3 Data Analyst Skills to Learn in 2021
Each year, I like to talk about data analyst skills to learn for the next year.
Here are my top 3 data analyst skills to learn in 2021.
I’ve talked in the past about the key skills for data analysts and have an ebook that goes more in depth about them.
Among the key skills are math, programming or a no code tool, problem solving, data visualization, and communication.
Nothing has changed here. These are still all skills you need as a data analyst.
They’re not the only skills that are useful to a data analyst though.
Here are 3 data analyst skills to learn in 2021.
1 - Project Management / Project Organization
Most work that data analysts do revolves around projects.
Those could be repetitive projects like reporting that happen every week / month / year. Or they could be individual projects working on solving a specific problem.
A basic understanding of project management helps you be more organized in your approach.
Many organizations have some sort of shared project management tool - whether that’s as simple as a shared spreadsheet for informal work or a tool like JIRA, Asana, or trello which is more specifically structured for project management work and collaboration.
2 - Languages / No Code Tools
What languages or no code tools like Tableau or Power BI do you currently know?
How well do you know them?
Now is a great time to up those skills.
If you’re already very skilled in a language or tool, consider adding a new one.
If you have areas that could be improved, focus on learning a new aspect of the tool.
For instance, Tableau or Power BI users could focus on learning some basic programming skills that will let them do even more in those tools.
3 - How to Think About Problems
Very defined problems are a great way to start learning a new skill. But as you’ll quickly find when you’re in a data analyst job, every problem isn’t the same and they’re often much more ambiguous than the exercises you worked through in school.
This is why you should know how to think about problems, not just how to work in a well-defined space.
This will help you be much more effective than simply working through technical exercises.
My course Think Like an Analyst focuses on this aspect of analytics.
Those are my top 3 data analyst skills to learn in 2021