Think Like a Champion: Kat & Nicole, Ready to Answer your Grand Prix Questions!

[NicoleJohnson]

Hello Alteryx Community!!

We are @kat and @NicoleJohnson! Back in 2018, we took the Grand Prix by storm and made it the year for women solvers, taking the Grand Prix Champion title home at both Inspire Europe and Inspire North America!! We are excited to answer any questions you have today around our Grand Prix experiences: how we prepared for the race, what the competition was like, our favorite tools to use, best songs on our playlists that got us pumped up... whatever you want to know!!

And if you’re interested in competing in the Alteryx Grand Prix (you should!!), check out this blog post about registering for Grand Prix 2021!

We’ll be online for the next hour (10-11am PST) to answer alllll your questions - just leave a comment below! Ready... Set... Go!

Cheers!

Kat & Nicole 

 PHOTO: Kat & Nicole after Kat's Grand Prix victory in London (along with pit crew extraordinaire, Dan Hare!)

[mceleavey]

I actually just found this from London 2019:

[kat]

That's a great suggestion @NicoleJohnson - the more ways you have the more you can lean on.

Also about not making it pretty.... I remember  a moment during the Grand Prix where I noticed I was doing the whole tab indentation on my if statement... 😂 had to have a quick stern word with myself about speed over pretty 😁 

[NicoleJohnson]

Ha, speaking of Grand Prix beers... I had one on my desk, attempting to calm my nerves before hand... and then promptly knocked it all over the desk in the middle of Round 1, while trying to get my mouse to work when the batteries died. GOOD TIMES. 

So the moral of THAT story is that you should probably not have open beverage containers on your desk while Grand Prix-ing, and have a wired mouse/keyboard ready on stand by 🙂

[kat]

@mceleavey I remember watching the Grand Prix the year after and also struggling to keep up with what was going on. I think it actually looks more intimidating from down there than it is at the computer. There's your encouragement for when they allow partners again 😉

[NicoleJohnson]

I agree with @kat - there isn't necessarily a single challenge or set of challenges that is going to prepare you for the Grand Prix... but what you CAN do is pick a bunch of the intermediate challenges, for example, and then see how fast you can solve them. Don't make them pretty, and don't worry about extra tools & such, but see how quickly you can think ahead and get some answers on the canvas. And THEN, once you've solved it one way, go back and try to do the same thing again, but use different tools... I think that's one of my top pieces of advice. You should always have in mind a few different ways to solve the same task/step - because, inevitably, you're going to have a moment of stage fright where you completely forget how to build a DateTime formula or something. So you'll have to lean on another option - use RegEx, or the DateTime tool, or whatever. So training your brain to think of multiple paths to get to the same outcome is going to be a good way to get familiar with a bunch of different tools & methods, which will come in handy when the lights are blaring and the crowd is cheering and you start to forget how to do things you've done 100 times!! 🙂

[kat]

haha @MaddieJ , @NicoleJohnson is so correct, the pseudo-celebrity status is a ride 😄 Everyone at that conference makes you feel so special. And having the tall @DanHare repping team Hot Sauce next to me, made us stand out even more. 

[mceleavey]

pfff, @kat I remember watching when you won and I'm with @ShaanM on this, I was in shock at the speed. I think I was still trying to work out the question.

I was a number of beers down, though...

[kat]

Forever too kind, thank you @ShaanM. Couldn't have had anyone better by my side! 🙂 

[NicoleJohnson]

@MaddieJ OH MY GOSH, the post-Grand-Prix pseudo-celebrity status is something I never would have anticipated. It's unreal. Plus Anaheim Inspire was possibly the best Inspire ever - the Codechella party & the concert?!? Incredible... I think it just felt like a daze for the next few days. I remember being so completely shocked, riding up the escalator, and hearing/seeing people whisper & point, saying "Look! There she is!!" I have never experienced anything like it, and I send ALLLL my love and gratitude to all the folks who truly made me feel like royalty that night, and for the rest of the conference. ❤️

[kat]

@LeahK I don't think there's any one challenge that could ever prepare you for the Grand Prix - there's just way too many tools.

That being said, I'd definitely recommend trying out the Grand Prix questions. They give you a proper feel for what it's like. And of course anything you're not too familiar with.

That's probably one of my top tips for the Grand Prix anyway - make sure you don't have any blind spots. Nothing worse than realising on the day you need to use a tool that you've never seen before! You don't need to be a pro on anything, but at least try it out.