The Accidental Analyst: Show Your Data Who's Boss Are you drowning in a sea of data? Would you like to take control of your data and analysis to quickly answer your business questions and make critical decisions? Do you want to confidently present results and solutions to your managers, colleagues and clients? If so, The Accidental Analyst is for you! Although you didn't plan for a career as a data analyst, you're now in a position where you have to analyze data to be successful. Whether you've been working with data for a few years or are just getting started, you can learn how to analyze your data to find answers to real-world questions. Using illustrated examples, we'll walk you through a clear, step-by-step framework that we call The Seven C's of Data Analysis. Read this book for inspiration, ideas and confidence to begin tackling the problems you face at work. Keep it by your desk as a reference on how to organize, analyze and display your data. Don't worry, you can continue to use your favorite spreadsheet or data analysis software—this information is not tied to any particular application. Throughout the book, we also include expert tips, tricks, and shortcuts that took years of analyzing data to discover and understand! Please visit us at www.AccidentalAnalyst.com for articles, our free newsletter and upcoming training events. Quotes This is a wonderful book, filled with practical advice. Business people who are struggling to make sense of their data will find it accessible and directly applicable to their work— a great resource for building analytical prowess. Stephen Few, best-selling author of "Show Me the Numbers" and "Now You See It" Finally, a book that clearly explains the fundamentals of business analytics! I wish that I had this book at the start of my career as a data analyst. Tim Latendress, Financial Analyst This book is an amazing resource for regular business people who want to make sense of their data and take charge of their business! It provides simple yet comprehensive coverage of business analytics. Diego Saenz, President, Petplace and former CIO of Pepsi Latin America Authors Eileen McDaniel, PhD, is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Freakalytics, LLC, specializing in analytical training and short-term projects that empower people to get the most out of their data and take decisive action to solve problems in their daily work. She is co-author of Rapid Graphs with Tableau Software 7 and the Rapid Dashboards Reference Card, also available as a mobile app, and leads the development of course training materials. Working in both scientific research and business, Eileen realized that business analysts needed a formal, step-by-step method similar to the one scientists use to collect and analyze their data. This inspired her to develop the seven-step framework for data analysis found in The Accidental Analyst. Stephen McDaniel is passionate about helping people understand, present and take action with their data. He is co-author of multiple books and courses including SAS® for Dummies and Rapid Graphs with Tableau Software 7. Stephen has been on the Faculty of The American Marketing Association and The Data Warehouse Institute and is currently Director of Analytic Product Management at Tableau Software and Principal Analyst at Freakalytics, LLC.