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Start with Data, End with Value
We're excited to have you here. This blog is specially crafted for analysts who are passionate about growing in their careers. Our mission is to provide you with valuable insights, practical tips, and best practices that will help you excel in the world of data analysis and beyond.
Whether you're looking to enhance your technical skills, improve your communication strategies, or stay updated with the latest industry trends, you'll find resources here to support your professional journey. We encourage you to explore our posts, share your thoughts, and engage with our community.
Thank you for joining us at "Start with Data, End with Value," and we look forward to helping you achieve your career goals!
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Overcoming the Analyst’s Fear of Being Wrong
When you’re starting your career, it’s completely normal to be afraid of making mistakes. You want to do things right, follow every instruction, and prove you can be trusted with the work. After all, your job isn’t just what you do — it’s a big part of your life, your reputation, and how you measure your own growth. But that same fear that pushes you to be careful in the beginning can quietly start to limit you as you grow. You second-guess your ideas. You wait for someone el
Victor Peña
Nov 32 min read
If Trust Is Your Most Valuable Asset, Time Is Your Most Valuable Resource
If trust determines your influence , time determines your capacity to sustain it. You can’t build or maintain trust if your days are fragmented, reactive, or filled with work that doesn’t move anything forward. Time is what allows consistency, thoughtfulness, and follow-through — the very things that make others see you as dependable. Without control of your time, even the most skilled analyst ends up running from one request to another, always busy but rarely effective. Guar
Victor Peña
Oct 272 min read
Why Technical Skills Won’t Take You All the Way.
I still remember a meeting early in my career that changed the way I saw analytics. I was presenting the results of a detailed analysis, confident that my SQL was clean, my visualizations were polished, and my model predictions made sense. I had spent hours validating data, checking assumptions, making sure every number added up. Everything was going smoothly until someone asked a simple question: “So… what would be best for the business?” I froze for a second. I knew the dat
Victor Peña
Oct 202 min read
From Order-Taker to Partner: Growing as an Analyst in a Centralized Organization
When I worked in a centralized analytics team, my days were filled with requests. My manager would come to me with business requirements — “Marketing needs a new report,” “Sales wants these numbers,” “Finance asked for a breakdown.” At first, I didn’t think much about it. That’s how the process worked: requests came in, I delivered analyses, dashboards, and reports. But over time, something started to feel off. I realized I was out of context. The projects kept coming, but th
Victor Peña
Oct 142 min read
Chart Chaos to Clarity: What I Learned from The Big Book of Dashboards
When I first started building dashboards, I used to look at each chart in isolation. My goal was to make the dashboard look complete by...
Victor Peña
Oct 12 min read
Why Trust Is Your Most Valuable Asset as an Analyst
You can be technically sharp. You might know your business inside and out. Maybe you’ve built dashboards that practically run themselves...
Victor Peña
Jul 212 min read
What a Book About Megaprojects Taught Me About Growing as a Data Analyst
A few months ago, Leon Palafox recommended a book to me: How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner . At first, I wasn’t...
Victor Peña
Jun 172 min read
Should You Pick Up That New Project?
When you're a junior or mid-level data analyst, it can feel like you need to say yes to everything. A new project comes up, and you...
Victor Peña
May 292 min read
Influence Without Authority: The Quiet Power That Moves Careers Forward
When you're early in your data career, it’s easy to believe that authority is something you earn with a title. But the truth is, some of...
Victor Peña
May 222 min read
Understanding Business Context: Avoiding False Insights in Data Analysis
As a junior data analyst, discovering interesting patterns in datasets can be incredibly exciting. However, it's crucial to differentiate...
Victor Peña
Apr 102 min read
How to Practice Data Storytelling Regularly and Effortlessly
It doesn't matter if you have incredible insights that might transform your business; if you are not able to communicate your insights,...
Victor Peña
Jan 232 min read
4 Books Every Data Analyst Should Read to Master Problem-Solving
As a mid-level data analyst, your role isn’t just about analyzing data—it’s about using that data to solve real-world business problems....
Victor Peña
Jan 93 min read
Best Practices for Communicating Data Insights to Non-Technical Stakeholders
In the world of data analysis, the ability to communicate insights effectively to non-technical stakeholders is just as important as the...
Victor Peña
Jan 12 min read
Navigating the Analytics Landscape: Centralized vs. Decentralized Organizations
The analytics field is a dynamic and ever-evolving landscape, and understanding its organizational structures is pivotal for any aspiring...
Victor Peña
Jun 28, 20242 min read
engineering lifecycle.
Generation & Ingestion Data is generated from four main applications: Salesforce, Marketo, Adobe Analytics, and a Media Vendor Provider....
Victor Peña
Jun 27, 20242 min read
Revamping Webinar Categorization: A Journey from Manual Labeling to NLP and Machine Learning
In the ever-evolving landscape of data-driven decision-making, businesses grapple with vast amounts of information. Webinars, as a...
Victor Peña
Mar 16, 20242 min read
Start with Data, end with Value, How RFM and K-means improve Our Marketing Strategy.
Marketing can be a complex and challenging task, especially when it comes to delivering the right message to the right audience at the...
Victor Peña
Mar 15, 20241 min read
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