Top data tools and skills to learn in 2022
If you're looking to pick up new data skills, or sharpen your existing ones, in 2022 then check out our run down of the top data tools and skills we recommend learning this year.
Demand for skilled professionals in data analysis, business intelligence and data science is currently sky high, with more and more organisations looking to build out and improve their data capabilities and take advantage of new technologies and platforms there’s currently more demand for more people for these roles than there are people to fill them.
These types of roles are also perfect for hybrid or remote working, as long as you have effective remote working tools and communication skills they lend themselves ideally to working from anywhere and organisations are now no longer limiting their search for the ideal candidate to their local area.
Whether you’re looking to get into the field in 2022, sharpen your skills or learn new ones we take a look at some of the key data tools and skills to consider learning in 2022.
What data skills and tools do you need in 2022?
In this post we’re looking at the technical skills and tools we recommend learning, although we don’t cover them here you’re also going to need a good blend of soft skills such as being an effective communicator and presenter, being able to work well in a team, good stakeholder management and influencing skills and the ability to tease out client requirements.
We’re going to focus on the technical data skills and tools in this post in the following four categories:
Getting (and storing) Data: Tools to either get data from, or into a data storage solution.
Preparing and Cleaning Data: Tools to get your data ready for analysis.
Analysing Your Data: Tools for helping you to explore data and answer questions.
Presenting Your Findings: Tools that enable you to present your insight and analysis, or allow you to share data for others to analyse.
We’re also going to break this down into Core Tools/Skills, New Tools/Skills and Additional Tools/Skills so let’s get straight into what tools and platforms that are worth learning in 2022!
Core Tools/Skills
We start off with the basics, the core tools and skills that should form part of any analysts skillset:
SQL
✔️ Getting/Storing Data | ✔️ Preparing/Cleaning Data | ✔️ Analysing Data
SQL has been around for a long time and is pretty much a requirement for any data job, while newer technologies have emerged it’s still widely used in a huge number of organisations and is a key skill to have.
SQL stands for Structured Query Language and it’s used to manage and get data from relational databases, how deep you need to go with learning SQL very much depends on your role.
For simple data gathering you may only need to know how to run basic select, join, grouping and filtering queries, whereas if you’re using it to transform and analyse data being able to create advanced queries, manage tables, create stored procedures and mastering more advanced functions may be more important.
There are a wide variety of vendors providing relational databases that SQL is used to interact with, some of the most popular paid offerings include Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle SQL whereas free options are available from MySQL and PostgreSQL.
No matter which you’re using the basic SQL commands and functionalities are the same, and although the syntax may differ slightly for some functions mastering SQL is a key skill for any data analysis role.
Paid Learning Option: Codeacademy - Learn SQL
£32 per month (approx. $45 / €30), Free basic option available
Codeacademy’s online course on SQL can be completed in half a day (4 hours) and covers topics such as manipulating data, running queries, aggregating data and working with multiple tables and databases. If you’re not interested in gaining a certificate and the additional course resources you can also take the course basics for free.
Free Learning Option: W3Schools - SQL Tutorial
W3Schools have an excellent and in depth tutorial on SQL starting with the basics and covering pretty much everything you need to learn. Each lesson also has example code and the opportunity to practice what you’ve covered, it’s also a great resource to come back to if you’re stuck when using SQL.
How to access SQL for learning
If you want to practice your SQL skills you’ll just need access to a database with an area where you can create tables and run queries. Alternatively you can download the free developer edition of Microsoft SQL Server and run this on your own laptop or computer.
You also have the option of deploying a MS SQL Server database within the Microsoft Azure cloud, this can be a simpler option although there is a cost for this after the 30 day free trial.
Both can be accessed at microsoft.com/en-gb/sql-server/sql-server-downloads
Tableau
✔️ Preparing/Cleaning Data | ✔️ Analysing Data | ✔️ Presenting Data
Acquired by Salesforce in 2019 Tableau makes it quick and easy to explore and analyse data from a huge number of sources with simple drag and drop functionality. As well as analysing data it is widely used to create and share interactive and beautiful dashboards and visualisations.
Tableau Desktop software (or the free Tableau Public version) is used to create Tableau workbooks which can then be shared securely via their online platform which can either be self hosted (Tableau Server) or utilising Tableau’s SaaS offering (Tableau Online). Work can also be published to Tableau Public but as the name suggests this is open to anyone to view and access can’t be restricted.
In 2018 Tableau also brought the same easy drag and drop functionality to cleaning and preparing data via it’s Tableau Prep software which is included with your Tableau Desktop license.
Paid Learning Option: Tableau Academy
£19 per month (approx. $26 / €23)
Tableau Academy is our own complete learning pathway for Tableau. Covering everything you need to get up to speed with Tableau and start exploring and analysing your data and building beautiful and insightful dashboards and reports in no time. You get full access to 15 unique Tableau courses, each is a hands on lesson based on a real life business scenario which sees you build and publish a fully working project which you can add to your portfolio.
Free Learning Option: Tableau - Free Training Videos
Tableau offers a number of free training videos on it’s website, these are a good place to start getting to know what Tableau is and what you can do with it and to learn the basics to get started with Tableau.
Downloading Tableau
You can download Tableau Desktop or Tableau Prep and take a 14 day trial, after which you’ll need to purchase a license to continue using it. Alternatively you can opt for the free Tableau Public version, this has all the same functionality as Tableau Desktop except the data sources you can connect to are more limited and you can only save/publish your work to the Tableau Public site.
Power BI
✔️ Analysing Data | ✔️ Presenting Data
Microsoft’s Power BI is very similar to Tableau in that offers a modern Business Intelligence platform that enables users to quickly analyse, explore and visualise data. There are a number of vendors offering products in this space but Tableau and Power BI are the market leaders and the ones you’re most likely to come across.
Which you decide to learn really depends on which your organisation uses, however we’d recommend building at least a bit of knowledge and experience with both Tableau and Power BI.
Paid Learning Option: Pluralsight - Getting Started With Power BI
£24 per month (approx. $33 / €29)
Pluralsight have a number of Power BI courses, this is a good one to start with in order to learn the basics and get going with Power BI in around half a day.
Free Learning Option: Microsoft Learning - Power BI
Microsoft offers a pretty extensive catalogue of free training for Power BI from getting started to more advanced functionality and use cases, you can explore the courses and learning paths on offer at the link above.
Downloading Power BI
You can sign up for a free trial and download Power BI from the Getting Started with Power BI site.
For any data analyst it’s pretty much essential to have good experience and knowledge with SQL, at least one relational database and at least one modern BI tool. Depending on your role and organisation the tools below are pretty important too and we’d recommend learning one of them next:
Python
✔️ Getting/Storing Data | ✔️ Preparing/Cleaning Data
✔️ Analysing Data | ✔️ Presenting Findings
Python is a mainstay of the data analytics community, it’s used more and more within organisations and is a programming language that can be use to accomplish a wide variety of tasks to gather, prepare and ingest data as well as specific packages for analysing and presenting data.
It’s also used pretty widely in data science and for statistical analysis as well as automating tasks. Python has the advantage of being open source and therefore free to use.
There are a huge amount of additional libraries which can be installed with Python to expand it’s functionality, within data analysis the two key libraries you’ll want to learn are NumPy and Pandas. Both of these would usually be covered on courses looking at using Python for data analysis.
Paid Learning Option: Coursera - Data Analysis with Python
£44 per month (approx. $60 / €53)
There’s a wealth of courses offering training in Python, which one you choose will really depend on what you want to learn since Python has a wide range of use cases. Coursera has a good introductory course on data analysis with Python which is suitable for beginners but also covers some more advanced topics.
Free Learning Option: freeCodeCamp - Data Analysis with Python Certification
freeCodeCamp offer a completely free and comprehensive course on getting started with data analysis in Python, it covers loading data, cleaning data and analysing and presenting data as well as installing and using NumPy and Pandas.
Downloading Python
Python is open source and therefore free to use, anyone can download and install Python from their website. If your new to Python visit the Python For Beginners page to get started.
Alteryx Designer
✔️ Getting/Storing Data | ✔️ Preparing/Cleaning Data
Before Tableau Prep came along Alteryx used to be a pretty standard requirement for preparing and cleaning data ready for analysis in Tableau, a lot of this can now be done in Tableau Prep but Alteryx is still a very handy tool to know about since it’s still used pretty widely.
The main advantage of Alteryx Designer is it’s drag and drop functionality that makes it pretty easy to create automated, repeatable data flows and get your data cleaned and ready for analysis. I still come across it quite often and see it used for quickly loading data into databases as well as tackling more advanced data gathering and preparation tasks that can’t be done easily in SQL.
Paid Learning Option: Pluralsight - Alteryx Designed Getting Started
£36 per month (approx. $50 / €43)
Pluralsight has a good introductory course to Alteryx Designer which covers everything you need to get started and for the majority of things your likely to need to do in Alteryx. It takes just over 2 hours to complete
Free Learning Option: Alteryx Designed Free Videos Courses
Alteryx provide access to a decent amount of free training videos on their own website, these are a combination of their own videos and those produced by third parties. They cover a wide range of topics from beginner to more advanced functions and it’s really easy to browse through and pick ones that are of interest.
Downloading Alteryx
You can download a copy of Alteryx Designer here, you can try it for free for 30 days after which you’ll need to purchase or activate a license key.
New Tools/Skills
Nest, we take a look at some of the platforms that we’re seeing more often and expect to grow over the coming years:
Snowflake
✔️ Getting/Storing Data
Snowflake is a cloud hosted data platform that you access via your web browser, it’s primary use is as a data warehouse to host your relational databases and is very similar to Microsoft SQL Server described above.
The main advantage is that it’s cloud hosted and the infrastructure is managed for you, this significantly reduces your overhead in managing your data warehouse and also means you can get up and running much more quickly and scale your services as and when you need to.
If your organisation is using Snowflake and you just need to connect to data in it then having a good knowledge of SQL will mean you should pick this up pretty quickly as it’s very much like having an online version of SQL Server.
If you’re responsible for managing your data warehouse and getting data into it you may want more in depth training to learn how the infrastructure works in more detail.
Either way, with Snowflake becoming more and more popular it’s a very good tool to have knowledge and experience with.
Paid Learning Option: SnowPro Core Certification Preparation Course
$375 (approx. £275 / €325)
Snowflake offer their own training courses including this paid option which covers all the topics needed to take the SnowPro Core Certification. The course is fully online and self paced but please note it doesn’t include the actual certification which can be taken separately.
Free Learning Option: Snowflake Free On Demand Courses
As well as their paid option Snowflake also offer free access to three of their Hands on Essentials courses and as well a Level Up Series. These are a great place to start and to understand the essentials of Snowflake, you can also take a free trial to Snowflake for 30 days and follow along with the courses using that.
Fivetran
✔️ Getting/Storing Data
Fivetran is another online platform but is used for managing your data pipeline and getting data into your data warehouse. It works with almost any data warehouse to automatically and reliably extract and load your data into the destination of your choice.
A huge number of connectors are available to pull data automatically from pretty much any data source or API and removes the need for a lot of manual data pipeline work to get the data you need.
It’s probably used more in tech and startup companies at the moment but it’s growing a lot and certainly something worth having at least some knowledge of.
The platform is pretty intuitive and simple to use so training isn’t really needed, you can get all you need from the Fivetran Getting Started Resources
You can also take a free 14 day trial of Fivetran here.
Data Bricks
✔️ Getting/Storing Data | ✔️ Preparing/Cleaning Data | ✔️ Analysing Data
Data Bricks online platform aims to combine the benefits of data warehouse with the benefits of Data Lakes, it’s platform allows you to store structured, semi structured, unstructured and streaming data in one platform but still offer the performance and management capabilities typically expected of data warehouses.
It’s aiming to unify all your data sources and workflows needed for Data Engineering, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Data Science & Machine Learning as well as Real Time Data Applications and can either be hosted in your own cloud environment or as a Software as a Service from Data Bricks.
It’s currently used by over 500 organisations including tech companies and large multinationals so is another one worth having at least some knowledge of.
The best place to start learning is at the Databricks Academy which includes instructor led courses, accreditation & certification and self-paced training. You can also sign up for a free 14 day trial of data bricks here.
Additional Tools/Skills
Finally we take at some additional tools and skills that may not be essential for data analysis but are worth considering learning to help improve your data analysis and visualisation:
R
✔️ Preparing/Cleaning Data | ✔️ Analysing Data | ✔️ Presenting Data
R is pretty similar to Python in many ways in that it’s an open source programming language, it’s primarily used for statistical data analysis although it can also be used to clean and visualise data too.
Python tends to be more widely used so we’d recommend learning Python over R, however R is still a very good skill to have in your toolkit, particularly if your more interested in the statistical side of data analysis.
Paid Learning Option: Udemy - R Bootcamp
£60 (approx. $82 / €72)
As with Python there’s a wide variety of paid training courses available for R, the course above is currently the top rated course for R on Udemy and gives a comprehensive introduction with over 17 hours of video lessons. The title of the lesson is clearly designed to lure people in with data science and machine learning key words but first half of the lesson does focus on key topics around getting started, data analysis and data visualisation in R.
Free Learning Option: freeCodeCamp - R Programming Basics
freeCodeCamp also has a number of completely free courses on R, the one above is a great place to start and covers all the basics to get you up and running in a couple of hours.
Downloading R
R is also open source and therefore free to use, anyone can download and install it from the R Project website for free.
Cloud Computing Services
More and more companies are now opting to host their infrastructure in the cloud rather than an premises, the way you connect to data in these isn’t usually massively different so unless your role involves deploying or managing cloud infrastructure you don’t need to be an expert on these but they it’s useful to have knowledge on at least one of these.
Some of the most popular ones include:
Microsoft Azure - Check out the Microsoft Azure learning pathways to get started. Azure SQL fundamentals is a good place to start too.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Check out the AWS Training & Certification site to find out more. We recommend you start off with Getting Started with Amazon Redshift.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - Check out the Google Cloud Courses and Training to see what’s on offer. Google BigQuery would be a useful service to start with.
Which of these you learn will largely be governed by the vendor your organisation decides to use, if you’re not already using any of these getting an overview of cloud services platforms is a good start and then expand on this by learning more details about specific platforms as and when you need to use them.
Managing User Requirements & Backlogs
Agile ways of working are becoming more popular in the world of data analytics, part of this includes documenting and defining user requirements and then managing these on what is known as a Scrum or Kanban board (essentially an online collection of sticky notes!).
Even if you’re not using Agile methodologies the tools used for these are still really useful for managing projects and requirements as well as helping you to collaborate with your team and keep stakeholders up to date with progress.
There are quite a few of these available nowadays but they’re all very similar and pretty simple to pick up so it’s worth at least being familiar with one or two of these, the ones we come across most often include:
Trello (also now owned by Atlassian but still operated separately)
UX & Design Prototyping
Personally I’m a big fan of the humble pencil and paper for sketching out designs, layouts and ideas, however design tools like Figma are a great way of being able to work on a layout or design and present this to users without having to have a working solution.
They can also be used for designing elements to use in visualisations and dashboards whether that’s graphics, fonts, buttons or other visual elements.
Figma also provide some really good resources on their learning design with Figma series, these cover both Figma software but also generic design techniques and best practices too.
We hope you’ve found this post useful and have been inspired to go out and learn some of the tools we’ve covered!
Don’t forget that learning needs to be put into practice and often the best way to learn is by doing so once you’ve completed any of the above make sure you get some hands on projects under your belt to put what you’ve learned into practice.
Finally, if you’re interested in either learning Tableau from scratch or levelling up your existing skills make sure to upgrade to a full Tableau Academy membership to gain access to all of our hands on, business focussed Tableau Academy courses.
Thanks,
Alan @ Tableau Academy.