What is Data Strategy

One of the things I love about my job is I don't fully know, day to day, what I will get up to. The data life cycle is so wide and varied that every journey is unique. 
For the last year or so, I've been using a tool called RescueTime to track and categorize all of my activity. It really helps me understand what, exactly, a business strategist does. 
1. Tableau - by far my most used program. I spend a ton of time in Tableau simply because it is the absolute best way to communicate data to my clients. This is the front-end tool that turns data into decisions. 

2. Gmail - a sad truth about any consulting is the amount of time spent communicating with clients through email. 6% of my time is spent crafting and reading emails. 

3. MS Excel - Encouraging my clients to get out of excel and into more robust data bases is the drum I can't stop beating. But unfortunately excel remains a vital part of many organization's data cycle.

4. DBeaver - DBeaver is the ultimate database management tool. It has connections to a large number of major database platforms and let's you easily switch between connections. Data strategy requires a lot of data discovery, and DBeaver let's me do that with the fewest barriers. 
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5. PBIDesktop - I stand by Tableau being the best data viz tool, but if you're an org that already has heavy ties into Microsoft or you're looking for something a little bit cheaper than Tableau, Power BI is a fine option. Some of my clients have taken this route, and I've developed their PBI footprint with them. 

Here's the full list and time spent on all programs from January 1 to July 31 2019.