One night I was up late, thinking about Excel, data and the many conversations around the different tools that we use to get our data to tell us something useful. But I was reminded of many years ago and why I have remained so passionate about data: it’s the rewarding feeling of making someone’s life easier.
This 8-minute reflection paints the mosaic of working in an international company, realizing that an ongoing source of trouble was obsolete reports and poor data quality. And in the face of that, the obvious solutions were too costly. But what had me keep pushing for a solution wasn’t because I loved dashboards, Excel or BI.
The motivation was simple: keep Doreen happy.
During the phone call when she described me as a friend, that’s when I knew I had been successful. Excel happened to be the most appropriate tool because it was nimble enough to navigate through the mystery and help create a sustainable solution.
Please. Check out the video. Does any of this connect with you or your interest in data? It’d be great to read your comments in the comments section.
Hola Oz D du Soleil HI, can you please helpme on how to conver a date that is in this format 4112016 and converter ito this format .4/11/2016 in power query .
or this 14112016 to 14/11/2016
Sorry but a made the sama Q. on you facebook page
Oz, I knew there was a reason I liked you! I have had similar experiences at the Philadelphia Police Department, where I worked for 17 years.
I always believe that technology and bureaucracy are challenges that can be overcome only by putting people first. Whether it is scheduling, filing, searching or simply relieving manual tedium, the motivation to make the Doreens of the workplace happy is enough to power through roadblocks.
My forte was actually Access, and it took me a long time to respect the power of Excel. Of course, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Access WAS better than Excel for database management. Now, they work remarkably well together to solve even more challenges.
Your contributions to the Power Query course really has opened my eyes to more of Excel’s prowess. So, in effect, you did a Doreen on me!
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell thanks for the comment and the great review of the Data-Cleansing course.
So, you’ve been Doreened. LOL!
Yup. People are so important–whatever out tools, there’s someone who has to live with the consequences. And I’m glad to see that the Excel developers are bringing us things like Power Query so that people like you and I can continue to keep the Doreens happy.
Awesome! Informative, educational, and entertaining! Thank you.
Thank YOU!