Seattle Data Guy

Data teams have been chasing self-service analytics since the day I started in the data world…and I’d say for many companies, they aren’t any closer than they were a decade ago. It started with Tableau and Looker promising that they were the answer(ok I am sure there were products way before these two offering the same or similar messaging). And now, I swear half the marketing for all the newer solutions is just “We are not Tableau or Looker, so how bad could we be?” But is that all we need? To take a quote from Lindsay Murphy who also made the meme below. "If business users don't understand the data models, aren't aligned on consistent metrics definitions, or don't understand the basics of how to run an accurate analysis, then all of your effort put into self-serve analytics will get derailed on the "last 10 miles" I just put out an article diving into this below, but I'd always love to hear your perspective, what you think companies can do better, stories where you saw self service work, etc! Full article here - https://lnkd.in/gPq42zWX

How to annoy a data person in 2025. 1. Ask for an ad-hoc data request that is urgent. Then never bring it up again. 2. Assume the data you are asking for is easy to get. It never is. 3. Use the phrase "At my last place this was very easy". Perhaps it was easy at your last job. Also, at your last job the company might have had a larger budget or more focus on its data infrastructure. 4. Ask to put in a quick fix...temporarily to make a dashboard right. It's never a temporary. 5. Say that their dashboard numbers don't match your one-off report that is pulling from a completely different source. 6. Can I get the data in the dashboard in an Excel? What'd I miss? If you'd like to chat in person I'll be making my way to SF in November! I'd love to connect. You can sign up for it here - https://luma.com/mbg70e9j I am so excited to be partnering with Estuary Database Tycoon LLC Recce for this event. See y'all there!

I have been thinking about #ChangeDataCapture in #dataengineering a lot lately. Estuary was not in my radar, David Yaffe reading the product comparison pages in your site has been great help to frame your product in comparison to Fivetran and Airbyte, great work! I am excited to continue exploring what makes Estuary unique! I am also very excited to see new entrants, innovation and healthy competition in data analytics as acquisitions such as dbt Labs SDF Labs and Tabular (now part of Databricks) have pushed in the opposite direction. #cdc #software #acquisitions #innovation #analytics #ai #datascience

Are you looking to improve your data team or data infrastructure in 2025? Here are 9 great articles aimed at helping improve your team, reduce costs and improve output. 1. 7 Questions Every Data Team Should Ask the Business https://lnkd.in/gGNi77K6 2. Don’t Lead a Data Team Before Reading This https://lnkd.in/gqGDUTZA 3. How To Turn Around A Failing Data Team - Tales From Consulting https://lnkd.in/grxERsdd 4. Crossing The Senior Chasm - Getting To The Next Level As A Data Professional With Cameran Hetrick https://lnkd.in/gzgYPMNm 5. Cutting Your Data Stack Costs: How To Approach It And Common Issues https://lnkd.in/gnWBC3t6 6. Centralized vs Decentralized vs Federated Data Teams https://lnkd.in/gjqaj3qd 7. Onboarding For Data Teams – How to set-up a streamlined onboarding experience https://lnkd.in/gp7xCT_g 8. Common Pitfalls of Data Analytics Projects https://lnkd.in/gEV4AvgG 9. Thinking Like an Owner: Elevating Your Data Team's Impact In 2025 https://lnkd.in/gYAi_Eky What are your favorite articles?

CTO: We need to revamp our data strategy. Snowflake or Databricks? Me: Neither. Just put it all into Excel and email it around as attachments. Jokes aside, if you want to talk about data strategy or infrastructure I'll be in SF in November and I'd love to chat! I'll be co-hosting a happy hour here - https://luma.com/mbg70e9j

Your CEO when you tell them you’ve spent $32,000/mo on Databricks and yet... - Finance still asks you to pull CSVs manually every month - You haven’t delivered a single dashboard or integrated a machine learning model. - There’s still no automated report going out to sales or marketing. - The churn model they keep hearing about is stuck in a Jupyter notebook no one else can run. - You can’t show a single process that’s faster, cheaper, or more reliable than before you bought all these tools. And here you are asking for another $16,000 a month for a new hire.

It’s the end of 2025, if you didn’t start that newsletter, learn more about AI/LLMs, or make that career move, then it’s probably too late. Might as well wait until 2026, right? We’ve all felt that way. But here is the thing, you don't have to wait. Because then you'll wait again, and again and again. You don't want to be looking back in another year, wishing you had taken that chance or learned that new skill. Maybe it's the right skill, maybe it's not. But nothing is going to change if you sit still. So don't wait for a sign or an arbitrary date on a calendar, move yourself one step closer to your goal today!

🍸 Queries, Cocktails & Community – Small Data SF Happy Hour 🍸 Heading to Small Data SF next month? End the workshop day with drinks, data conversations, and great company. We’re teaming up with Recce, Database Tycoon LLC, and Seattle Data Guy to bring together founders, engineers, analysts, and data leaders for a relaxed evening of networking and knowledge sharing. 📍 Nightingale Bar, San Francisco 📅 Tuesday, Nov 4 · 6:00 PM – 9:30 PM PST Space is limited — secure your spot today: 👉 https://luma.com/mbg70e9j

One day, you're a stellar data engineer building data pipelines and tables, and the next, you're put in charge of an entire data team. The problem? You've had no training or preparation. After all, you were a good IC; you should be a great manager, right? Maybe if you're lucky, someone in leadership recommends a book for you to read. That's it. Suddenly, you must deal with project prioritization, contractors, employees, vendors, budgets, and so much more. That's why, over the past few months, I have been talking to data directors and managers to understand what they wish they had known when they started their journey. So here are 7 articles and videos you can use to quickly get up to speed about the challenges of leading data teams. 1. Frameworks data leader and ICs should know to maximize their impact with Tessa Xie https://lnkd.in/gKX5Aeqd 2. Don’t Lead a Data Team Before Reading This https://lnkd.in/gqGDUTZA 3. The Data Team Playbook: 50+ Resources For High-Performing Data Teams https://lnkd.in/g8Y2G4v4 4. How To Manage Data Teams Successfully - Asking A Director Of Data Architecture And Governance with Jeff Nemecek https://lnkd.in/g6384SCB 5. The Data Leader’s Guide to Crucial Conversations https://lnkd.in/gvmtHsuY 6. Don’t Lead a Data Team Before Reading This https://lnkd.in/gqGDUTZA 7. What Skills Do You Need To Lead A Data Team - With Ana Zapata https://lnkd.in/dPW8QHuP What articles, books or videos would you recommend people read?

One day, you're a stellar data engineer building data pipelines and tables, and the next, you're put in charge of an entire data team. The problem? You've had no training or preparation. After all, you were a good IC; you should be a great manager, right? Maybe if you're lucky, someone in leadership recommends a book for you to read. That's it. Suddenly, you must deal with project prioritization, contractors, employees, vendors, budgets, and so much more. That's why, over the past few months, I have been talking to data directors and managers to understand what they wish they had known when they started their journey. So here are 7 articles and videos you can use to quickly get up to speed about the challenges of leading data teams. 1. Frameworks data leader and ICs should know to maximize their impact with Tessa Xie https://lnkd.in/gKX5Aeqd 2. Don’t Lead a Data Team Before Reading This https://lnkd.in/gqGDUTZA 3. The Data Team Playbook: 50+ Resources For High-Performing Data Teams https://lnkd.in/g8Y2G4v4 4. How To Manage Data Teams Successfully - Asking A Director Of Data Architecture And Governance with Jeff Nemecek https://lnkd.in/g6384SCB 5. The Data Leader’s Guide to Crucial Conversations https://lnkd.in/gvmtHsuY 6. Don’t Lead a Data Team Before Reading This https://lnkd.in/gqGDUTZA 7. What Skills Do You Need To Lead A Data Team - With Ana Zapata https://lnkd.in/dPW8QHuP What articles, books or videos would you recommend people read?