INFORMS Open Forum

Whether someone is just starting out in analytics or shifting into a new role, the number of tools out there can feel overwhelming. Everyone has that one tool that made things finally click or saved them hours of work or opened a new way of thinking about data.

What is the one tool you think every new analyst should learn, and why?

You can interpret "tool" broadly. It might be:

• A programming language
• A foundational platform
• A visualization tool
• A modeling or optimization environment
• A collaboration tool like

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Garrett Johnston
Membership Engagement Coordinator
gjohnston@informs.org
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SQL because it gets you to the data. Excel and other tools can help you work with the data once you have it.  You need access to data first. You need basic SQL skills for data too large, too messy, too relational and too distributed to handle and scale. SQL also forces analyst to learn joins, grouping, filtering, normalization, and analytical thinking. An individual with strong SQL skills can quickly and independently add value to an organization. SQL skills can then be expanded to semantic modeling, automation, python, ML, transformations, data engineering, and AI tooling.

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Stefanie Kinsey
Senior Consultant
Marlabs
carmel IN
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Microsoft Excel.

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John Huffman
Senior Technical Fellow - Emeritus
(formerly) Spirit Aerosystems Inc
Wichita KS
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I would argue that the most important thing to learn as a new analyst isn't a specific tool, but instead build a toolset of knowledge about how to deal with data in a logical and consistent fashion.  This knowledge should be applicable across a broad spectrum of tools.  Some of the things I see as important knowledge include: normalization, table joins, grouping, filtering, text parsing, analytical thinking, and understanding processes.  Having a consistent methodology will set you in good stead.  Also make sure that any work product is Maintainable, Auditable, and Repeatable.  If someone else can take your solution and figure out what you did and how it works, that is a huge benefit for the long-term viability of any solutions you build.

In the past 10 years, I have had to learn multiple tools (Alteryx, Tableau, PowerBI, PowerQuery) and over the course of my career a large number of tools (Excel, VBA, SQL, SAS, PeopleSoft, Hyperion, SAP, etc).  I am currently being asked to learn Python, databricks, and some aspects of AI. Tools change over time, so an analyst will learn multiple tools over the course of their career.  Although some tools such as Excel do remain a consistent part of the landscape, even those tools evolve over time.  

If asked what one tool has served me the best and provided the most value and flexibility, I would say "Microsoft Excel with Power Query".  Excel is "universally" known and accepted.  Excel can do a wide range of analytical tasks, and is fairly flexible.  You can use a wide range of tools (including database connections, SQL, VBA, etc) within Excel and PowerQuery.  Excel gives you the ability to learn a wide variety of methodologies and tools.  If you can learn how to do a specific task in Excel, you can probably figure out how to do that task in another tool.  Sometimes the problem isn't knowing how to do a task, but knowing what can and should be done to accomplish a goal.  That being said, Excel has it's limits, and is not the right tool for every job.  

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Robert Haan
Senior Analyst. Internal Audit - Data
Phillips 66
Owasso OK
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A problem-formulation and decision-modeling environment.
Tools change, but learning how to translate messy business questions into structured analytical or optimization models builds durable analytical thinking-and makes any future tool more effective.

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R. Daniel Gimenez
Applied Data Science
Uruguay | Chile
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Excel remains the pillar of analytics across industries!

Then it is SQL, of course, and a special shout-out to my all-time favorite Alteryx.

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Marianna Vydrevich
Manager, Operations Research and Network Optimization
GAF
Cedar Knolls NJ
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