New Era of Reading Data with Visualization in small business
Long story short, I recently joined this company as a data analyst. During the technical test before I got accepted, I realized that everything here is still done manually — from data collection to data cleaning and reporting. Everything relies heavily on Excel and spreadsheets. Honestly, the reason I accepted the offer from this company was because I wanted to make good use of my time and ensure that my skills wouldn’t go to waste.
After I got accepted, I realized that I needed to communicate with the leaders and managers in the company regarding data processing. It turned out that before I joined, there was actually a gap period where the company didn’t have a data analyst at all. What surprised me even more was that when they found out there was a new data analyst, no one really reached out to me — except for one leader. This leader happened to be from the sales team, and he had a fairly good understanding of data structure. He was the one who initiated awareness about the importance of data visualization for reporting.
Before I joined, there was actually a data analyst who had created some visualizations, but those dashboards were no longer in use due to their lack of visual efficiency and actionable insights. After some discussions and idea exchanges, the sales leader — let’s call him Mr. X — asked me to create a dashboard for his reports. He shared with me his dream of having a real-time dashboard (which, of course, isn’t possible just yet since the data is still processed manually), and I genuinely wanted to make that happen. So, I created the dashboard he envisioned.
Then came the time for the weekly reports presented by the leaders and managers. Interestingly, Mr. X was the only leader who showcased a dashboard during the presentation. It wasn’t until much later — around the end of 2024 — that the other managers and leaders started to become aware of the importance of data visualization. They began expressing interest in having their own dashboards as well, with different data structures and presentation concepts tailored to their specific needs.
This was quite rewarding for me because that small breakthrough helped raise awareness about the importance of data visualization.
Even though I wasn’t directly involved in presenting, the fact that the dashboard I built was shown in front of the board of directors felt like a representation of myself. Knowing that it helped raise awareness among the leaders and managers made me genuinely happy.