Maven Analytics

We have our Maven Music Challenge results! 👀 Before we reveal the overall champion, we've got TWO MORE winners to celebrate... Congrats to First Time Entrant Jurgen Secq ( https://lnkd.in/efXue-Z9) and Fan Favorite Joycelyn Otchere (https://lnkd.in/e-8PxdD6)! And now for the main event...Congrats to our Maven Music Challenge Winner, Marián Siegfried (https://lnkd.in/e7WJpe8m)! Curious how we were able to select our winner from the impressive finalist submissions? Watch our instructor team discuss the merits of each finalist and then vote to select the winner! 📽️ https://lnkd.in/es5QYeiF Ready to play again?! A NEW Challenge launches March 6th! #mavenmusicchallenge #learn #data #analytics #dataviz

LIVE SHOW with Nick Singh 📕🐒- Crushing your Analyst Interview: Insider Interview Tips and Portfolio Projects 📅 Thursday, February 20, 2025 @ 12 PM ET You'll learn:    👉 Proven tips and tricks to succeed in analyst interviews. 👉 How to answer common interview questions with confidence. 👉 Why portfolio projects matter and how Nick’s Spotify hip-hop data project helped him stand out. You can join a new live show every week to hear amazing perspectives and actionable advice from some of your favorite data experts. Register here: https://bit.ly/42nshHx #learn #data #analytics #interviewtips #careers #live #mavensofdata #free #webinar

Have you ever looked at a well-designed dashboard or data viz, and tried to explain EXACTLY what makes it so effective? It's trickier than you might think. There are the obvious things like colors, layouts, imagery and chart types, but those only tell part of the story. Ultimately what matters most is PERCEPTION. Building a dashboard is equal parts psychology and design, and requires an understanding of how humans process and interpret information. The difference between an average dashboard and a great one can be tough to pinpoint, but it often comes down to things like: 1) Enclosure 2) Similarity 3) Continuity 4) Closure 5) Connection 6) Proximity 7) Symmetry These are known as Gestalt Principles, which describe how we group visual elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex information. While they are traditionally used by graphic artists and UX designers, these principles are INCREDIBLY powerful tools for data visualization as well. Do you use Gestalt Principles for data viz? Let us know in the comments! #datavisualization #gestalt #dashboarddesign #businessintelligence #data #careers

Learning SQL? Here's a quick tip to make your queries more powerful. Try pattern matching using LIKE with wildcards. Let's learn starting with this simple WHERE condition... WHERE name = 'Terry' The above returns records with the exact value of 'Terry'. Let's modify that, with LIKE and a single character wildcard... WHERE name LIKE '_erry' The above returns 'Terry', 'Kerry', 'Jerry', etc. Any values with a single character followed by 'erry' will match here. Next, let's try a multi-character wildcard... WHERE name LIKE 'T%' This time, it will return any name that starts with 'T', with any number of characters following: 'Terry', 'Tina', 'Tammy', etc. You can use wildcards in the middle of the value too: 'T_rry'. But in practice, I find I'm most often looking for... 1) starts with some pattern 2) ends with some pattern 3) contains some pattern anywhere in the string Next, one final example from our search marketing work. Let's find all search keywords that contain 'online course' with any number of characters before or after... WHERE keyword LIKE '%online course%' Not too bad, right? Using LIKE with wildcards has tons of applications. And as you can see, it's pretty easy to get your head around. Give this is a shot yourself! #sql #data #analytics #businessintelligence #careers

Learning Excel? You’ve probably grouped rows or columns to hide them from view… And you probably hate the gray space the toggles (+/-) create. For years, Enrique actively stayed away from grouping just because of that blank area. Then he learned this Pro Tip: You can use CTRL+8 to hide or show the toggle buttons. In other words, toggle the toggles :) Now Enrique can group in peace. Know any other hidden Excel shortcuts? #mavenquicktips #excel #data #analytics #businessintelligence #careers

At Maven Analytics, we see a TON of dashboards designed for our monthly Data Playground challenges. Here are 5 common data viz mistakes we see: --> Pies & donuts with too many segments Humans are bad at comparing angles. Use bar or column charts instead, or limit donuts to 2-3 slices max. --> Line charts for categorical comparisons Line charts should be used to show trends. Using them for categorical data (vs. time-series) is misleading, and can suggest relationships or patterns that don't exist. --> Treemaps for non-hierarchical data Treemaps are designed to show hierarchies (like subcategories within categories). For simple categorical comparisons, use a bar or column chart instead. --> Unsorted data Don't expect viewers to make their own visual comparisons. Use intuitive sorting rules to organize your data and tell a clear story. --> Too much noise, too little focus Dashboards should clearly communicate the most important information, and often the best way to do this is by eliminating noise. While it's tempting to add that cool ribbon chart or 3-D effect, remember that CLARITY and INSIGHT are far more important than variety or visual appeal. What other data viz mistakes do you commonly see? #data #datavisualization #businessintelligence

These Maven Music Challenge participants earned an honorable mention! Here’s what caught our attention about each one: Jhonathan Alexander Gonzales Piza used a radial column chart to creatively show the daily listening trends throughout the year. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gbfDTHm5 Marta Nogueras Sancho let you easily explore your Spotify Wrapped results throughout the years through a clear, simple dashboard. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/g5Q7UY8s Jude Raji allowed you to search through your favorite tracks and preview them within the dashboard or directly launch them in Spotify. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gruMY9Ev Hamina Villanueva created a timeline to highlight an artist, song, or album each month based on their listening activity. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gTw-wnfj Rosa John and Marisol Villanueva both built a vertical Power BI dashboard that simulated the Spotify Wrapped inside a phone. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gBHEWCw4 🎧 https://lnkd.in/g6aW5YWx Dirk Strauss cleverly used year-over-year rank changes in popular artists, albums, and tracks to add context. 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gigFMvsB This just goes to show how hard it is to narrow down the finalists and find our winners – well done to all, and stay tuned…👀 WINNERS coming 2/18!! #mavenmusicchallenge #learn #data #analytics #dataviz 

Looking to level up your SQL skills? In this video, Lauren Rosenthal talks to Lead Data Science Instructor Alice Zhao about her new course, Advanced SQL Querying. Some of the topics they cover include: 👉 How Alice got her start teaching SQL 👉 The benefits of learning SQL with a community 👉 What advanced SQL topics are often overlooked 👉 How someone moves from a beginner to an advanced SQL user Watch here: https://lnkd.in/g45jinqq #learn #SQL

Picture it: You’ve just been assigned to a new project, and an entire team of stakeholders is involved. You have your first meeting, it goes incredibly well, and you’re all stoked about the work! A few weeks go by, and there’s more back and forth among the team. More time passes, the stakeholders have competing priorities, maybe there are some time zone differences, responses are slowing down…and progress on the project is blocked. It’s a familiar struggle, even for long-term analytics pros – just ask Colin Tomb! In this blog, Colin is walking you through a streamlined, automated approach to requirements gathering, ensuring your communication skills are embedded into a framework that is both scalable and adaptable. Read it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eszW6XSM #data #analytics #communication #teamwork #collaboration

The Maven Music Challenge Finalists are... 🎧 Jurgen Secq (https://lnkd.in/efXue-Z9) 🎧 Wouter Selis (https://lnkd.in/ehRHzQaH) 🎧 Marián Siegfried (https://lnkd.in/e7WJpe8m) 🎧 Kai Wei Tan (https://lnkd.in/e8aNnuXz) 🎧 Massimiliano Porzio (https://lnkd.in/eZ4rdbiV) Congratulations everyone! Narrowing the competitive field of entries down to this group was super tough. There were so many strong contenders! And selecting a winner won't be much easier… 😳 🎧 HONORABLE MENTIONS: February 13th 🎧 WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT: February 18th Good luck to all! #mavenmusicchallenge #learn #data #analytics #dataviz