Last week, DS39 were introduced to Tableau Prep for the first time.
We've been practicing using the software through Preppin' Data challenges and I'm really enjoying it so far - it's so satisfying to reach the cleaned outputs!
Why plan your prep in advance?
One huge takeaway from our first lesson with Carl Allchin was how helpful planning out your steps in advance is!
Before you start cleaning, always consider what you would like your desired output to look like.
What steps do you think you would need to take to reach this output?
I like to to plan these steps out on paper first, as it gives me a good starting approach to refer back to. After I've made a plan, I'll then move to Tableau Prep and begin building my flow. Also, if I have any other thoughts while preparing the data, I go back to my notebook and jot those down too.
Final thoughts
I tried prepping a dataset without planning out the steps first - it took me much longer to reach the desired output and I got confused along the way (I forgot Carl's lesson for that one).
Since then, I've been planning out the steps before moving to Tableau Prep, and it has been going so much more smoothly! 100% recommend planning before prepping!
Want to join in? Check out the #PreppinData weekly challenges.