan?” It is important to be
adaptable, especially when things don’t go the way you expected. This question
provides a great opportunity for you to explain how you coped with unexpected
changes and adapted quickly to a different course of action.

Try crafting answers to each of these questions and coming up with fitting examples for
each scenario. Write the answers down and practice them until they feel natural and
unrehearsed.

Prepare yourself
There is no way for you to know exactly what your interviewer will ask you. But preparing
some polished and professional answers to common interview questions can be incredibly
helpful. Learning how to successfully pitch yourself and your skills as a data analyst takes
practice. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will likely be during the actual
interview, regardless of what questions you get asked.

Top tips for interview success

You just learned about some best practices when it comes to data analyst interviews. Read
on for four final preparation tips to help set you up for interviewing success.

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Tip 1: Find connections between the job listing and
your resume
First, re-read your resume and the job description to help you draw lines between the two.
Where do they connect? Then, as you interview, include specific keywords or phrases from
the job description that match skills you possess or achievements you have accomplished
previously in your career.

Tip 2: Focus on data

As you start to think about things you want to highlight in your interview, don’t forget to
include data. This helps your interviewer understand not just your overall achievements,
but how big of an impact you made. What data can you provide that tells the story of your
experience in terms of the needs of this position? The “equation” we suggest including goes
something like this: I accomplished X as measured by Y doing Z. Here’s an example: “I
increased customer satisfaction by 22% in three months by designing a new digital
onboarding process.”

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Accomplished X: Increased customer satisfaction as by measured Y: by 22% in three

months by doing Z: by designing a new digital onboarding process

If you don’t have access to this kind of data from a previous position, you can still indicate
the scope you were accountable for and strengthen the language you use when describing
your responsibilities by including action words like provided, created, developed, supported,
implemented, and generated. For example: “I implemented a new scheduling system that led
to 95% of the team meeting deadlines.”

Tip 3: Look back at past work experiences

Review your work history. That may not sound like something you need to prepare for, but
most of us have done more than we think and it’s easy to forget some of our own wins (and
lessons learned from mistakes).

Think of examples of times you achieved something so you are prepared to answer
questions like “Tell me about a time when . . .” or “How would you approach this
situation . . .?"

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Tip 4: Come ready with questions
Next, come to the interview with your own questions, such as “What are some upcoming
projects I’d be working on? What current goals is the company focused on? Can you tell me
about the team I’ll be working with?” This not only shows you care about understanding the
company and the position you’re applying for, but it’s also a testament to the research
you’ve done by looking into the company. Besides, this is your opportunity to interview
them as well.

This type of preparation will help you feel confident and prepared to talk about yourself
and the position. It will enable you to fully explore your experience, the position, and your
career aspirations and really connect with the employer!

Prepare for interviews with Interview

Warmup

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Now that you have the skills and knowledge to work in data analytics, it’s time to start
preparing for interviews. Interview Warmup is a tool that helps you practice answering
questions to get more confident and comfortable with interviewing.

Get started
Follow these steps to start a 5-question practice interview related to data analytics:

1. Go to grow.google/interview-warmup.
2. Click Start practicing.
3. Select the “Data Analytics” practice set.
4. Click Start.

It takes about 10 minutes, and the questions will be different every time. Each question set
will have two background questions, one behavioral question, and two technical questions,
simulating what you would encounter in a real interview. You can try as many practice
interviews as you want.

You’ll also have the option to access the full list of interview questions if you’d like to review
more of the questions available or focus on specific topics.

How it works
Interview Warmup asks interview questions for you to practice answering out loud. It
transcribes your answer in real time so you can review what you said. You’ll also review

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insights, which are patterns detected by machine learning that can help you discover things
about your answers and identify ways to keep improving.

Here are a few examples of questions the tool might ask:

● Can you tell me why you are interested in a role in data analytics?
● Describe the difference between structured and unstructured data.
● Imagine you've run into a challenge with an analysis and you aren't sure how to
address it. What are some steps you might take to seek help?
● Can you describe what a subquery is in SQL?
● What is reproducible data analysis? What are some of its benefits?

Here are some of the insights that Interview Warmup provides:

● Talking points: The tool lets you know which topics you covered in your answer,
such as your experience, skills, and goals. You’ll also be able to view other topics
that you might want to consider covering.
● Most-used words: The tool highlights the words you used most often and suggests
synonyms to broaden your word choices.
● Job-related terms: The tool highlights the words you used that are related to the
role or industry in which you are preparing to work. You’ll also be able to view an
entire list of job-related terms that you might want to consider including in your
answer.

Interview Warmup gives you the space to practice and prepare for interviews on your own.
Your responses will be visible only to you, and they won’t be graded or judged.

Key takeaways
Practicing for interviews is an important skill for your career in data analytics. Using
Interview Warmup can help you practice interview questions and receive feedback in real
time. As you practice, you will gain confidence and be able to prepare more polished
responses for common interview questions.

Before you accept, negotiating the

contract

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Picture this: you have made it through the end of the interview process and great news- the
hiring manager wants to offer you the position. Your first instinct may be to accept the
offer without paying attention to all the details in the offer contract. You should resist this
instinct and do your due diligence. Read through the offer letter carefully, looking at what is
offered aside from salary, compare it with what is expected for the role, and most
importantly remember that this is a negotiation, but you have power in this situation.
Negotiating a job offer is an essential part of the interview process, even for entry-level
roles. Let's take a closer look at how to be prepared when the time comes.

Research

Hopefully by this time, you will have done your research on the role - not only on the
qualifications for the job, but also the average salary expectations. Knowing the average
salary for a junior data analyst in your location is the best way to determine if the offer you
received is fair. Keep in mind what makes you stand out as a candidate as it might give you
insight as to whether you should ask for more or identify when you have received a
generous offer. Always ask for the range that the team is targeting and which components
of the offer the company will consider. For example, does the company offer sign-on
bonuses? Additional equity? Merit increases? This will give you an idea not just of what you
are receiving at the moment but the potential for growth as well.

Don’t just focus on money

A salary that compensates you well for your work is great, but you must also consider
benefits. You want to keep in mind some of the things that are important to you and
whether or not a potential employer can provide access to them as a part of your
compensation package. This would include sign-on bonuses, vacation days, paid time off,

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sick days, retirement plans, healthcare coverage, and more. If they are unable to increase
your starting salary, you may want to explore asking for benefits or more perks to be
included in your starting package.

Negotiate

In certain cases, you might be asked if you have a rate or salary range in mind at the
beginning of the interview process. While this question might seem straightforward, it is
important to not respond with a specific number before knowing the actual number for the
role because the moment you do, you will be giving up negotiating power.

A contract negotiation often starts with the potential employer providing you with an offer
letter with general details about your compensation package. This is their initial offer and
companies will often expect your request changes to the package, whether it be more
money or additional benefits. This is referred to as a counter-offer. Once a counter-offer is
made the potential employer will try to reconcile what you are asking for with what they
initially proposed and find a middle ground if possible.

Always remember that negotiation is your right and it is not considered impolite. On the
contrary, showing initiative in negotiating displays your confidence and tenacity to
advocate for yourself. If you react with a well-researched counteroffer, it will also
demonstrate that you are intelligent enough to know your value.

Focus on long-term growth

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While a negotiated offer is common, don’t be discouraged if your counter offer is not met.
Unless you have competing offers, you will likely still decide to take the job if it’s a fair offer.
If it makes practical sense to take the initial offer, you should consider reevaluating in 12
months or whenever you have amassed more experience and will have more leverage to
work with.

Pay close attention to the following video, which will demonstrate an interview where the
candidate displays their negotiating abilities.

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