Alter Everything

A podcast about data science and analytics culture.
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MaddieJ
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

We're joined by Jarrod Thuener and Mike Treadwell for a chat about thinking outside of the box with analytic workflows and what the ACE program means to them.

 


Panelists

 

Brian Oblinger - @BrianO , LinkedInTwitter

Jarrod Thuener - @jarrod , LinkedIn, Twitter
Mike Treadwell - @michael_treadwell, LinkedIn, Twitter


Topics

 


Community Picks

 


Transcript

 

Episode Transcription

BRIAN: 00:13 

[music] Welcome to Alter Everything, a podcast about data science and analytics culture. I'm Brian Oblinger, and I'll be your host. We're joined by Jarrod Thuener and Mike Treadwell for a chat about thinking outside of the box with analytic workflows and what the ACE Program means to them. Let's get into it. [music] All right. I'm here with Mike and Jarrod. How are you guys today? 

JARROD: 00:46 

Doing well. 

MIKE: 00:47 

Doing great. Thanks. 

JARROD: 00:48 

Thanks for having us. 

BRIAN: 00:49 

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for being on the show. As always, let's start with you. Let's hear a little bit about you, Jarrod. Maybe we'll start with you. Where did you come from? How did you get into analytics? 

JARROD: 00:59 

Yeah. I started off working at a commercial real estate firm, and we did a lot of stuff with Excel. And I found out pretty quickly that we had an Alteryx license. This is back in '07, '08. And we were using it for a specific use case, and I quickly realized that we could just really expand and get stuff out of Excel and into these databases and automate our reporting. And there was one use case where we were producing PowerPoint presentations, and it was using about 2,000 hours per year. And so that's a full-time employee. So we actually automated that down to 45 minutes, after you hit run, 45 minutes each quarter. And yeah, it saved everybody some time and effort, so. 

BRIAN: 01:53 

So what were you doing before analytics? Because that's one of the things we talk with people on the show about is everybody's got some crazy story how they were like a geologist or something before they got into data. 

JARROD: 02:02 

That was my first job out of college. I have a finance background, so I've always liked numbers. I like the objectivity of it all, so I was just always kind of drawn to that. In high school, I was writing little Excel macros and that sort of thing. So I've always really enjoyed Excel until I met Alteryx [laughter]. So that's-- 

BRIAN: 02:24 

Right. Sorry, Excel. 

JARROD: 02:26 

Yeah. Sorry, Excel. 

BRIAN: 02:27 

Mike, how about you? 

MIKE: 02:29 

Yeah. So we're talking about how I got into analytics? 

BRIAN: 02:32 

Yeah, yeah. Where did you come from? What's your background? 

MIKE: 02:34 

Yeah. So I guess my first time using Alteryx was around the time that I had first got into analytics as well. So coming out of undergrad, straight, strict math background, I got a little bit more business focused, a little bit more analytics focused and data science focused in my graduate degree. And we had been set up for success in the graduate program as far as building predictive models and helping businesses derive insight from those predictive models. But when it came time to do what all master's students have to do, which is deliver some final practical project, we weren't really equipped to handle the data portion of it. We hadn't spent as much time on the, "Oh, here's just a bunch of really crappy data. I'll hand it over to you, and you can tell us what to do with that." So I was working with a magazine that's still got a large portion of their customers using direct mail campaigns, which are highly ineffective [laughter]. And we had a bunch of data from licenses. This was an outdoor magazine. So when people go buy hunting and fishing licenses and so on and so forth, they would-- so we just had a big old mess of data. So I came into contact with Alteryx because it was literally just me googling one night, hoping for a prayer. So I downloaded the trial. It worked. I was able to use that to help better deliver that project. So then when I came on at InterWorks, there was this big space-- InterWorks is very successful at Tableau. So they were like, "Hey, we heard of this thing called Alteryx." I was like, "Hey, I also have heard of this thing called Alteryx." So there was kind of a synergy there. I pushed it forward. It's a great product. It's been great for our clients as well. So that's kind of how I got involved with it to start off with. 

BRIAN: 04:28 

Awesome. Very cool. And so you guys are both part of the ACE Program here at Alteryx. So tell me a little bit about when did you get into it, what does it mean to you? I'd love to get your perspective on what does-- I think it means something different to everyone. What does it mean to you guys? 

JARROD: 04:44 

Do you want to take that one first? 

MIKE: 04:45 

Yeah. Sure. So the ACE Program for me means being able to connect with those in sort of the analytics or the data community about a product that enables us to do things that we wouldn't normally have had the time to do. And we always talk about-- Jarrod was talking about his time to insights, taking something that took a long time and making it take a shorter time instead. And a lot of that is that people don't have a background in coding. People come from all over the place. And so being able to share this tool that allows people to do all of these amazing things that they need to be able to do to deliver insights in their jobs without having to stay up late up at night troubleshooting code is fantastic. So that enablement piece there, giving people the power to do something that they couldn't do before, is really what's important to me. 

BRIAN: 05:40 

Cool. Jarrod, how about you? 

JARROD: 05:41 

Yeah. I think the ACE Program has kind of evolved over time. And when I originally was getting into the ACE Program, it was more of blogging, social media, like a community member that was very vocal. And I think it's kind of evolved into-- that's still very true, but it's also you have all these champions for Alteryx. And we're very active on the community, at Inspire, at any other speaking engagement outside of Alteryx as well. We're very active in the broader community of analytics as well and just kind of spreading the Alteryx wealth and letting people know that it exists and that it's extremely powerful in proving out ROIs on time to insights and everything. So, yeah. 

BRIAN: 06:42 

So speaking of Inspire - you name-dropped Inspire, which I always appreciate, and you were talking about wealth - let's talk about the Grand Prix. So once upon a time, I saw you hoisting a ginormous trophy in front of a crowd of several thousand screaming people. Tell me a little bit about that. What was that like for you? 

JARROD: 07:00 

That was awesome. I've been using Alteryx since '07, '08, and I've been to pretty much every Inspire conference since '08, '09, somewhere around there. And the Grand Prix is another thing that's really evolved over time, and I think they're getting it just right. They're tweaking it right in the last couple of iterations. So I had been in the Grand Prix several years before that, and I finally worked my way up, three, two, and then finally one [laughter]. And-- 

BRIAN: 07:32 

Try, try again. 

JARROD: 07:33 

Try, try again, yeah. So losing to Chris Love twice in a row is-- 

BRIAN: 07:39 

I mean-- 

JARROD: 07:39 

You just have to keep battling back. 

BRIAN: 07:41 

--what are you going to do [laughter]? 

JARROD: 07:42 

Yeah. So that was great to hoist that trophy in 2015 in Boston. And then, I think, the next day, I was inducted as an ACE. 

BRIAN: 07:54 

Very nice. And so we'll let the listeners in on a little secret, that we're recording this here at our Global Kick Off in Denver, Colorado. And one of the cool things we've done this time around for our whole company is we're having an internal Grand Prix, and they're kicking that off tonight. So I can't really give spoilers because I don't know who's going to win, but we've narrowed it down to four. I've heard rumors that there is also some sort of ACE Grand Prix that might be taking place. I don't know if either of you know anything about those rumors. 

MIKE: 08:25 

I know that Jarrod kicked all of our butts in that one, so. 

BRIAN: 08:29 

I see. I see. So, Jarrod, enlighten us. 

JARROD: 08:32 

It was a similar format to previous prelims. We had a couple of questions to narrow it down to three ACEs. And I think like 18 of us participated in the first round. 

BRIAN: 08:46 

Yeah. Something like that. 

JARROD: 08:46 

Something like that. And-- 

BRIAN: 08:48 

I sense some real bitterness coming from Mike right now [laughter] [crosstalk]. 

MIKE: 08:51 

It's not bitterness [laughter]. It's congratulations to you. It was a difficult problem to solve. I got all the way through, and then it was like, "Sweet." Then I realized I hadn't actually solved the problem at all [laughter]. So-- 

JARROD: 09:04 

Yeah. Right? You just created a bunch of rows. 

MIKE: 09:06 

Right. 

JARROD: 09:06 

Yeah. I-- 

BRIAN: 09:07 

Devastation. 

JARROD: 09:09 

Yeah. It was the Century Puzzle. I don't know if you're familiar with that. So it's 6 dials with 6 numbers, and you have to align the dials so that each row adds up to 100. And yeah, it's one of those things. You think about it logically, and you have to translate that into Alteryx speak. And that's the tough part is you get that Cartesian join, and you got to figure out how to filter that down to the answer. 

MIKE: 09:35 

Which is actually interesting because when you're training new users to use Alteryx, when you get to about the second day of that training-- the first day focuses on favorite tools. Here's how you do all these things: aggregating, filtering, sorting. When you get to talking about data parsing, you get to a conversation that you have with your students that is, "Alteryx gives you the tools to do this, but the logic, that's all you. That's all your brain." So that is the "difficult" part of the process. 

BRIAN: 10:07 

Very cool. All right. Well, we'll be rooting for you. 

JARROD: 10:09 

Thank you. 

BRIAN: 10:10 

Well, at least, one of us over here [laughter] on this side of the table will be rooting for you. 

MIKE: 10:14 

I have money on it, so [laughter]. 

BRIAN: 10:18 

Nice. Well, speaking of money, so I wanted to circle back to you. One of the things you touched on, Mike, in your intro was a little bit about your math background. I'd love to hear just kind of in your words sort of how that manifested in your life. What kind of tips do you have for other people maybe that want to get into something like that? 

MIKE: 10:36 

It's scary, I guess, to other people, and it shouldn't be. So my background was I got my undergrad in math. That's the short story. I got involved in analytics because I became interested in my undergraduate research and solving two-sided matching problems, which kind of is a very basic model for market interactions, but very basic. We're talking undergrad-level stuff here. And I kind of took that and moved forward with it, and just through exposure researching that, became more involved with the-- it still is, but at that time, was a very growing market of analytics. So I feel like a lot of times when people start talking about math, the first thing they say-- or coding or computer science or any of this stuff - again, I'm holding up quotes here - that we consider hard, people immediately categorize themselves into, "Oh, I was good at that in school," or, "Oh, I just don't get that." And it's a very defeatist sort of attitude. So for people that are getting involved in data science and analytics, a lot of times they feel overwhelmed because there's a lot of new information. They may not have had the background. But you talk to people here at Alteryx or wherever, people comes from all kinds of diverse backgrounds because there are tools now that enable us to do that. So if I had to give advice to anybody on how to dip your toe into it is just do it. Just pick something and do it. If you want to learn how to code, don't set your goal as designing an award-winning app. But just pick something and do it. You're going to do it wrong the first time. You're going to mess up. But doing is the best way of knowing. And we have tools that sort of make it easier along the way, like Alteryx, right? So we don't have to worry about all of the deploying code and troubleshooting and version controlling and all of that. It takes out the annoying parts of the coding and math process and makes it a lot easier. So go do it, just try it. 

BRIAN: 12:47 

Just do it. 

MIKE: 12:48 

That's right. 

BRIAN: 12:49 

Do you have any recommended languages that you tell people that are just getting started in coding to kind of go after, like Python, Ruby--? 

MIKE: 12:58 

Oh, man. This is such a loaded topic. 

BRIAN: 13:00 

Yeah. That's why I asked it [now?] [laughter]. 

MIKE: 13:02 

I know. I started out using R. So I've actually tried to get my title at InterWorks changed to the handler of misfit technologies [laughter] because R gets a lot of hate. I love it. But it's my philosophy is pick the best tool for the job. And you're never going to know what is the best tool for the job until you experience all of them. So don't worry about too much, "Is this one good?" R and Python, which is the two I'm focusing on, right, because I'm not a Java programmer and C++. I don't have that background. So focusing on R and Python, just pick one. Just do something. It's better than not. A lot of the skills are transferable. Once you're good at one, you'll understand things about the other one. And if you like one, great, do that. If you don't like it, don't, and do the other thing. They're both valuable. They both have their limitations. A lot of breath is wasted talking about which one is better than the other. And I think it keeps people from making a decision instead of just going forward and doing one. But at the same time, I mean, R has my heart, but Python can do a lot of things that R can't, and vice versa. 

BRIAN: 14:19 

What are you into, Jarrod? Do you have an opinion on this? 

JARROD: 14:21 

You know, I don't. I'm not a coder by trade. I'm an Alteryx user, which kind of takes away that need for coding, which is really nice. But I've always been interested in coding, and I've had to kind of read through some code to figure out what some of the underlying stuff was doing for a particular application or something. And I think kind of touching back on Mike's comment, which was that once you've learned one, you start to learn the other. I think you start to see the similar syntaxes-- or syntax throughout the different languages and everything. So while I can't write a line of code, I can start to read it a little bit, and it does make a little bit of sense. I can barely troubleshoot things, so. 

BRIAN: 15:11 

Yeah. I'm definitely not code minded. I did teach myself CSS at one point out of necessity. And so when I do look at a block of code now, I at least get the basic structure and kind of what's going on, and I can kind of figure out what's happening. But yeah, I agree. It's sort of the just do it, right? If you keep waiting for someone to sort of drop it in your lap and like, "Oh, there you go. You know everything now," you're going to be waiting a long time. 

MIKE: 15:38 

And you can also do as much-- not that these are bad things. You can do as much-- I'm not going to name one for [crosstalk]-- 

JARROD: 15:45 

Let's name names [laughter]. 

MIKE: 15:46 

Right. But any one of the multitude of places you can go online to learn how to code, do those things, but at the end of the day, a demo is a demo. And just take it and try to do something with it, and mess it up, and then fix it, and then rinse and repeat. 

BRIAN: 16:05 

I think that's a perfect segue. So mess it up, fix it, rinse and repeat. Analytically or otherwise, we always like to ask people, what's the coolest thing you've ever done? Give us a good story about your favorite project or a big win that you had or an aha moment, something like that? Maybe we'll start with you, Jarrod. 

JARROD: 16:22 

Yeah. It was such a small facet of what we were doing, but this is actually back when I first became an ACE. I wrote a little app, and I posted it to my blog, which then got hacked. And I've not [laughter]-- yeah, websites are not my thing, so. But it was a trick-or-treating app. So if you put your address in and how far you want to travel on Halloween-- you want to find the large candy bars, and you don't want to walk a whole lot in between houses because-- quantity and quality, you have to start balancing, you know? So I set this up to look at [carrier?] routes, all the housing around you within 5 or 10-- you set the distance of how far you want to drive, using the TomTom drive time. And it looks at the neighborhood by the [carrier?] routes. It created the blobs based on each house, the TomTom address points. And it showed you hot spots or hot streets that you would want to hit based on some of the consumer profiles in that area, income and home value and all that stuff. So I thought it was kind of a fun little app to-- and it was actually pretty accurate for-- I tested it in my neck of the woods and-- 

BRIAN: 17:46 

Yeah. I bet you did test it [laughter]. 

JARROD: 17:48 

Yeah. I think I still have some Snickers, full size, king size. 

BRIAN: 17:51 

Still loaded up. Yeah. Where can I go to get that? I'm asking for a friend [inaudible]. 

JARROD: 17:56 

The app? 

BRIAN: 17:57 

Yeah. Yeah. 

JARROD: 17:58 

I think-- 

BRIAN: 17:59 

Your hacked website? 

JARROD: 18:00 

My hacked website. But you got to hack into the website to get the-- 

BRIAN: 18:02 

Okay. Got it. 

JARROD: 18:03 

I have it. I'll post it. If I haven't posted it already on community, I will. 

BRIAN: 18:08 

All right. We'll hook that up for people. 

JARROD: 18:10 

Absolutely. 

BRIAN: 18:10 

I dig that, man. That's the thing. We hear the stories about the business applications of analytics and data. I really love hearing sort of the personal pet projects people have taken on, and you find some really insanely cool stuff. Do you have kids? Do they love this app? Or this literally was just for you? 

JARROD: 18:27 

This was actually before my little one was born. So yeah, this was [crosstalk]. 

BRIAN: 18:31 

So you were just out there trying to get all the candy. 

JARROD: 18:33 

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yes. 

BRIAN: 18:35 

In a word, yes. 

JARROD: 18:36 

I'm very short, so-- I mean, I blend right in. I just-- 

BRIAN: 18:40 

That's right. Nice. How about you, Mike? 

MIKE: 18:42 

So I can't mention client names, but I had a project where-- and it's always cool to do something that starts off small, and then somebody comes back to you later and is like, "Wow, we need to scale this because it has really sort of picked up, started moving." So on the data science side, I got to be involved with this really cool project. It was Alteryx and R on the back end. So we used Alteryx for a lot of data prep and blending from all of these different sources, pushing that out, and creating a predictive model to try to understand where students are likely to attend for-- if a university wants to purchase this data, right, and they're looking to market to a specific set of students. Obviously, they want to target that as much as possible, so they want to know the students that look like the ones that might attend their university. And the model in itself is cool. It worked for them. They started using it for lots of different schools. So that in itself is cool, but also just the whole process. When you sit back and you step back and you're like, "Wow. This from end to end, from all of these different data sources, we're using the Experian data sources in Alteryx to enrich our data sets." And then actually using R to build models for not just one school, but hundreds of schools, it's really impressive. So I've had the good fortune of being involved in lots of different cool projects, but the best is when you can step back, look at everything that's built, and see that it's working, and also have it picked up, right? Because one of the big things that data scientists always talk about is projects dying on the vine. Their analysis gets put out there. Nobody ever picks it up and looks at it again. So when you do get an opportunity to provide those insights that then goes on to do something more, it's really cool to hear about. 

BRIAN: 20:54 

Cool. All right. Well, anything else we didn't get out that you gents want to talk about here, any other points, anything rattling around in your mind you wanted to get out there for the listeners? 

JARROD: 21:04 

With analytics? 

BRIAN: 21:05 

With anything, man. What do you got? 

JARROD: 21:08 

I think I brought this up several times in the last couple days because I'm with new people. And I've already driven my wife crazy about it, but I-- 

BRIAN: 21:15 

Here it goes. Here it comes. 

JARROD: 21:17 

--I love my Tesla [laughter]. I got it about a month ago-- or a month and a half ago. It's the coolest thing, coolest technology, the smoothest ride. It's whisper quiet because there's no engine. You wake up, and you have a full tank, as it is, and you just go. It's the most relaxing drive I've ever experienced. And yeah, it's fantastic. Check it out. 

BRIAN: 21:46 

And I would point you and our listeners to-- I did an episode a little while back with a guy named Ben Sullins, who is a little bit of a celebrity on YouTube these days, doing what he calls Teslanomics, where he basically uses Tableau and stuff to visualize their quarterly earnings and things about their business. 

JARROD: 22:04 

I think I've come across his stuff, actually, as I think about it. 

BRIAN: 22:06 

And Ben had some really-- we had a pretty deep conversation about the data that's coming from these cars, and it's streaming over LTE, and-- 

JARROD: 22:13 

Yeah. It's pretty wild. 

BRIAN: 22:13 

--what the future of what that stuff looks like. So right on, yeah. 

JARROD: 22:17 

Yeah. I've already had a couple of updates since I've purchased, and the Autopilot's getting better. And the Navigate on Autopilot, where it automatically switches lanes for you and optimizes your route and everything, is really fantastic. It's a really fascinating technology, and again, the data side of things is awesome. 

MIKE: 22:37 

Yeah. I still drive a 2006 Ford F-150. 

BRIAN: 22:40 

You have to manually roll the windows up and down [laughter]. 

MIKE: 22:43 

And it doesn't have power locks, so. 

BRIAN: 22:44 

Well, I think Ford is going to help you out. I think they're going to do like an electric Raptor or something. So stay tuned. 

MIKE: 22:50 

Well, best of luck to them. Isn't the Chevy discontinuing the Volt or something? 

JARROD: 22:55 

The-- 

BRIAN: 22:56 

Yeah. The Volt or the [crosstalk]. 

JARROD: 22:57 

The Volt. The Volt. Yeah. 

BRIAN: 22:59 

Yeah. Yeah. Because it's a sedan. They're getting rid of all the sedans. But the trucks, they're going to start making trucks electric. 

JARROD: 23:02 

SUVs are big right now, so [crosstalk]. 

BRIAN: 23:04 

Yeah. Then you're going to have that torque. You're not going to know what to do with [crosstalk]. 

MIKE: 23:06 

Literally and figuratively big [laughter]. 

BRIAN: 23:08 

Literally and figuratively. All right. So let's move on to our last section, which is the community picks. We'll start with you, Jarrod. What's been interesting in the world that people should be looking at? 

JARROD: 23:19 

Tesla? Can I say that [laughter] [crosstalk]? 

BRIAN: 23:23 

I know our listeners can't see us right now. But Michael-- 

MIKE: 23:25 

[crosstalk] [laughter]. 

BRIAN: 23:26 

--totally just wanted to throw his headset off and walk off out of this room. But please continue. 

JARROD: 23:31 

No. I really enjoy spending my time in the designer portion of the Alteryx community. There's a lot of great nuggets in there along with even the Weekly Challenges. And it's such a great place to learn. And Nicole was talking about this earlier about how she learned Spatial, and she doesn't work with Spatial, but she was able to be exposed to that and go [into?] different examples and just jump in and do it. And [as Mike explained?], that's how you learn. So yeah, looking at other people's issues that they've had, that they've come across, and how they've solved it, I think is a really great place to start learning Alteryx and how to really expand your knowledge. 

BRIAN: 24:30 

Cool. You want to give a shout-out to Tesla first, or do you got something else? 

MIKE: 24:33 

No. I'm good. 

JARROD: 24:34 

Ford? 

MIKE: 24:34 

I'm good [laughter]. 

JARROD: 24:36 

Hey, I love Fords. My first car was that Mustang. Manual, I loved it and-- 

MIKE: 24:41 

I mean, I'm not-- 

BRIAN: 24:42 

Well, [don't do?] everything, a show about cars [laughter]. 

MIKE: 24:45 

I mean, I guess, technically, I am from Texas, but I don't have any sort of allegiance other than the fact that she's been good to me [laughter]. The 2006 has been good to me. 

JARROD: 24:59 

Cars listen. So if you treat them right when you're-- 

MIKE: 25:02 

Well, yours especially listens, but mine [laughter]-- 

JARROD: 25:04 

Well, now it does [laughter]. Well, Elon's on the other side, so he'll take care of [me?]. 

MIKE: 25:08 

So I'm going to give a shout-out to a book and a person. 

BRIAN: 25:13 

Sweet. 

MIKE: 25:14 

So a colleague of mine who was a mentor to me, Ben Bausili - I recently got in a team at InterWorks; I'm working on the data engineering side now - he gave me a book that I've been reading that I think that anybody who works for a company that focuses on teams, works with teams, has that team mindset should read. It's called Radical Candor. And it just talks about developing relationships with coworkers, and it has a lot of insights. So I've been scanning through that. And anybody who works in the consulting space, anybody who works as part of a team, whether you lead a team or you're part of a team, it can be very valuable. So I'm pushing my way through that book. I know none of us have as much time to read as what we want, but-- 

BRIAN: 26:00 

Hey, man. I still [crosstalk]. 

MIKE: 26:01 

--yeah, I still try to find the time. So if you're looking for something to put on your ever-growing list of books, that's a good one. I forget the author's name. So if they are a listener of this podcast, then I apologize to them [laughter]. But it's called-- 

BRIAN: 26:15 

We'll put a link in the show notes. 

MIKE: 26:15 

It's called Radical Candor. It's a great book. 

BRIAN: 26:17 

Yeah. That's a great book. All right. Well, so I'm going to round us out. So being that we're here at the GKO, I do want to say-- I want to give a shout-out to the Alteryx for Good Event that we did yesterday. 900 and some of us - I don't know how many people it was - were there, and we basically cranked out 103,000 meals in like 45 minutes. And to me, that's the good stuff, right? That's the real impact, and something we can feel good about. And I believe they said that they were going to be sending that to somewhere in Southeast Asia. So you get that immediate-- you go and you do the work, and then you get the immediate feedback about how much you did and the impact it has and where they're sending it. So that was just really impactful to me. So we'll put some links in the show notes to some of the pictures and tweets and stuff that came out of that. That was really cool. 

MIKE: 27:08 

Awesome. 

JARROD: 27:09 

Yeah. That was wild. That was a really cool experience. 

BRIAN: 27:11 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's what we're all about. So all right. Well, thanks, gents, for being on. This has been fun. Where do people go to get more of you? Do they go to your hacked website? Do you have a Twitter account? Where should people go [laughter]? Tesla.com-- 

JARROD: 27:25 

I'm a big follower of Elon and Tesla [crosstalk] [laughter]-- 

BRIAN: 27:28 

--/Brian5190 [my?] referral code-- 

JARROD: 27:31 

[crosstalk]-- 

BRIAN: 27:32 

Sorry, continue. 

JARROD: 27:33 

You have to buy before February 1st, so you got to get that in there [laughter]. So-- 

BRIAN: 27:42 

Michael's going to kill us. 

JARROD: 27:43 

Yes. We're active on the community. My handle is @Jarrod, J-A-R-R-O-D. And yeah, so I'll be one there. If you have any questions, hit me up on community, absolutely yes. 

BRIAN: 27:58 

Yeah. And I do want to say-- I'm going to let you go in a minute, but here's actually-- this is kind of a funny, quick story is that Jarrod bought his car using my referral code. 

MIKE: 28:06 

Oh, yes. I'm very well aware. 

BRIAN: 28:08 

Okay. But for our listeners-- 

JARROD: 28:08 

I've talked to many people [laughter]. 

MIKE: 28:09 

You both are very excited about that-- 

BRIAN: 28:10 

For our listeners-- 

MIKE: 28:11 

--and he's already told me. 

BRIAN: 28:12 

For our listeners out there, the first tier of the referral program is that you get a photo etched in something-- 

JARROD: 28:19 

It's glass. 

BRIAN: 28:19 

--and they're going to launch it into orbit. And so the pack that I made with Jarrod was we're going to take a selfie, and I'm going to submit it. And so there will, for the next like 500 billion years or something, be a picture-- 

JARROD: 28:31 

It'll just be out and floating around. 

BRIAN: 28:31 

--of me and Jarrod orbiting the universe. 

MIKE: 28:33 

That's so, so sweet. That's sweet. 

BRIAN: 28:36 

I mean, it's-- you know. So where do we find more--? 

MIKE: 28:38 

It's touching. It's touching. It really is. 

BRIAN: 28:39 

So where do we find more on you, Mike? 

MIKE: 28:41 

So check out the InterWorks blog. So Tableau, Alteryx, all things data can be found on the InterWorks blog. So come check us out up there. The community, obviously reach out, michael_treadwell. I don't do social media as much. But again, the InterWorks blog and Alteryx community as well as if you want to come tell me how terrible my code is on GitHub, feel free to log in and [crosstalk]. 

JARROD: 29:11 

I'd be happy to harass you on GitHub. 

MIKE: 29:12 

Yeah. Please do that. 

BRIAN: 29:13 

And you guys got a podcast, yeah? We should point people to that. 

MIKE: 29:16 

Yeah. I guess I should log roll for InterWorks podcast, Podcast Your Data. So it comes out biweekly. I guess that's kind of ambiguous term. 

BRIAN: 29:27 

Is it [crosstalk]? 

JARROD: 29:28 

Every two weeks. Yeah, yeah. 

MIKE: 29:29 

Right. Every two weeks, it comes out. 

JARROD: 29:31 

I don't know of any other better way to say that. Semi-weekly? I don't know [crosstalk]. 

MIKE: 29:36 

So occasionally, I do get to host that. But we always have a rotating group of consultants that host that podcast, and it's really fun, also informative. We talk about Alteryx, Tableau, or just interview really cool people. So maybe we can reverse this at some point [crosstalk] with you guys. 

BRIAN: 29:53 

Let's do it. I'm down. Yeah. It's the most ambitious crossover event [crosstalk] [laughter]. 

MIKE: 29:58 

That's right. Yeah. You've heard of the Jetsons and Flintstones. And now it will be InterWorks and Alteryx. 

BRIAN: 30:05 

Welcome to the InterWorks podcast. Awesome. Well, hey thanks, guys, for being on. This has been great, and we will catch you later. 

JARROD: 30:12 

Thank you. 

MIKE: 30:13 

Thank you. [music] 

BRIAN: 30:23 

Thanks for listening to Alter Everything. Go to community.alteryx.com/podcast for show notes, information about our guests, episodes, and more. If you've got feedback, tweet us using the hashtag #AlterEverything or drop us an email at podcast@alteryx.com. Catch you next time. [music] 

BRIAN: 30:54 

So, Mike, I don't know if you know this or not. And this is true. I'm not making this up. 

MIKE: 30:58 

Don't lie to me. 

BRIAN: 30:58 

In a poll of your peers, you were voted the best-dressed ACE. 

MIKE: 31:03 

Oh, really? 

BRIAN: 31:04 

How do you feel about that? 

MIKE: 31:05 

Oh, man. That's actually kind of-- I don't know how I feel about that because-- 

BRIAN: 31:10 

I see the pride swelling [laughter], the pride-- he's like so happy right now. 

MIKE: 31:13 

All right. So-- 

JARROD: 31:15 

Your shirt is blushing. 

MIKE: 31:15 

--I'm honestly surprised because Joe Lipski is always so sharp. 

BRIAN: 31:20 

Joe Lipski. 

MIKE: 31:21 

Yeah. Always so sharp. But you know what? I'm not going to talk about it too much because I still think you're actually-- I still think you're messing with me on this. But-- 

BRIAN: 31:31 

No. This is real. Dude, I wouldn't mess with you like that. 

MIKE: 31:32 

--I'll take it. Wow. Wow. 

BRIAN: 31:38 

It's okay. Just take it in, man. [crosstalk]. 

MIKE: 31:40 

[crosstalk]. It feels like I just won a Tesla [laughter]. 

 

 


This episode of Alter Everything was produced by Maddie Johannsen (@MaddieJ).

Comments
NicoleJohnson
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus

Gosh, I love you guys. @jarrod, you are my spirit animal... and @michael_treadwell, misfit technologies are in better hands with you as their handler. :)

 

So awesome to hear your thoughts on the ACE program and how to enable new users & dive into learning new things - truly honored to be a part of this organization along with you two fine gentlemen and the rest of our crazy, passionate crew! Thanks for sharing the ACE love (and the Tesla love... so much Tesla love), recapping the fun (and the horror) of the Rotating Century Puzzle ACE Grand Prix elimination round, and telling us about the amazing journeys you have taken to get where you are today. 

 

#ACEs4Life!!

 

Cheers,

NJ

jarrod
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus

I had to post my original blog into the designer section of the community, but here's a link if you want to check it out:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Discussions/Best-Trick-or-Treating-Neighborhood/m-...

 

I made it back in 2014 (time has flown!), so feel free to update as needed :) 

 

Enjoy!

jarrod
ACE Emeritus
ACE Emeritus

Thanks @NicoleJohnson!!  I had so much fun talking with @michael_treadwell and @BrianO about alteryx and, of course, Tesla :) I'm honored to be an ACE and learn so much from all of you!

#ACEs4Life!!