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Creating a first-rate data stack is one thing, but getting business users (and especially Product teams) to understand it is another. In order to build a strong data culture and help non-data people take advantage of what’s available to them, Maxime Cluchague, Senior Analytics Engineer at Gojob, regularly organizes “Open Data Sessions”. Let’s see what these events are, and how Husprey helps Gojob empower its teams with data.
Gojob: a quick introduction
Data team organization
Gojob’s Data team is divided into 3 major units:
- the Analytics Engineering & Data Science team, which works directly with Product Managers and Software Engineers
- the Platform team, which is made up of a Data Engineer and a DevOps: their mission is to build a strong and modern stack for other Data teams
- the Business Analysts are in direct contact with operational teams: they use and share the data made available by other Data teams
Gojob’s stack
- data sources: Mongo, Postgresql, Elastic, Google Analytics, market solutions (Salesforce, Hubspot…), external APIs and open data sources;
- a BI tool: GCP (BigQuery);
- reporting tools: Domo, Looker Studio and Kibana;
- and of course Husprey!
Use cases at Gojob
Gojob achieves numerous business outcomes thanks to its data-oriented efforts and its collaboration with Husprey, among which:
- creating a collaborative space in order to smooth out data sharing between Business Analysts, Analytics Engineers and Software Engineers;
- providing Business Analysts with a tailor-made space to help them conduct and follow up their analyses;
- enabling teams to manage and monitor their ad-hoc analyses;
- onboarding new Analytics team members so as to give them a clear-cut outlook on the available business data;
- organizing internal Open Data Sessions in order to help business users strengthen their knowledge and skills regarding data Analytics.
Gojob’s challenges
Gojob is striving to empower non-data people with…data!
On the one hand, Product teams need to learn how to be data-driven: their main goal is to improve their product, and in order to make the right decisions, they need to identify this product’s strengths and weaknesses. Yet, to do this, they need KPIs – in other words, data.
On the other hand, this data must be reliable and available: all business users should be able to use it autonomously and run simple analyses in order to make informed decisions.
“Gojob has a data-driven mindset: our goal is to base all our analyses on data in order to make smart, fact-driven decisions.” — Maxime Cluchague, Senior Analytics Engineer
A solution: Open Data Sessions
What are these sessions about?
To meet these challenges, Gojob’s team has decided to set up weekly, 1-hour long Open Data Sessions. The attendees are Business Analysts, Product teams and Development teams.
The goal of these internal training sessions is to help business users become more familiar with the data stack and more self-reliant. They learn:
- where to find data;
- how to create SQL queries in order to extract data from the warehouse;
- how to explore data;
- how to create their own dashboards.
What happens during these sessions?
Before every Open Data Session, users can ask practical questions: Analytics Engineers take them into account and tailor each session to their specific needs.
More specifically, the Data team shares knowledge and data hard skills, through demonstrations and concrete case studies. This training makes business users more familiar with the stack and has proven very useful regarding specific business needs.
The training is often hands-on: the participants will directly implement their own queries and create their own notebooks and dashboards during the session. Also, at the end of the session, the notebook can be reused by the teams!
Three main tools are used during the sessions:
- BigQuery (as a data warehouse);
- Husprey (for query implementation and exploration);
- Looker studio (for dashboarding purposes).
“The main goal of these sessions is to train people in the use of SQL, which has proven really useful.” — Maxime Cluchague, Senior Analytics Engineer
If you're interested in knowing more about Gojob's Open Data Sessions, check out our webinar on the matter.
Why did Gojob choose Husprey?
Husprey is the ideal ally for Gojob’s teams and their data goals, because it enables them to make the analysis clearer and more organized.
Husprey empowers them to:
- create reusable, independent analysis blocks;
- add documentation;
- add visualization;
- share analyses with teams and users.
“Husprey is the perfect solution because it enables us to structure analysis into small, independent and reusable blocks – along with a layer of documentation, visualization and sharing.” — Maxime Cluchague, Senior Analytics Engineer
Main perks of Husprey’s notebooks
Here are the 3 key features that make Husprey’s notebook a real asset for Gojob’s teams:
- When a user hovers over columns, a small description appears (which enables users to explain why they’re using one specific dataset rather than another one, and to explain its different attributes).
- Users can create independent SQL blocks and link them together, rather than having to implement a huge query in BigQuery: they can then create small sections of code that are easier for beginners to understand and use.
- Each request’s details can be hidden or displayed, depending on the reader’s level of data literacy.
“Data Explorer enables me to show teams where the data is, and make them more familiar with the exploration of the data warehouse.” — Maxime Cluchague, Senior Analytics Engineer
Results
Gojob’s Open Data Sessions are a win-win deal: they enable the Data team to keep in touch with business users, providing them with a more accurate outlook on the role and concerns of each Product team member. They also make the Business team more self-reliant when performing simple analysis tasks.
Besides, the Product team’s experience with data becomes more satisfying: they can create their own notebooks and analyses autonomously, often without the help of a data expert.
Finally, the Engineering team members can save time and focus on performing high-value tasks and advanced Analytics requests which require more complex modeling.
“What’s interesting is that as the training progresses, participants become much more skilled at using data. At the moment, a few users are fully self-sufficient and are able to create their own Husprey.” — Maxime Cluchague, Senior Analytics Engineer
Implementing a strong data culture in an organization is not merely a technical matter. You need to have a much more holistic approach, and empower your teams with the right mix of best practices, processes, and regular coaching. This is why Open Data Sessions have proven very useful for Gojob’s teams – and Husprey has been the perfect ally for them!
Want to see what Husprey can do for your teams? Book a demo here!
