Need Guidance – Alteryx Capstone Exercise (Engagement & Benchmark Data)

[nickdc]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on the Alteryx Capstone Exercise and I’m honestly struggling to understand how to get the data structured correctly. I’ve watched the videos, opened the Capstone package, and imported the two input files (“Engagement Data” and “Benchmark Data”).

Here’s where I’m getting stuck:

• The Engagement Data comes in sideways — the questions (O1, O2, O3, etc.) are listed vertically, but the people are listed horizontally in columns (Name2, Name3, etc.).

• I understand that I probably need to transpose the data to make each person a row and each question a column, but I can’t seem to figure out the correct combination of Transpose and Cross Tab settings to make it look right.

• After that, I know I need to Summarize by Department to find the averages and then compare to the benchmark using a Join and Formula Tool (flagging if the department’s average is 1 point below the benchmark).

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

1. Imported both the Engagement and Benchmark data.

2. Added a Transpose Tool to the Engagement data.

   • Key Field: Name

   • Data Fields: Name2, Name3, etc.

3. Tried to use Cross Tab to rebuild the data, but I’m unsure which fields should be “Group By,” “Column Headers,” and “Values.”

4. I also don’t know when to use the Record ID tool — some people mentioned it in discussions, but I’m not sure if it’s actually part of the solution or just for cleaning.

Can anyone please confirm:

• What the correct order of tools should be for this project (Transpose → Cross Tab → Auto Field → Summarize → etc.)?

• Whether the Transpose tool is indeed the first step after the Engagement Input?

• How to configure the Cross Tab properly to get one row per person?

I’ve spent a lot of time trying, but I’m getting completely lost on this data reshaping step. Any guidance, screenshots, or example configurations would mean a lot — I really want to understand this process correctly.

Thank you so much for any help you can share!

[alexnajm]

@nickdc please share your progress so we can comment on it - this is just the starting workflow and data. We won't want to solve it for you since this exercise should be done by you as part of the learning path! (there is also the solution to download if you want, but I'd suggest not doing so - the practice will help grow your skills)

[nickdc]

This was my efforts :(

[alexnajm]

You should look at focusing on the answer rows - by keeping the header rows, the Transpose & Crosstab becomes more challenging!