Alter Everything Podcast

MaddieJ · ‎07-18-2019

This episode is part 3 of our special Live from Inspire Nashville series. Alteryx users Alan Walter, Chris Williams, and Lanier Mason join us for their takes on analytics culture.

Panelists

Maddie Johannsen - @MaddieJ, LinkedIn,Twitter
Alan Walter - @alanwalter, LinkedIn
Chris Williams - @chriswilliams41, LinkedIn
Lanier Mason - @LMason, LinkedIn

Topics

Nicole Johnson - @NicoleJohnson
Deanna Sanchez - @Deanna
ACE program
Grand Prix
NABA, Inc.
Analytics as an Equalizer, Inspire Nashville

Transcript

Episode Transcription

MADDIE: 00:13	[music] Welcome to Alter Everything, a podcast about data science and analytics culture. I'm Maddie Johansen, and I'll be your host. For part three of our special Live from Inspire Nashville series, we're joined by Alteryx users, Alan Walter, Chris Williams, and Lanier Mason for their takes on analytics culture. Let's get started. Alan, welcome to the show.
ALAN: 00:46	Oh, thank you. Pleased to be here.
MADDIE: 00:48	And tell us where you're from. I think we can tell from your accent.
ALAN: 00:50	[inaudible] Australia. I'm from Australia. Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. And I'm up here with one of my sons and meeting up with other son over who works up in Michigan, so.
MADDIE: 01:03	Oh, amazing.
ALAN: 01:03	Bit of a family reunion here today. That's good [laughter].
MADDIE: 01:06	That's wonderful. Yeah. It would be really great to have family that lives in Australia and here so you can go back and forth to visit.
ALAN: 01:12	That's right. It's very handy. Yeah [laughter].
MADDIE: 01:15	Yeah, I need a good excuse to go to Australia, so.
ALAN: 01:18	Oh, you-- you don't need any excuse, just come over.
MADDIE: 01:20	Yeah [laughter]. I've always wanted to go. That would be amazing.
ALAN: 01:23	It's a great-- Americans find it very relaxing, very comfortable. And we find the same in reverse. Very relaxed in America as well, for the same reasons. We have similar cultures and similar ideals, I suppose.
MADDIE: 01:35	Yeah.
ALAN: 01:35	That's good.
MADDIE: 01:36	Yeah, absolutely. So how did you get into analytics? What's your journey?
ALAN: 01:41	Well, I guess my first computer ever was a PDP-8 back in about 1970. So I've been around a while in this area. So as a young fellow, I started writing programs on a very early micro-- a mini-computer, I suppose. And been in that game-- I'm an engineer by qualification, but I've always worked in computers one way or another. So that's been my background. Yeah.
MADDIE: 02:06	Yeah. Spending all that time with computers, it sounds like you were very interested and very in tune with what is next. And I feel like analytics and data science is-- it's already here, but it's also what's next. It's just going to keep growing.
ALAN: 02:24	Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when I first started, we used to write code as assembler. And of course, it'd take you an entire data to write A B C on the screen-- not over the screen. On the [teletype?]. So now what happens is that things take seconds, which used to take days. It's incredible what you can put together so quickly. And the whole paradigm has changed a number of times. Starting at assembler code, and then moving on to the next round was sort of using compiler languages and then moving into the sort of fancier languages like Python and so forth. And now of course, it's all drag and drop. And the next round will be nothing but drag and drop for the whole parametric code is where I see it going. So it's a whole new world.
MADDIE: 03:09	Yeah. I love what you said about just that comparison to when you first got started, and I wonder, have you noticed any sort of-- something that I think a lot about is how I like to learn, and how other people like to learn too. And I feel like so many people are-- they want things quickly because we're used to it now. But I mean, from your experience, how would you-- can you relate to that? Do you feel like you will also want things quickly? And do you feel like you still kind of have that learning--?
ALAN: 03:47	It's a combination of both in a way. I think whatever you do, it's based on where you've come from and what you've done. So you build on the past always. So for example, I've spent many, many years in this field, but also in the telecommunications field, and so all those things sort of came together. So that when we-- as an engineer, you're taught to think a certain way, and Alteryx works beautifully with engineering way of thinking. Because the idea is you factor the problem into multiple pieces, and then make each piece sort of an independent entity. I always describe as like building a car. A car has many pieces, and each piece is independently designed. And you pull apart a car apart, and it just lies as a bunch of pieces on the front lawn. But when you put it together, it becomes a car. It becomes a whole new concept. So and I think programming is the same. You start with a bunch of binary bits, and you end up with something amazing, like Alteryx. It's a continuous layers and layers and layers of improvement and encapsulation and abstraction. And it's very, very powerful to see it all happen. And Alteryx just embodies that. I think which is why I relate very much to that because I can see how to break up a problem and then plug it on the paper and it works straight away. That's the beauty of it because you got a set of working pieces, which know how to work together. I just plug and play and they work together straight away. No, no errors, no issues and work very fast. So it's a great product. I love it.
MADDIE: 05:18	That engineering mindset that you mentioned, talk to me a little bit more about that.
ALAN: 05:24	Yeah, sure. I think there's a couple of things that are relevant. So many disciplines. You've got your own discipline. You've been taught to work a certain way, think a certain way, analyze problems a certain way, whether you're a chemical engineer or a mechanical engineer, or any sort of other scientist type person or whatever, or marketing person. In fact, there's all these discipline built in and you have this domain knowledge that when you can put that together and just drag and drop stuff together using your knowledge of how you solve a problem, and then using very simple techniques in terms of encapsulated components, which say, " Oh yeah, I know what I need to do there, then I need to do that." And before you know it, you've got an algorithm written and it does something, which is-- you couldn't do easily 10 years ago. You couldn't do it. You go through a whole process and it's-- go after someone in IT, and you spend hours and hours and hours trying to convey the problem and they go away, and they built something and it wouldn't be quite what you wanted, and then another few weeks would by and then you'd be testing it and their still it wouldn't quite work and horse-- a camel instead of a horses. It's always our stories it's absolutely true. Whereas when you have the power to solve the problem that's in your own head, then that's very, very powerful tool. And that's the way Alteryx brings that to the table. You can actually use your domain knowledge and then put together the solution yourself. And that's very, very empowering. Yeah.
MADDIE: 06:56	Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I feel very-- empowered is a very good way of saying it. I love that you use that word because I feel very empowered when I use it. And I feel like-- I didn't come from a data science background and I'm just getting started in my career and I-- or I guess my career in analytics. I've been here for about a year, and I would say, there's so much that I've learned and I feel like I can continue to learn at such an exponential rate if I choose to do so. And I feel like that's the beauty of it is you can learn exactly what you want and it's all at your fingertips and there is a platform to accelerate that process for you, so.
ALAN: 07:42	I think there's a slight risk that there's a lot of what I call craft in IT, which is hard earned experience and expertise and ways of doing things, and we do need to ensure that If you give someone the controls of a bulldozer, you can do a lot of damage and a lot of-- in a hurry as well. Or you can achieve a lot in a hurry. But that's good too because you can build such powerful tools, you do need to bring to bear a level of what I call the craft because if you don't do that you can build something and it'll be very, very good, very powerful. But from a business perspective, it's also important that it actually can fit into the slot into the tool set that's in the business because you do need to apply appropriate testing of the whole idea. It doesn't break from the point of view of Ateryx not working but the idea or the solution might be poor because if you haven't thought of all the pieces you need to put in place. So there's elements like that, I think, which are important, and that's an important-- that's more important than learning how to code. I think is just learning how to solve the problem and put it together in a sensible way so that you do get a good answer at the end. So I think that's actually our next challenge really is to not lose the what I call the craft, build that into people so that when they pick up the tool they go, "Ah, yes I know the best way to use this. And I know how to close off all the loose ends and make sure it works." So that's an important part.
MADDIE: 09:11	Very, very well said. Very well said Alan. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I feel like I learned so much from you and--
ALAN: 09:17	No worries, thank you.
MADDIE: 09:19	Yeah, I love that we got someone from Australia on here.
ALAN: 09:22	Why not? Yes [laughter]. Thanks very much. Bye, bye.
MADDIE: 09:30	[music] All right, I'm here with Chris. Welcome to the show.
CHRIS: 09:32	Thank you so much.
MADDIE: 09:34	Do you want to introduce yourself?
CHRIS: 09:35	Yes, my name is Chris Williams. I'm the Chief Technical Officer for my own company, Precision Analytics Group LLC. I am based out of Portland, Oregon. This is my third Inspire. So I'm really inspired to be here. Of course, looking forward to understanding a little bit more about what Alteryx has to offer for the upcoming year. Very encouraged by the keynote speakers today. And looking forward to 2019.2 and 2019.3.
MADDIE: 10:02	Yeah, there's a lot of exciting things coming up. So did you do any of the training or build?
CHRIS: 10:07	So I did some of the training yesterday. I participated in the spatial analytics, introduction, as well as the advanced. Some of the use cases that I'm going to be dealing with with my clients have to deal with creating trade areas and doing some analysis on trade areas so they can potentially build more stores and wineries as a result of their analysis. So I wanted to get a head start on that by diving into something that I really don't have a lot of background in which is spatial analytics. So yes, it's a little bit intimidating. But after having about a half an hour in that class and then going into the advanced class, it was very, very easy to pick up. And I have a heck of a lot more confidence now. I was able to do some of the weekly challenges as a result of that. Post those up in [inaudible] community and starting to get the ball rolling. So most of the little courses that we have coming up in the stand ups, I'm actually doing some more spatial training, and wanting to sort of nail that down before I get out of here.
MADDIE: 11:15	Yeah, spatial is one of those things that I really want to tackle. But-- and I say this and I feel like people in the community when I post this are going to just comment and say, "Oh, you should just do it," but I feel like I don't know where to get started. But I feel like you have the right idea of coming to Inspire and just having this goal of tackling it and really getting towards that mastery. Because for me, I feel like there are so many resources, but I feel like the academy team with the weekly challenges, it's so well organized, that there is a very clear path. It's just a matter of me actually doing it, so.
CHRIS: 11:52	Exactly, and there are two people that really inspired me to do it. Nicole Johnson and she's out of Seattle, and she came to the Portland user group. I'm from Portland, Oregon. So we had a nice conversation about that, and Dina Sanchez as well. So the two of them really kind of got me focused on making myself uncomfortable and learning something brand new and trying to improve myself as an Alteryx genius type of person, to be able to go into something that I really have no background on and know nothing about, and get myself to a point where I can be presentable and actually excel in any other use cases that require the knowledge of spatial analytics. So you do have to just get in there and jump into a cold pool, so to speak, and make yourself a little bit uncomfortable. It's temporary. You put your mind to it, and the practices and the challenges really do reinforce what you know, and what you will know because you're going to see those examples today, tomorrow, the next day, and then you can help somebody else like pass-- pay it forward so to speak. You pass it along to someone else who experienced the same stuff that you and I experience as far as wondering, "Oh my gosh, how am I gonna do this? This seems so daunting." It can. And it will probably for the first half hour when you get into it but it's okay. That's natural. That's learning. And a healthy fear is okay. It's the fear that drives you to be better. There's a fine line, obviously. The fear that keeps you from doing stuff is the unhealthy type, but the fear to actually drive you to be better than who you are professionally yesterday. That's a very good thing. And that's something that keeps everybody hungry. And that's something that as long as you breathe in this professional world, you need to have that because you want to actually get better each day. The day you get content is the day when things pass you by.
MADDIE: 14:01	Wow, that's really good advice. And especially coming from someone that's so high up in leadership. Tell me a little bit about-- maybe some tips or some advice from somebody who-- It sounds like you've been through the whole journey, right? You're at very high level now, so.
CHRIS: 14:18	So I've been in the whole business intelligence analytics industry for about 23 years. So I started as just basically a developer with Cognos and doing a lot of database administration work for Oracle, and some web design, dabbling in a whole different-- bunch of different areas. I went to an Inspire about three years ago in Vegas, and I got a free pass. And I was working for another consulting company at the time. And at that point, I said, "I need to know all about this, I need to do this. I have the discipline to figure it out. And I know how to integrate it with my current knowledge and I need to pass this along." So from that point on, I've slowly managed to get stronger and better and faster in understanding the use cases necessary to make this successful. And then from last year to this year, I've made a whole bunch-- a big jump as far as my acumen when it comes to Alteryx. So from this year to next year, I hope to make a bigger jump because now I have my own clients, and now I'm working with the sales team. I'm doing a lot of pre-sales stuff. Active on community, doing podcasts, looking forward to making a big splash and basically working with a bunch of people and helping a bunch of people get to where I am. The biggest advice point I would probably say is that don't sell yourself short because you procedurally know what needs to happen. It's just from a technical standpoint, you need to fill in the gaps. And if you don't put pressure on yourself to do that, it'll happen easier than not. So just stay the course, understand logistically what needs to happen in order to solve a problem, and then go ahead and put it together the best way possible. The cool thing about Alteryx is that you have a multitude of ways of solving a problem. So it's obviously you want to find the most efficient way and the best way for your client and yourself. But there's never one road that leads to a city when you're dealing with Alteryx. So just be at peace with trying to find the best answer for you.
MADDIE: 16:31	Yeah, that's incredible advice. Again, I feel like this whole thing has been very quotable moments [laughter].
CHRIS: 16:38	I don't mean to sound too cliche, but really when it gets to-- when it gets down to brass tacks, it's really that simple. You don't need to split an atom to be really good at Alteryx or be really good at analytics. You use it every day, more than you want to acknowledge.
MADDIE: 16:59	Absolutely.
CHRIS: 17:00	And being able to get to talk to other people who are using it, that's what makes Inspires so much of a wanted thing to be a part of. Because I can talk about it, I can tell you what I see. And that'll help someone else down the road. And that might help somebody who's sitting over here. But to see how other people apply Alteryx in some of the trades that you think you know about, watching someone else apply it is invaluable. You get to see that real time. You can incorporate some ideas and some strategies to make you more efficient. Maybe it'll help you and if it helps one person, that's great, because then that person will help three others, and then it'll just explode into what we have right now. It's a really tight knit, very, very informative, Alteryx community.
MADDIE: 17:55	Yeah, I completely agree. I feel like the Alteryx community is so intertwined. I mean, I saw you and I was like, "We've met before."
CHRIS: 18:05	I believe we have. I believe we met in Anaheim. So yes.
MADDIE: 18:07	Yes. And at the time in Anaheim, I was actually working for the user groups team.
CHRIS: 18:12	Oh, yes.
MADDIE: 18:12	And so yeah, you probably came because I mean, you're part of the user group in Portland and just very active on community. So, and you mentioned you want to continue your journey and keep staying active. What other goals do you have for yourself besides--? Do you have any community goals? Do you want to be in the Grand Prix? Do you want to become an Ace? What's in mind for you?
CHRIS: 18:36	So I have a list. A checklist. And some of those are actually getting checked off soon, because I'm actually doing a presentation for the Portland user group in two weeks. Talking about reporting tools and some of the workflows that I've done for some of my clients and how-- basically how Alteryx reporting, you shouldn't sleep on it because it really does a lot of great things. And there are times in which clients may not have the budget to go buy a BI tool to create a report. Alteryx can really do-- it's very sneaky, how good the reporting tools are, and the ability to develop business style reports. It's very helpful. So I'm going to be talking about that on June 26, for my guys and gals out in Portland, and that's going to be exciting. So that's one thing. And yes, I do want to become an Ace. It's just really-- you can't it's-- it's really important for me to have that high aptitude because when I go and talk to a client or talk to anybody, we need have-- I mean, I'm certified. I have the core certification. I have the partner certification, but to be identified as an Ace, it's almost-- let's say, gray haired type atmosphere when you have, "Oh, we have a wizard here," type of thing. But it just gives you another level of comfort when you go and talk to someone who doesn't know you from Adam. And you can carry on the conversation. It gets you into the door and having a real in depth conversation about analytics that clients at the very beginning-- you only get one chance to make a first impression. So you want to make sure that when you go in there you go in armed with the proper amount of information to go and have a very easygoing conversation with someone who may be very tense about their analytic situation.
MADDIE: 20:36	Right, right. I totally get that. Our Aces are amazing people and but I also feel like there are so many users on our community that are on that track. So I love to hear that people aspire to be an Ace or aspire to be speaking at their user groups and want to get more active. Yeah.
CHRIS: 20:59	Yeah. It's really imperative because in order for the community really to just continue to grow, people have to be active in it. If that requires speaking, if that requires blogs, if that requires podcasts, whatever it takes to share what you know, that has to happen, because we have 5,000 people here. And when I first got-- we had maybe 1,800 the first one I went to. We're growing at an exponential rate. And there are a lot of people who have never seen or couldn't even spell Alteryx when they got here. They're going to want guidance, and they're going to need guidance. So why not us? Why not you?
MADDIE: 21:41	Awesome. This was wonderful. Thank you so much.
CHRIS: 21:43	Oh, it's been a pleasure and I hope to talk in the future.
MADDIE: 21:51	[music] All right, I'm here with Lanier. Welcome to Alter Everything.
LANIER: 21:54	Thank you so much, and it's nice to be here. I've definitely listen to a couple of episodes of the podcast. But being that I'm-- it's a bit of a range of experience in terms of data and familiarity with some of the term. So a couple times I have to pause and Google a couple of things [laughter], but definitely glad to be here today.
MADDIE: 22:11	I have to do the same thing. Some of the guests that we have I-- especially if there are really technical episodes, I will just constantly be googling the whole time trying to keep up with the conversation. And because people who have listened I haven't hosted that many episodes before. This is actually kind of my first wave of hosting. But typically, on all of the episodes, I'm in the background listening live as the people are talking--
LANIER: 22:37	Studying.
MADDIE: 22:38	Yes, I'm studying. But it also kind of goes into the production process. But yeah, I mean, we definitely do a lot of technical episodes, and I'm definitely not on that level yet, so [laughter].
LANIER: 22:51	We're in the same page.
MADDIE: 22:53	So is this your first Inspire?
LANIER: 22:55	No, it's actually my second. So I was at the conference last year in sunny California--
MADDIE: 23:02	In Anaheim.
LANIER: 23:02	Yeah. And I'm from New York, so it was definitely a nice change of pace after the winter we had last year so, to be at the conference. So yeah, my second year.
MADDIE: 23:10	Anaheim was so much fun.
LANIER: 23:12	Yeah, it was great, and to be next door to Disney as well, because there was a trip to Disney. Did you go with the--?
MADDIE: 23:18	I did not go.
LANIER: 23:18	Okay.
MADDIE: 23:19	Did you go?
LANIER: 23:19	I took I took a trip. Yeah, I had to.
MADDIE: 23:21	You had to?
LANIER: 23:22	[The thing is?] you're so close it's like if you don't go it's a missed opportunity.
MADDIE: 23:25	We'll see-- and you're gonna laugh because I live in Irvine and I've never been to Disneyland yet.
LANIER: 23:30	Oh no.
MADDIE: 23:30	But I've only lived there for like a year.
LANIER: 23:32	Okay, so that's allowed.
MADDIE: 23:33	Yeah, that's not bad. There is still part of me where I feel like I don't have an excuse at this point. Because it's been over a year.
LANIER: 23:40	Yeah. Have you been to the I guess in Orlando Disney World, either?
MADDIE: 23:45	I haven't been there either.
LANIER: 23:46	Oh man.
MADDIE: 23:46	I know. I was--
LANIER: 23:47	Going to have to press pause on the conference.
MADDIE: 23:49	I know. Yeah. We got to press pause. I have to go to Disneyland. I know. I was deprived as a child. I never went to Disney World, so or Disneyland. But yeah. So where do you think you want to go with your analytics journey?
LANIER: 24:00	Yes, that's a very good question [laughter] because I work at UI. I'm in the assurance [in our?] assurance practice, specifically for financial services. So I'm a CPA at heart, or I guess CPA at mind, analytics advocate at heart. So I think the industry in general for accounting, and the skills of CPAs are definitely shifting. So, for me, I think it kind of started out with the more traditional path of accountancy, from the CPA route, I was obviously going and taking that exam. But I think long term since we have-- just thinking about the amount of data that we have from our clients and the-- how the shift of the perspective of the CPA is going from your neighborhood accountant to business adviser, and I think the wealth of data that we have access to from our clients and obviously being mindful of the security around that, but more so what the potential power that's kind of inherent in that and having access to all that. And from the analytics perspective, to answer your question, I think that's kind of where I see the industry as a whole going specifically from an accounting perspective, but my career kind of trying to direct towards that path. And really trying to harness the power of the wealth of data that we have access to and trying to be more insightful about it.
MADDIE: 25:34	So did you-- do you think that you always wanted to be a CPA?
LANIER: 25:40	No [laughter]. No, I think-- so I had started-- I was definitely I was interested in business. And I think true to the typical perception of accountant, I really liked math. But I slowly found out that that wasn't all. It's not entirely math driven, even though there are some components to it. And I think even now, as whenever you kind of mentioned that I'm an accountant, the first thing is I can't look at numbers all day. But I think there's something to that in the sense that there's a lot you can do with it. And I think from the perspective of Alteryx and all the innovation around the use of workflows and really trying to automate work I think, the same thing that got me interested in accounting, the mathematics piece, isn't the same thing that will kind of sustain the profession too, I think. Because I think the other side that I'm definitely interested in is the design piece. And fortunately enough, it's called the designer. And I think there's a lot contained in that to really orient the tools in different ways based on how you see it in your head. And I think there's a more creative component to accounting with applications like Alteryx that you don't get as much credit for as being creative. And being creative in accounting is kind of like a curse word [laughter].
MADDIE: 27:23	From your life experience and from whatever path you choose to take, there's always-- there's a lot of different ways to come to analytics. And it's a great field to be in and it spans all industries. And there's gonna be a need for talent always in those different perspectives.
LANIER: 27:40	For sure. For sure, yeah. And I think it's interesting as well, because the-- and I know here at the conference there's going to be the-- there's a luncheon, I believe, for women, women in analytics. So that's great. I think obviously, STEM fields, and recently I heard the term STEAM as well, I think that's become a thing with science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. So there goes the rope in of the art history too. But I think, historically, obviously, the industry has been very, very male dominated. And I think there's a difference in perspective and I think just overall approach as well that people from different backgrounds and communities have. I think the women and analytics luncheon is one thing that'll definitely tap into that. And even know other underrepresented communities as well. Being a member of NABA, National Association of Black Accountants, I think in accounting in general, we're also going through a demographic shift in terms of the pipeline of CPA candidates and their preparedness as well. So these are all things that I think in terms of the sustainability of the profession, but also for its efficacy as well. It's important to kind of have all of those working together at once. And obviously, I think the Alteryx community is keeping that in mind with that luncheon, and I'm sure there'll be more in the future too.
MADDIE: 29:28	Yeah. Absolutely. And I love the shout out to NABA, because I-- with women of analytics, that's-- I'm assisting with that luncheon for women of analytics. And we branded it this year to be analytics as an equalizer, sponsored by women of analytics, because we really want men to come too and we really want it to be everybody is involved. All genders. Whatever you identify with, just come join us. It's more conversation about using analytics to level the playing field and bring in those new perspectives. And like you were saying with NABA, you've seen an increase in the diversity pool in the pipeline for CPAs overall and I feel like that's something that we would really love to not only promote but also track in some way so that in that way we can see you-- okay yeah, these luncheons do mean something to people and these people are craving more diversity in their pipelines for recruiting and the Grand Prix even last year with Nicole Johnson winning and then in London, we had Katrina Herb, but she's from in the UK. She won in London. And so yeah, I feel like there's always more room for underrepresented communities at the table. So and I love seeing the upward trend towards that. But I feel like there's always going to be more work to do and more conversations to have and I love seeing that it's at the top of your mind and at the top of so many people's minds. So yeah.
LANIER: 31:02	Yeah. That should be great. Definitely. Want to hear more about that for sure, and kind of what comes out of it.
MADDIE: 31:09	Yeah. Yeah. It should be a very, very awesome panel, so.
LANIER: 31:12	That's great. Yeah, it was a great concept to have analytics as an equalizer. I'm not sure if the direction is towards, specifically from a representation perspective in the industry, or even from a community perspective, too, because I think there's a lot there with all of the-- I think, in general companies are kind of being mindful of data that's being generated period. If you think of obviously like the Netflix’s of the world, Amazons. But I think our communities generate data as well. Kind of how-- I think there's actually a session, I think it's Tallahassee. I'll have to double check that. But I think Tallahassee there's someone from I believe it's their government, I forget which branch, but kind of speaking about how they're employing data, or just the capture and the generation and capture of data and analytics around it as well. So I think there's an equalizer too. There's a community component out, obviously outside of just thinking specifically in terms of gender, ethnicity, and race and things like that. But also to equalize communities too because there's obviously power in data and the proper use of it and the mining of it and the analytics component too that I think helps to bring the right eyes and action to actually be able to make a difference on those things.
MADDIE: 32:56	Yeah. Yeah. I love these conversations [laughter]. It's so refreshing and I feel like you really get it and you're very in tune with how a lot of people feel. So I very much appreciate your perspective.
LANIER: 33:13	Well I appreciate that. That's a very kind complement. Thank you.
MADDIE: 33:16	Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I really appreciate you joining me. This has been so wonderful. You're a very great speaker. And--
LANIER: 33:23	Oh, thank you, Maddie.
MADDIE: 33:24	--you did great [laughter].
LANIER: 33:27	Thank you so much, it is honestly an honor to be here and to kind of share some thoughts too. But really, the conference has been a good incubator of that-- and kind of developing those thoughts too. So definitely glad I could join you here. It was definitely my pleasure.
MADDIE: 33:46	Awesome. Great. Thank you.
MADDIE: 34:01	[music] Thanks for tuning in to Alter Everything. To share your thoughts and ideas for future episodes, join us at community.alteryx.com/podcast or reach us on Twitter using the #AlterEverythingpodcast. Have a unique story to tell? send us an email at podcast@alteryx.com. Catch you next time.
JOSH: 34:33	This episode has been brought to you by the sort tool. Are you tired of digging through messy piles of data? Does clean, organized data give you the chills of satisfaction? Well, search no more. The sort tool brought to you by Alteryx. Organizes your data by sorting numerically or alphabetically. But watch out. What happens if you try to sort by a number stored as a string? Well, Alteryx has you covered there too. Check out the ASCII values of each string and you'll see your data sorted just the way the alphabet would. The sort tool, find it in your friendly neighborhood preparation tool palette.

MADDIE: 00:13 [music] Welcome to Alter Everything, a podcast about data science and analytics culture. I'm Maddie Johansen, and I'll be your host. For part three of our special Live from Inspire Nashville series, we're joined by Alteryx users, Alan Walter, Chris Williams, and Lanier Mason for their takes on analytics culture. Let's get started. Alan, welcome to the show. ALAN: 00:46 Oh, thank you. Pleased to be here. MADDIE: 00:48 And tell us where you're from. I think we can tell from your accent. ALAN: 00:50 [inaudible] Australia. I'm from Australia. Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. And I'm up here with one of my sons and meeting up with other son over who works up in Michigan, so. MADDIE: 01:03 Oh, amazing. ALAN: 01:03 Bit of a family reunion here today. That's good [laughter]. MADDIE: 01:06 That's wonderful. Yeah. It would be really great to have family that lives in Australia and here so you can go back and forth to visit. ALAN: 01:12 That's right. It's very handy. Yeah [laughter]. MADDIE: 01:15 Yeah, I need a good excuse to go to Australia, so. ALAN: 01:18 Oh, you-- you don't need any excuse, just come over. MADDIE: 01:20 Yeah [laughter]. I've always wanted to go. That would be amazing. ALAN: 01:23 It's a great-- Americans find it very relaxing, very comfortable. And we find the same in reverse. Very relaxed in America as well, for the same reasons. We have similar cultures and similar ideals, I suppose. MADDIE: 01:35 Yeah. ALAN: 01:35 That's good. MADDIE: 01:36 Yeah, absolutely. So how did you get into analytics? What's your journey? ALAN: 01:41 Well, I guess my first computer ever was a PDP-8 back in about 1970. So I've been around a while in this area. So as a young fellow, I started writing programs on a very early micro-- a mini-computer, I suppose. And been in that game-- I'm an engineer by qualification, but I've always worked in computers one way or another. So that's been my background. Yeah. MADDIE: 02:06 Yeah. Spending all that time with computers, it sounds like you were very interested and very in tune with what is next. And I feel like analytics and data science is-- it's already here, but it's also what's next. It's just going to keep growing. ALAN: 02:24 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, when I first started, we used to write code as assembler. And of course, it'd take you an entire data to write A B C on the screen-- not over the screen. On the [teletype?]. So now what happens is that things take seconds, which used to take days. It's incredible what you can put together so quickly. And the whole paradigm has changed a number of times. Starting at assembler code, and then moving on to the next round was sort of using compiler languages and then moving into the sort of fancier languages like Python and so forth. And now of course, it's all drag and drop. And the next round will be nothing but drag and drop for the whole parametric code is where I see it going. So it's a whole new world. MADDIE: 03:09 Yeah. I love what you said about just that comparison to when you first got started, and I wonder, have you noticed any sort of-- something that I think a lot about is how I like to learn, and how other people like to learn too. And I feel like so many people are-- they want things quickly because we're used to it now. But I mean, from your experience, how would you-- can you relate to that? Do you feel like you will also want things quickly? And do you feel like you still kind of have that learning--? ALAN: 03:47 It's a combination of both in a way. I think whatever you do, it's based on where you've come from and what you've done. So you build on the past always. So for example, I've spent many, many years in this field, but also in the telecommunications field, and so all those things sort of came together. So that when we-- as an engineer, you're taught to think a certain way, and Alteryx works beautifully with engineering way of thinking. Because the idea is you factor the problem into multiple pieces, and then make each piece sort of an independent entity. I always describe as like building a car. A car has many pieces, and each piece is independently designed. And you pull apart a car apart, and it just lies as a bunch of pieces on the front lawn. But when you put it together, it becomes a car. It becomes a whole new concept. So and I think programming is the same. You start with a bunch of binary bits, and you end up with something amazing, like Alteryx. It's a continuous layers and layers and layers of improvement and encapsulation and abstraction. And it's very, very powerful to see it all happen. And Alteryx just embodies that. I think which is why I relate very much to that because I can see how to break up a problem and then plug it on the paper and it works straight away. That's the beauty of it because you got a set of working pieces, which know how to work together. I just plug and play and they work together straight away. No, no errors, no issues and work very fast. So it's a great product. I love it. MADDIE: 05:18 That engineering mindset that you mentioned, talk to me a little bit more about that. ALAN: 05:24 Yeah, sure. I think there's a couple of things that are relevant. So many disciplines. You've got your own discipline. You've been taught to work a certain way, think a certain way, analyze problems a certain way, whether you're a chemical engineer or a mechanical engineer, or any sort of other scientist type person or whatever, or marketing person. In fact, there's all these discipline built in and you have this domain knowledge that when you can put that together and just drag and drop stuff together using your knowledge of how you solve a problem, and then using very simple techniques in terms of encapsulated components, which say, " Oh yeah, I know what I need to do there, then I need to do that." And before you know it, you've got an algorithm written and it does something, which is-- you couldn't do easily 10 years ago. You couldn't do it. You go through a whole process and it's-- go after someone in IT, and you spend hours and hours and hours trying to convey the problem and they go away, and they built something and it wouldn't be quite what you wanted, and then another few weeks would by and then you'd be testing it and their still it wouldn't quite work and horse-- a camel instead of a horses. It's always our stories it's absolutely true. Whereas when you have the power to solve the problem that's in your own head, then that's very, very powerful tool. And that's the way Alteryx brings that to the table. You can actually use your domain knowledge and then put together the solution yourself. And that's very, very empowering. Yeah. MADDIE: 06:56 Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I feel very-- empowered is a very good way of saying it. I love that you use that word because I feel very empowered when I use it. And I feel like-- I didn't come from a data science background and I'm just getting started in my career and I-- or I guess my career in analytics. I've been here for about a year, and I would say, there's so much that I've learned and I feel like I can continue to learn at such an exponential rate if I choose to do so. And I feel like that's the beauty of it is you can learn exactly what you want and it's all at your fingertips and there is a platform to accelerate that process for you, so. ALAN: 07:42 I think there's a slight risk that there's a lot of what I call craft in IT, which is hard earned experience and expertise and ways of doing things, and we do need to ensure that If you give someone the controls of a bulldozer, you can do a lot of damage and a lot of-- in a hurry as well. Or you can achieve a lot in a hurry. But that's good too because you can build such powerful tools, you do need to bring to bear a level of what I call the craft because if you don't do that you can build something and it'll be very, very good, very powerful. But from a business perspective, it's also important that it actually can fit into the slot into the tool set that's in the business because you do need to apply appropriate testing of the whole idea. It doesn't break from the point of view of Ateryx not working but the idea or the solution might be poor because if you haven't thought of all the pieces you need to put in place. So there's elements like that, I think, which are important, and that's an important-- that's more important than learning how to code. I think is just learning how to solve the problem and put it together in a sensible way so that you do get a good answer at the end. So I think that's actually our next challenge really is to not lose the what I call the craft, build that into people so that when they pick up the tool they go, "Ah, yes I know the best way to use this. And I know how to close off all the loose ends and make sure it works." So that's an important part. MADDIE: 09:11 Very, very well said. Very well said Alan. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I feel like I learned so much from you and-- ALAN: 09:17 No worries, thank you. MADDIE: 09:19 Yeah, I love that we got someone from Australia on here. ALAN: 09:22 Why not? Yes [laughter]. Thanks very much. Bye, bye. MADDIE: 09:30 [music] All right, I'm here with Chris. Welcome to the show. CHRIS: 09:32 Thank you so much. MADDIE: 09:34 Do you want to introduce yourself? CHRIS: 09:35 Yes, my name is Chris Williams. I'm the Chief Technical Officer for my own company, Precision Analytics Group LLC. I am based out of Portland, Oregon. This is my third Inspire. So I'm really inspired to be here. Of course, looking forward to understanding a little bit more about what Alteryx has to offer for the upcoming year. Very encouraged by the keynote speakers today. And looking forward to 2019.2 and 2019.3. MADDIE: 10:02 Yeah, there's a lot of exciting things coming up. So did you do any of the training or build? CHRIS: 10:07 So I did some of the training yesterday. I participated in the spatial analytics, introduction, as well as the advanced. Some of the use cases that I'm going to be dealing with with my clients have to deal with creating trade areas and doing some analysis on trade areas so they can potentially build more stores and wineries as a result of their analysis. So I wanted to get a head start on that by diving into something that I really don't have a lot of background in which is spatial analytics. So yes, it's a little bit intimidating. But after having about a half an hour in that class and then going into the advanced class, it was very, very easy to pick up. And I have a heck of a lot more confidence now. I was able to do some of the weekly challenges as a result of that. Post those up in [inaudible] community and starting to get the ball rolling. So most of the little courses that we have coming up in the stand ups, I'm actually doing some more spatial training, and wanting to sort of nail that down before I get out of here. MADDIE: 11:15 Yeah, spatial is one of those things that I really want to tackle. But-- and I say this and I feel like people in the community when I post this are going to just comment and say, "Oh, you should just do it," but I feel like I don't know where to get started. But I feel like you have the right idea of coming to Inspire and just having this goal of tackling it and really getting towards that mastery. Because for me, I feel like there are so many resources, but I feel like the academy team with the weekly challenges, it's so well organized, that there is a very clear path. It's just a matter of me actually doing it, so. CHRIS: 11:52 Exactly, and there are two people that really inspired me to do it. Nicole Johnson and she's out of Seattle, and she came to the Portland user group. I'm from Portland, Oregon. So we had a nice conversation about that, and Dina Sanchez as well. So the two of them really kind of got me focused on making myself uncomfortable and learning something brand new and trying to improve myself as an Alteryx genius type of person, to be able to go into something that I really have no background on and know nothing about, and get myself to a point where I can be presentable and actually excel in any other use cases that require the knowledge of spatial analytics. So you do have to just get in there and jump into a cold pool, so to speak, and make yourself a little bit uncomfortable. It's temporary. You put your mind to it, and the practices and the challenges really do reinforce what you know, and what you will know because you're going to see those examples today, tomorrow, the next day, and then you can help somebody else like pass-- pay it forward so to speak. You pass it along to someone else who experienced the same stuff that you and I experience as far as wondering, "Oh my gosh, how am I gonna do this? This seems so daunting." It can. And it will probably for the first half hour when you get into it but it's okay. That's natural. That's learning. And a healthy fear is okay. It's the fear that drives you to be better. There's a fine line, obviously. The fear that keeps you from doing stuff is the unhealthy type, but the fear to actually drive you to be better than who you are professionally yesterday. That's a very good thing. And that's something that keeps everybody hungry. And that's something that as long as you breathe in this professional world, you need to have that because you want to actually get better each day. The day you get content is the day when things pass you by. MADDIE: 14:01 Wow, that's really good advice. And especially coming from someone that's so high up in leadership. Tell me a little bit about-- maybe some tips or some advice from somebody who-- It sounds like you've been through the whole journey, right? You're at very high level now, so. CHRIS: 14:18 So I've been in the whole business intelligence analytics industry for about 23 years. So I started as just basically a developer with Cognos and doing a lot of database administration work for Oracle, and some web design, dabbling in a whole different-- bunch of different areas. I went to an Inspire about three years ago in Vegas, and I got a free pass. And I was working for another consulting company at the time. And at that point, I said, "I need to know all about this, I need to do this. I have the discipline to figure it out. And I know how to integrate it with my current knowledge and I need to pass this along." So from that point on, I've slowly managed to get stronger and better and faster in understanding the use cases necessary to make this successful. And then from last year to this year, I've made a whole bunch-- a big jump as far as my acumen when it comes to Alteryx. So from this year to next year, I hope to make a bigger jump because now I have my own clients, and now I'm working with the sales team. I'm doing a lot of pre-sales stuff. Active on community, doing podcasts, looking forward to making a big splash and basically working with a bunch of people and helping a bunch of people get to where I am. The biggest advice point I would probably say is that don't sell yourself short because you procedurally know what needs to happen. It's just from a technical standpoint, you need to fill in the gaps. And if you don't put pressure on yourself to do that, it'll happen easier than not. So just stay the course, understand logistically what needs to happen in order to solve a problem, and then go ahead and put it together the best way possible. The cool thing about Alteryx is that you have a multitude of ways of solving a problem. So it's obviously you want to find the most efficient way and the best way for your client and yourself. But there's never one road that leads to a city when you're dealing with Alteryx. So just be at peace with trying to find the best answer for you. MADDIE: 16:31 Yeah, that's incredible advice. Again, I feel like this whole thing has been very quotable moments [laughter]. CHRIS: 16:38 I don't mean to sound too cliche, but really when it gets to-- when it gets down to brass tacks, it's really that simple. You don't need to split an atom to be really good at Alteryx or be really good at analytics. You use it every day, more than you want to acknowledge. MADDIE: 16:59 Absolutely. CHRIS: 17:00 And being able to get to talk to other people who are using it, that's what makes Inspires so much of a wanted thing to be a part of. Because I can talk about it, I can tell you what I see. And that'll help someone else down the road. And that might help somebody who's sitting over here. But to see how other people apply Alteryx in some of the trades that you think you know about, watching someone else apply it is invaluable. You get to see that real time. You can incorporate some ideas and some strategies to make you more efficient. Maybe it'll help you and if it helps one person, that's great, because then that person will help three others, and then it'll just explode into what we have right now. It's a really tight knit, very, very informative, Alteryx community. MADDIE: 17:55 Yeah, I completely agree. I feel like the Alteryx community is so intertwined. I mean, I saw you and I was like, "We've met before." CHRIS: 18:05 I believe we have. I believe we met in Anaheim. So yes. MADDIE: 18:07 Yes. And at the time in Anaheim, I was actually working for the user groups team. CHRIS: 18:12 Oh, yes. MADDIE: 18:12 And so yeah, you probably came because I mean, you're part of the user group in Portland and just very active on community. So, and you mentioned you want to continue your journey and keep staying active. What other goals do you have for yourself besides--? Do you have any community goals? Do you want to be in the Grand Prix? Do you want to become an Ace? What's in mind for you? CHRIS: 18:36 So I have a list. A checklist. And some of those are actually getting checked off soon, because I'm actually doing a presentation for the Portland user group in two weeks. Talking about reporting tools and some of the workflows that I've done for some of my clients and how-- basically how Alteryx reporting, you shouldn't sleep on it because it really does a lot of great things. And there are times in which clients may not have the budget to go buy a BI tool to create a report. Alteryx can really do-- it's very sneaky, how good the reporting tools are, and the ability to develop business style reports. It's very helpful. So I'm going to be talking about that on June 26, for my guys and gals out in Portland, and that's going to be exciting. So that's one thing. And yes, I do want to become an Ace. It's just really-- you can't it's-- it's really important for me to have that high aptitude because when I go and talk to a client or talk to anybody, we need have-- I mean, I'm certified. I have the core certification. I have the partner certification, but to be identified as an Ace, it's almost-- let's say, gray haired type atmosphere when you have, "Oh, we have a wizard here," type of thing. But it just gives you another level of comfort when you go and talk to someone who doesn't know you from Adam. And you can carry on the conversation. It gets you into the door and having a real in depth conversation about analytics that clients at the very beginning-- you only get one chance to make a first impression. So you want to make sure that when you go in there you go in armed with the proper amount of information to go and have a very easygoing conversation with someone who may be very tense about their analytic situation. MADDIE: 20:36 Right, right. I totally get that. Our Aces are amazing people and but I also feel like there are so many users on our community that are on that track. So I love to hear that people aspire to be an Ace or aspire to be speaking at their user groups and want to get more active. Yeah. CHRIS: 20:59 Yeah. It's really imperative because in order for the community really to just continue to grow, people have to be active in it. If that requires speaking, if that requires blogs, if that requires podcasts, whatever it takes to share what you know, that has to happen, because we have 5,000 people here. And when I first got-- we had maybe 1,800 the first one I went to. We're growing at an exponential rate. And there are a lot of people who have never seen or couldn't even spell Alteryx when they got here. They're going to want guidance, and they're going to need guidance. So why not us? Why not you? MADDIE: 21:41 Awesome. This was wonderful. Thank you so much. CHRIS: 21:43 Oh, it's been a pleasure and I hope to talk in the future. MADDIE: 21:51 [music] All right, I'm here with Lanier. Welcome to Alter Everything. LANIER: 21:54 Thank you so much, and it's nice to be here. I've definitely listen to a couple of episodes of the podcast. But being that I'm-- it's a bit of a range of experience in terms of data and familiarity with some of the term. So a couple times I have to pause and Google a couple of things [laughter], but definitely glad to be here today. MADDIE: 22:11 I have to do the same thing. Some of the guests that we have I-- especially if there are really technical episodes, I will just constantly be googling the whole time trying to keep up with the conversation. And because people who have listened I haven't hosted that many episodes before. This is actually kind of my first wave of hosting. But typically, on all of the episodes, I'm in the background listening live as the people are talking-- LANIER: 22:37 Studying. MADDIE: 22:38 Yes, I'm studying. But it also kind of goes into the production process. But yeah, I mean, we definitely do a lot of technical episodes, and I'm definitely not on that level yet, so [laughter]. LANIER: 22:51 We're in the same page. MADDIE: 22:53 So is this your first Inspire? LANIER: 22:55 No, it's actually my second. So I was at the conference last year in sunny California-- MADDIE: 23:02 In Anaheim. LANIER: 23:02 Yeah. And I'm from New York, so it was definitely a nice change of pace after the winter we had last year so, to be at the conference. So yeah, my second year. MADDIE: 23:10 Anaheim was so much fun. LANIER: 23:12 Yeah, it was great, and to be next door to Disney as well, because there was a trip to Disney. Did you go with the--? MADDIE: 23:18 I did not go. LANIER: 23:18 Okay. MADDIE: 23:19 Did you go? LANIER: 23:19 I took I took a trip. Yeah, I had to. MADDIE: 23:21 You had to? LANIER: 23:22 [The thing is?] you're so close it's like if you don't go it's a missed opportunity. MADDIE: 23:25 We'll see-- and you're gonna laugh because I live in Irvine and I've never been to Disneyland yet. LANIER: 23:30 Oh no. MADDIE: 23:30 But I've only lived there for like a year. LANIER: 23:32 Okay, so that's allowed. MADDIE: 23:33 Yeah, that's not bad. There is still part of me where I feel like I don't have an excuse at this point. Because it's been over a year. LANIER: 23:40 Yeah. Have you been to the I guess in Orlando Disney World, either? MADDIE: 23:45 I haven't been there either. LANIER: 23:46 Oh man. MADDIE: 23:46 I know. I was-- LANIER: 23:47 Going to have to press pause on the conference. MADDIE: 23:49 I know. Yeah. We got to press pause. I have to go to Disneyland. I know. I was deprived as a child. I never went to Disney World, so or Disneyland. But yeah. So where do you think you want to go with your analytics journey? LANIER: 24:00 Yes, that's a very good question [laughter] because I work at UI. I'm in the assurance [in our?] assurance practice, specifically for financial services. So I'm a CPA at heart, or I guess CPA at mind, analytics advocate at heart. So I think the industry in general for accounting, and the skills of CPAs are definitely shifting. So, for me, I think it kind of started out with the more traditional path of accountancy, from the CPA route, I was obviously going and taking that exam. But I think long term since we have-- just thinking about the amount of data that we have from our clients and the-- how the shift of the perspective of the CPA is going from your neighborhood accountant to business adviser, and I think the wealth of data that we have access to from our clients and obviously being mindful of the security around that, but more so what the potential power that's kind of inherent in that and having access to all that. And from the analytics perspective, to answer your question, I think that's kind of where I see the industry as a whole going specifically from an accounting perspective, but my career kind of trying to direct towards that path. And really trying to harness the power of the wealth of data that we have access to and trying to be more insightful about it. MADDIE: 25:34 So did you-- do you think that you always wanted to be a CPA? LANIER: 25:40 No [laughter]. No, I think-- so I had started-- I was definitely I was interested in business. And I think true to the typical perception of accountant, I really liked math. But I slowly found out that that wasn't all. It's not entirely math driven, even though there are some components to it. And I think even now, as whenever you kind of mentioned that I'm an accountant, the first thing is I can't look at numbers all day. But I think there's something to that in the sense that there's a lot you can do with it. And I think from the perspective of Alteryx and all the innovation around the use of workflows and really trying to automate work I think, the same thing that got me interested in accounting, the mathematics piece, isn't the same thing that will kind of sustain the profession too, I think. Because I think the other side that I'm definitely interested in is the design piece. And fortunately enough, it's called the designer. And I think there's a lot contained in that to really orient the tools in different ways based on how you see it in your head. And I think there's a more creative component to accounting with applications like Alteryx that you don't get as much credit for as being creative. And being creative in accounting is kind of like a curse word [laughter]. MADDIE: 27:23 From your life experience and from whatever path you choose to take, there's always-- there's a lot of different ways to come to analytics. And it's a great field to be in and it spans all industries. And there's gonna be a need for talent always in those different perspectives. LANIER: 27:40 For sure. For sure, yeah. And I think it's interesting as well, because the-- and I know here at the conference there's going to be the-- there's a luncheon, I believe, for women, women in analytics. So that's great. I think obviously, STEM fields, and recently I heard the term STEAM as well, I think that's become a thing with science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. So there goes the rope in of the art history too. But I think, historically, obviously, the industry has been very, very male dominated. And I think there's a difference in perspective and I think just overall approach as well that people from different backgrounds and communities have. I think the women and analytics luncheon is one thing that'll definitely tap into that. And even know other underrepresented communities as well. Being a member of NABA, National Association of Black Accountants, I think in accounting in general, we're also going through a demographic shift in terms of the pipeline of CPA candidates and their preparedness as well. So these are all things that I think in terms of the sustainability of the profession, but also for its efficacy as well. It's important to kind of have all of those working together at once. And obviously, I think the Alteryx community is keeping that in mind with that luncheon, and I'm sure there'll be more in the future too. MADDIE: 29:28 Yeah. Absolutely. And I love the shout out to NABA, because I-- with women of analytics, that's-- I'm assisting with that luncheon for women of analytics. And we branded it this year to be analytics as an equalizer, sponsored by women of analytics, because we really want men to come too and we really want it to be everybody is involved. All genders. Whatever you identify with, just come join us. It's more conversation about using analytics to level the playing field and bring in those new perspectives. And like you were saying with NABA, you've seen an increase in the diversity pool in the pipeline for CPAs overall and I feel like that's something that we would really love to not only promote but also track in some way so that in that way we can see you-- okay yeah, these luncheons do mean something to people and these people are craving more diversity in their pipelines for recruiting and the Grand Prix even last year with Nicole Johnson winning and then in London, we had Katrina Herb, but she's from in the UK. She won in London. And so yeah, I feel like there's always more room for underrepresented communities at the table. So and I love seeing the upward trend towards that. But I feel like there's always going to be more work to do and more conversations to have and I love seeing that it's at the top of your mind and at the top of so many people's minds. So yeah. LANIER: 31:02 Yeah. That should be great. Definitely. Want to hear more about that for sure, and kind of what comes out of it. MADDIE: 31:09 Yeah. Yeah. It should be a very, very awesome panel, so. LANIER: 31:12 That's great. Yeah, it was a great concept to have analytics as an equalizer. I'm not sure if the direction is towards, specifically from a representation perspective in the industry, or even from a community perspective, too, because I think there's a lot there with all of the-- I think, in general companies are kind of being mindful of data that's being generated period. If you think of obviously like the Netflix’s of the world, Amazons. But I think our communities generate data as well. Kind of how-- I think there's actually a session, I think it's Tallahassee. I'll have to double check that. But I think Tallahassee there's someone from I believe it's their government, I forget which branch, but kind of speaking about how they're employing data, or just the capture and the generation and capture of data and analytics around it as well. So I think there's an equalizer too. There's a community component out, obviously outside of just thinking specifically in terms of gender, ethnicity, and race and things like that. But also to equalize communities too because there's obviously power in data and the proper use of it and the mining of it and the analytics component too that I think helps to bring the right eyes and action to actually be able to make a difference on those things. MADDIE: 32:56 Yeah. Yeah. I love these conversations [laughter]. It's so refreshing and I feel like you really get it and you're very in tune with how a lot of people feel. So I very much appreciate your perspective. LANIER: 33:13 Well I appreciate that. That's a very kind complement. Thank you. MADDIE: 33:16 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I really appreciate you joining me. This has been so wonderful. You're a very great speaker. And-- LANIER: 33:23 Oh, thank you, Maddie. MADDIE: 33:24 --you did great [laughter]. LANIER: 33:27 Thank you so much, it is honestly an honor to be here and to kind of share some thoughts too. But really, the conference has been a good incubator of that-- and kind of developing those thoughts too. So definitely glad I could join you here. It was definitely my pleasure. MADDIE: 33:46 Awesome. Great. Thank you. MADDIE: 34:01 [music] Thanks for tuning in to Alter Everything. To share your thoughts and ideas for future episodes, join us at community.alteryx.com/podcast or reach us on Twitter using the #AlterEverythingpodcast. Have a unique story to tell? send us an email at podcast@alteryx.com. Catch you next time. JOSH: 34:33 This episode has been brought to you by the sort tool. Are you tired of digging through messy piles of data? Does clean, organized data give you the chills of satisfaction? Well, search no more. The sort tool brought to you by Alteryx. Organizes your data by sorting numerically or alphabetically. But watch out. What happens if you try to sort by a number stored as a string? Well, Alteryx has you covered there too. Check out the ASCII values of each string and you'll see your data sorted just the way the alphabet would. The sort tool, find it in your friendly neighborhood preparation tool palette.

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

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38: You don’t need to split an atom

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