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Alter.Nation

Community news, customer stories, and more!
WillM
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

The season of spooky is over with the close of October, and we're getting generally colder weather here in the northern hemisphere, so bundle up and read on!


In Case You Missed It

*Community news & announcements.

 

Alteryx For Good

 

With the ADAPT program going strong, @Emil_Kos started a great thread to share job postings that may require some level of Alteryx knowledge.  Even with the ability to search throughout online boards for positions, it can be really helpful to hear from other community members when it comes to openings.  If you know of anything that might be a good fit for the thread, check it out and share!

 

October also had a really great event hosted by the AFG team on Academics, Analytics, and the data worker of the future. If you missed the live event, check out the thread and get the background before watching the video on demand!

 

Digital Costumes

 

Since we couldn't really attend any Halloween parties in person this year, @KylieF brought back a super fun community costume thread!  For the weekend of Halloween, all community members had the opportunity to change their avatar and rank in the community to the costume of their choice (bonus for the fact that it could really be anything and required no sewing skills).  Check out the thread here.  It's too late to change your costume at this point, but you can definitely see all of the fun ideas that people had in the community and maybe spark some ideas planning for next year!

 

Behind the Scenes

 

We're not quite ready to share some of the things we've been working on, but be on the lookout through the end of the year for a lot of fun stuff coming up.  We'll be introducing some new activities in the community and streamlining some stuff that we can't wait for you to see, so stay tuned!


Never. Stop. Learning.

*Alteryx Academy. All the training resources you need.

 

We’ve added new Interactive Lessons to our localized Academies so you can be fluent in data in any language! The Writing Expressions course is now available in French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The Japanese Academy also has a new Predictive Modeling course.   

 

Level up with the new Advanced Certification Learning Path 

 

One of the best ways to prove you truly understand Alteryx Designer is to attain a certification saying just that. The first certification available is the Core Certification which ensures you have the skills to solve problems in Designer with fluidity and grace. Well maybe not always with grace, but after becoming Core certified you understand the functionality and limitations of the most commonly used tools in Designer. The next step in your certification journey is the Advanced Certification, which requires users to “understand a wider breadth of tool functionality and apply their knowledge to more complex applications”. As you might expect from the complex applications terminology, this exam focuses on more specialized tools that can take your workflows to the next level.  

 

But as the saying goes, “if it was easy, everyone would do it!” Passing the Advanced Certification exam will require some dedicated time and effort, but the new Advanced Certification Learning Path can help you to reduce the amount of time and effort required! 

 

This Learning Path compiles some of the best resources from around the Community to help you study in the most efficient way. If you already feel comfortable with a topic covered, you can self-select only the areas you want to view. The contents of the learning path is broken into 7 topics: 

 

  • Macros – create your own tools to save time and increase the capability of Designer 
  • Applications – allow end-users to alter workflows without opening Designer 
  • Parsing – use on the Regex tool to parse your data in complex ways 
  • Spatial – enhance your analysis with geospatial information in Designer 
  • Reporting – share your findings with others in a variety of unique formats  
  • General – take a practice test and learn about the testing environment 
  • Other – expand on concepts from the Core certification and explore the Data Investigation palette

When you’re ready, you can take the Advanced Certification Exam for free, anytime you like! Get started today and show the world what you know, even if you haven’t learned it yet! 

 

New Macro Interactive Lessons 

 

The Alteryx Academy is proud to announce the launch of our latest interactive course: Macros! Macros can seem intimidating to even experienced users of Designer. So this course is designed to give an introduction and overview on what Macros are, why you may want to use them, and the use cases suited to each type. Users interested in Advanced Certification take note! Macros are also a topic covered on the Advanced Certification Exam. Freshen up your skills and learn how to take advantage of the unique functionality found in Alteryx Macros! 

 

Take the Expert Exam Online  

 

The Alteryx Designer Expert Certification exam is now available online! Learn more about the exam, how to register, and the steps to take to become Expert Certified.  

 

Meet the new Certified Alteryx Designer Experts  

 

We’re thrilled to announce our new Experts who passed the online exam 

 

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Nicole Johnson @NicoleJohnson 

 

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Ben Moss @BenMoss 

 

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Kacper Ksieski @seven 

 

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Devon Ziggenfuss @DevZig1103 

 

Congrats on joining the small group of elite users!


Nuts & Bolts

*Alteryx in Practice. Noteworthy Tips & Tricks, blog/KB Articles + other pearls of wisdom.

 

Although we didn’t plan this in advance, As we very purposefully planned out, October turned out to be a month of thinking about cities and how we can understand them with data. @BenMoss  and @GwilymTIL strategized about London Monopoly routes, and @SusanCS shared ways to analyze city sentiment and — just in time for Halloween — the spoooookiness of U.S. cities. 

 

We also got philosophical in October. We explored confusion (matrices) with @OllieClarke, and delved into how we can learn what predictive models are doing behind the scenes. Black boxes became a little more transparent with @TimothyL’s post on LIME and @SusanCS’s post on interpreting models built with the automatic mode of Assisted Modeling. @jdunkerley79 showed how Alteryx can generate images with fractals, which are super cool and very meta. We pondered how we can put data skills to work for the greater good 

 

And for those in any city, anywhere, whose Alteryx knowledge has reached great heights: @ElizabethB’s successful quest to bring the Expert Exam online will inspire you to work toward our top level of certification. 

 


User Group News

*Find Your People, Build Your Network.

 

Alteryx user groups provide an opportunity for Alteryx users to connect, share best practices, and improve skill sets that help maximize their potential with Alteryx. Whether you are a long time Alteryx user or just getting started, all are welcome to attend!

 

See below for confirmed meeting dates throughout the rest of 2020. If you don’t see a group or registration link in the table below, make sure to join that User Group’s Community page to receive a notification when a meeting has been confirmed.

 

We hope to see you at a meeting!

 

User Group

Date

Registration Link

Canada

11/12/2020

https://pages.alteryx.com/usergroup-canada-q4-20.html

Coventry-Northampton

11/13/2020

https://pages.alteryx.com/usergroup-coventry-northampton-q4-20.html

French

11/15/2020

https://live.remo.co/e/aug-francophone-2/register

Research Triangle Park, NC

11/18/2020

https://pages.alteryx.com/usergroup-rtp-nc-nov.html

Channel Islands

11/24/2020

TBA

DACH

11/24/2020

TBA

Charlotte, NC

12/8/2020

TBA

Orlando, FL

12/8/2020

TBA

Sao Paulo

12/10/2020

TBA

 


Culture & Events

*Immerse yourself in data and analytics culture.

 

Have you noticed our new podcast players on Community? Snazzy and with more features, you can now subscribe, share, and change the playback speed all within the Community when you navigate to the episode pages. Also remember that episode transcripts are available in the show notes if listening isn’t your thing 😀  

 

 

Lets recap the stories from October! 

 

In episode 72: Alteryx Innovation Labs: Our home base for machine learning, Alteryx associatesMax Kanter and Clara Duffy chat about their mission to put machine learning products into the hands of the next generation of data thinkers. Founder of Feature Labs, Max joined Alteryx through the acquisition of Feature Labs, along with Clara Duffy who was an intern at both Feature Labs and Alteryx. Both of them embody a culture of collaboration, open thinking, and this episode will get you excited to check out the innovation they’re driving. 

 

 

 

In episode 73: Insights in action: Using Alteryx to serve Australian communities, we look at the data and analytics landscapes at two non-profit organizations: Foodbank Australia and Royal Flying Doctors Service. We talked about why data is critical to their work, and how Alteryx helps their analysts see next-level insights that help support their missions. 

 

 

 

Subscribe to Alter Everything on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or YouTube to stay in tune with analytics culture on the go!


Top Community Contributors

*Our members make community!

 

Now, as is tradition, we'll close out this edition of highlights with a listing of our top community contributors for October!  All of our community members are incredible and are what really make the community a great place to be.

 

Top Solution Authors

Most Likes

I hope you learned something that you might not have seen in this wrap-up, and look forward to letting you in on things again next month!

Will Machin
Community Manager

Will runs community engagement programs for the Alteryx Community and wants to ensure that all members get the resources, activity, and information they need. He is always open to hear feedback and ideas and loves connecting with everyone in the community to strengthen relationships and build strong ties.

Will runs community engagement programs for the Alteryx Community and wants to ensure that all members get the resources, activity, and information they need. He is always open to hear feedback and ideas and loves connecting with everyone in the community to strengthen relationships and build strong ties.

Comments
TheOC
15 - Aurora
15 - Aurora

Congrats on passing the Exam @NicoleJohnson @BenMoss @seven @DevZig1103!

How did you find it? I'm hoping to give it a go at some point, so any pointers would be invaluable! 

 

 

 

Emil_Kos
17 - Castor
17 - Castor

Hi @WillM,

Thank you for highlighting my post and myself, but the Kudos should go to @TuvyL. She shared this idea with me and I just started the post. 

 

It is a great post and I am proud to be a part of such an amazing community.  

smoskowitz
12 - Quasar

Congrats to all the Expert cert achievers! Well deserved!

Qiu
20 - Arcturus
20 - Arcturus

Congratulations to the new Certified Alteryx Designer Experts .
Also so proud that I made to top3 for Top Solution Authors and Most Likes.

mbarone
16 - Nebula
16 - Nebula

Congrats experts!