Weekly Updates
Each week I plan to post professional updates on what worked in the previous week, what I learned, what felt difficult, and what I’m focused on in the coming week.
May 31st, 2026
Full moon tonight, and I have my blog open to publish some notes for other posts. I didn’t really stick to this weekly updates thing did I? Sorry about it. Guess I’m too busy collecting my roses being a data rock star. 🌹😘 ✨
Last week I did some data validation that I feel very confident in, a fun little ad-hoc analysis around scheduling, and I have two dashboards in test ready to publish this week. OMG data queen. Save some analysis for the rest of us, will ya!
There is so much trust and confidence in me from leaders and collaborators that I’ve started researching forecasting models for time series data. The first one is Prophet which I used many years ago for a blog post related to stocks. The second is ETS (Error, Trend, Seasonality), which is also commonly used for forecasting, but I am hoping to use R for this (instead of excel). My initial goal is to compare different forecasting methods to explore trends in phone volume, but I think this knowledge could be applied to so much that we do here. Why not add another jewel to my crown?
January 5th, 2026
Last week I spent time exploring a new, very large dataset and getting a feel for what is and isn’t possible. Along the way, it became clear that high level aggregations will require more granular exploration due to the different nuances and triggers across workflows. I also built an employee hierarchy dataset and dashboard to support this exploration that ultimately will not work for a larger build. While it was not a finished solution, it was a useful starting point. It surfaced assumptions I was making and served as a reminder that early exploratory analysis often raises more questions than answers, and that is just part of the process.
It has been strange adjusting from being a manager to an individual contributor. At times, I feel an internal pressure to join conversations or meetings about work I used to own or make decisions about. I am being intentional about setting boundaries and letting my manager or other analysts own their work, even when that feels uncomfortable or frustrating.
This week I have several important meetings that should help clarify my focus over the next few months. I want to stay focused, define a clear path forward for these large scale projects, and make intentional choices rather than reacting to outside pressure.