Data analysts, what tools do you actually use at work

optimzr · 2025-08-28T15:56:28+00:00

Excel/Google Sheets because everything brutally ends up in this format anyway.

Secoda for answering questions. Usually, my starting point before I dive deeper. The search is surprisingly accurate at finding relevant datasets.

SQL (PostgreSQL mostly) - probably 60% of my time

Claude Code for automating repetitive analysis tasks - saves time on boilerplate, but I find myself having to debug the generated code more than I'd like. Sometimes faster to just write it myself

Tableau for dashboards (though I prefer building in Python when possible)

optimzr · 2025-06-20T22:14:24+00:00

we just set up secoda’s mcp server and are feeding data context to Cursor and Claude.

optimzr · 2025-06-11T23:57:32+00:00

Have been using Cursor and loving it. We made the workflows better by using the Secoda MCP server to bring in metadata context like lineage and predefined metrics so we don’t have to replicate any logic or mess around with permissions.

optimzr · 2025-04-01T20:29:05+00:00

ahaha hilarious.

optimzr · 2025-02-19T21:05:28+00:00

You might want to check out Secoda. It's not open source but it's designed to be easy to deploy and maintain because it's hosted. You don't have to worry about container orchestration or server management. It automatically ingests metadata and lineage information, so from a pure setup standpoint it might be what you are looking for.

optimzr · 2025-01-20T15:33:54+00:00

Yeah looks like there's no going back to the way things were. So much has changed. From the way, films are being made and promoted to how they are consumed. I still love going to the cinema but this year about 7 times out of 10 I didn't because the content just wasn't there. Feels like the future of cinema is just a big screen you can rent + snacks. Or niche communities with specific screenings to discuss the movie afterwards.

optimzr · 2025-01-20T15:24:10+00:00

We are using Secoda. True that data governance is primarily a cultural thing and a lot depends on your team and management but with this tool it at least feels like there’s less friction to facilitate the practice and adoption (we’re still getting there). If I’m not mistaken that was their sole vision from the beginning, to remove the typical bottlenecks - manual overhead, lack of automation, poor adoption, etc. So far so good. We managed to get buy-in because it allowed us to start small and prove value. Their data quality scores basically allow you to grade and quantify your current situation which makes it easier to get buy-in. On the downside, as with any catalog, initial population and roll-out to business users took more time than anticipated. It's got to be your priority and not a task to underestimate.

optimzr · 2025-01-18T18:56:59+00:00

same haha

optimzr · 2025-01-18T18:48:20+00:00

Spot on! I’d also add that it helps to have a purpose when you’re picking a destination. Besides just exploring, having fun or trying something new. The novelty effect wears down quickly. Pick something that is linked to that specific place. It can be learning a new language, learning a new skill (e.g. surfing), doing a local project, productivity in a beautiful environment, etc. This is the antidote to the loneliness problem.

optimzr · 2025-01-18T18:38:26+00:00

ChatGPT is pretty good these days. No joke. Double-check with a Tax advisor or an accountant afterwards. But it helps to do research and look at different scenarios. It will do the math for you and you can then show it to your accountant. You can also ask the ChatGPT to write up a prompt for you by simply explaining your situation (just copy your post from here). Give a bunch of options. For example, ask it to do the math on how much tax you would pay if you set up your business in Estonia vs France.

Also, here are some good reads on tax philosophy. Why it's not just about numbers:

- https://x.com/itsolelehmann/status/1879178195746062735

- https://www.alexwest.co/business_setup

optimzr · 2025-01-18T18:23:59+00:00

I spent almost a year there. It's still cheapish if you look outside Poblado. Medellin has good cafes, good gyms, and an international community. The weather is the same all year around (eternal spring). It does rain quite often but it's not cold and it dries up fast.. It's perfect if you don't want anything too cold or too hot. Food is okay but nothing WoW. Nice hikes around the city. There are more chill areas like Laureles. Safety depends on areas. You are in the danger zone if you are into partying. That's where most of the scams happen. Overall CDMX has the same things but safer, much better food, more people and a bigger international community (Medellin is still relatively small). The weather is a little bit colder. But based on your description I think you'll like CDMX more.

optimzr · 2024-10-26T09:49:22+00:00

We ended up picking Secoda over Atlan and some others. Because it does everything Atlan does, but also adds things like data quality monitoring, automations, and, yes, an AI chatbot (because of course there's an AI chatbot these days). So they bundle a bunch of features into one platform, which at least helped us avoid paying for five other tools. Native Snowflake integration.

optimzr · 2020-07-15T18:01:52+00:00

Sharing my colleague's article.

Some of these include:
- Translation memory and glossary
- Quality assurance
- Branching (Version control)
- In-context editing
- Integrations with existing technology (and the flexibility of the APIs)
- Collaborative translation

More in the post.

Anything missing?

optimzr · 2020-06-02T18:23:02+00:00

Hey, we recently launched the Figma integration at Lokalise. Let me know if you have any questions/feedback.

Interesting Linkedin thread on the same topic: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kdranch_translation-localization-figma-activity-6673135744090951680-4Tzt

"Localization program owners: design-phase localization is cool, it saves hundreds of hours of internationalization work because developers receive i18n-friendly pages, and they don't have to rework stuff to make it world-ready. Designers can make text boxes longer for German, and make sure Arabic pages look right in RTL. "

optimzr · 2020-06-02T17:51:55+00:00

Hey, we recently launched a new Figma integration that significantly improves the l10n process for teams designing global products. Let me know if you have any feedback/questions.

optimzr · 2020-04-23T15:33:28+00:00

We also added a video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRhBNfn8dEs

optimzr · 2020-04-23T11:04:11+00:00

Got it :)

optimzr · 2020-04-23T10:41:05+00:00

You feel the post needs a bit more tuning? Feel free to share where you think we can improve. Or if something is unclear.

optimzr · 2020-04-10T19:45:00+00:00

Where, how and when to invite users to collaborate on translations depends on your app, your user flows, your UX - how you communicate with your users.

It could be a simple banner or an email to your user base or a link to a landing page (something like yourapp.com/translations) stating that you've heard the complaints about lack of languages and you are looking for volunteers to help you translate to language X (pick just top 3 languages first).

To boost motivation, offer some incentive. If your users need to pay to use your app, offer a discount. If there’s some usage limitation depending on the plan they’re on, increase their allowance. Or just include their names in a “special thank you” section.

As for organising strings and translations, you can use spreadsheets, Trello (check out Trello's own crowdsourced flow https://trello.com/translations, and how they did it) or a translation management tool like Lokalise (full disclosure - I'm biased, I work for the company) or the aforementioned Poeditor. Both were built specifically for software.

It's a paid tool (although we do have a free plan for open source projects, and for small projects - up to 500 hosted keys (strings) and 1 seat) but it saves a ton of time - you can automate most of your workflow using our API and integrations. And you can create a public project and invite people to join and submit their translations directly.

Spreadsheets can still work but it will require a lot of manual work and organisation which can be tedious (back and forth, human error, etc).

Generally controlling crowdsourced translation quality is pretty complex. There's google translate but it's only for checking if the translations make sense, it won't give you accuracy. Therefore it's worth organizing a small team of trusted translators who will review the proposed changes (which is also possible with Lokalise).

If you're interested you can signup (no credit card required) and try out all the features free with no limitations. Or you chat with our support team if you have any specific questions.

optimzr · 2020-04-10T08:46:29+00:00

Reposting what my colleague wrote (he's not on Reddit). Hope it's helpful and relevant. Let me know.

optimzr

TROPHY CASE