Malaak Blog

  In chapter seven we learned about Looker Studio (previously Google Data Studio).  Honestly I did not think a free tool could be this powerful.  Prior to reading this chapter I assumed you needed to have a paid software program or know how to code at an advanced level in order to visualize your data.  I think my favorite part about Looker Studio is how user friendly it is with the ability to just drag and drop things on the page.  Learning that you can take raw data from Google Sheets or Google Analytics and turn it into something as impactful as an interactive dashboard really made data less scary for me.  It allowed me to realize that visualization is about telling a story with your data in a way that’s easy to understand. I also enjoyed how the chapter broke down Looker Studio vs Tableau.  I liked that it was very clear about Looker Studio being free and allowing you to connect to other Google products you might use.  While Tableau is great it...

 For this week’s blog post, I actually sat down to try one of the tools we learned about rather than simply reading about it. I decided to use DALL-E and thought it would be fun to see how my grandparents would react to this tool. I had my grandpa sit down with me, and I explained that this tool creates pictures based off of words you type. He didn’t quite believe that it would work and thought a computer wouldn’t be able to create something from a description alone. I asked him to describe his farm from when he was younger and specific, and we both typed it into the tool. As soon as the picture popped up he was genuinely shocked that the tool was able to create something so similar to his description. He kept commenting on how it reminded him of home growing up, particularly the red barn and open fields. What really stood out to me was after he got over the initial surprise he began to ask if we could change the color of the sky or add certain animals. Having to teach him made me ...

What really stuck with me from Chapter 6 was the overarching idea that food policy shapes the health of our nation. I always thought of health from an individual perspective; you are only as healthy as the decisions you make. Do you read nutrition labels? How often do you eat fast food? How often do you exercise? What you may not realize is that policies are being made at the federal, state, and local level that determine what food is available to your community, how much it costs, and how it is being marketed. When you think about policies such as SNAP or school meal regulations, it is a direct reflection of how our society wants to address health disparities. Until reading this chapter, I never fully thought about health past the individual level. The first topic that I found interesting was how farm subsidies impact our food system. I had no idea that subsidies were given to certain crops and not others. When specific crops like corn and soy are subsidized, it lowers the cost of ing...

What really intrigued me about chapter 5 was seeing how data analytics leads to insights that can be used in business decisions. Specifically, I found data driven marketing very interesting. Using customer data to allow for more personalized targeting of customers was something I hadn’t thought about. Companies can utilize past buying behavior, preferences, and actions to better personalize ads and campaigns. I think BeautifyMe gave me a great example of how even small improvements can have visible effects on conversion rates. Predictive analytics and its use in supply chain management was another section I found particularly interesting. Using historical data to more effectively predict future outcomes can prevent problems such as overproduction or wasted resources. I thought EcoFood was a great example of how predictive analytics can decrease waste and improve sustainability. The wide range of applications for customer segmentation and risk management also caught my attention. Seeing...

  The biggest takeaway for me from Chapters 3 and 4 was just how much data there is around us all of the time that we do not even notice.  Prior to this week, my thought process regarding data always seemed to lead back to spreadsheets and numbers.  Understanding the difference between structured and unstructured data helped me realize that there are so many different types of data such as emails, images, social media posts, and sensor data.  Real world data is much messier than I originally thought which helped me understand how organizations can fail when their data is not organized or reliable from the beginning. Data Quality is also another key topic for me this week.  Understanding all of the different qualities that data must have in order to be deemed trustworthy was fascinating.  Accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, relevance.  If any of these qualities do not apply, the data can not be trusted and any decision made off of that data...

After reading these first couple chapters, I have gained an appreciation for data skills. Prior to this class, I never realized how many jobs rely on data, even if they are not considered “data-based” careers. Learning about how data can be used in nearly every profession was extremely interesting to me. I always thought that data analysts or business intelligence analysts only worked “behind the curtains,” but it’s clear that they help the average worker succeed daily. I also never realized how accessible these skills could be. In Chapter 1, you provided simple and realistic examples that made me excited to learn, especially using tools like Google Sheets. I thought I would have to know everything about data before I could even begin to work with it, but these first couple chapters have taught me that you can still be effective with only basic knowledge. Something that stood out to me in Chapter 2 was how thoughtlessly data can be used in real world business scenarios. While it is inc...