Tom Dobson

Tom developed an interest in data during his graduate studies in Plant Biology where he discovered his aptitude for problem-solving and communication, setting him apart from his peers in the lab. He further honed his skills as a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, leading to a career shift toward data analytics.

Tom's expertise includes Tableau, SQL, and Alteryx, which he has applied during placements at the BBC, IAG Cargo, and Inmarsat. Projects undertaken range from the automation of systems to identify lost revenue to the construction of dashboards summarising business-critical metrics. Other outputs include the development of a data pipeline for CO₂ monitoring and the automation of a daily report for BBC stakeholders containing the morning's top news stories.

Certifications

Blog Posts

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Fri 29 Jul 2022 | Tom Dobson
Panning a Chart in Tableau
Today was our final day of dashboard week and also of DS31's training. I was therefore surprised to discover a feature in Tableau completely by accident. This is the ability to pan a chart. This is enabled by holding SHIFT and dragging the chart with your mouse
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Thu 28 Jul 2022 | Tom Dobson
Dashboard Week: Day Four
Today's task was to web scrape and visualise data from cheese.com. It became immediately apparent that this would require more than downloading, parsing and cleaning HTML. Here's how I approached it
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Tue 26 Jul 2022 | Tom Dobson
Achieving Accessibility in Tableau
Today's task was to develop a dashboard based on reports of road failures in Glasgow. We were also asked to integrate accessibility features into the final product. First of all, the data we received was geocoded. As such, it would have been a missed opportunity to leave out a map from this vis
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Mon 18 Jul 2022 | Tom Dobson
Alteryx: Linear Regression
Alteryx provides several tools with which we can perform predictive modelling. One of these is the Linear Regression tool, a package that allows users to estimate the value of a dependent variable based on the values of one or more independent variables
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Fri 01 Jul 2022 | Tom Dobson
Transpose and Crosstab
Data is not always delivered in the best format. Knowing how data is structured and which arrangement we need is essential to effective analysis. In Alteryx, data can be transformed using several tools including Transpose and Crosstab
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Tue 28 Jun 2022 | Tom Dobson
Mockaroo Basics
Mockaroo is a tool for creating realistic datasets. In this blog, we'll use this tool to create mock data based on Tableau's Superstore. To get started let's select 'Add Another Field'. A field name can then be specified, as well as the type of data required by selecting 'Type'
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Thu 14 Apr 2022 | Tom Dobson
Rank + Suffix: A Simple Fix
Appending appropriate suffixes to numeric ranks  (e.g., 1, 2, 3 → 1st, 2nd, 3rd) is a problem I've repeatedly encountered in Tableau. What's more, I haven't spotted a definitive online solution. Here, I'll describe one approach comprising a few simple steps
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Fri 29 Apr 2022 | Tom Dobson
The Day After Tomorrow: Time Functions in Tableau
As the name suggests, Tableau's date functions are used to work with dates. For example, they can be used to modify existing dates, create new ones, and return values for specific dates. In this blog post, we'll overview some commonly used functions and provide an example of each
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Wed 27 Apr 2022 | Tom Dobson
Ramen Review: Enabling User Interactivity with Parameters
It was a sunny morning at The Information Lab, and my cohort was exploring parameters and parameter actions. These can be used to let the end-user filter on-screen data, opening up new possibilites in terms of insights that can be gained for a dashboard
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Thu 14 Apr 2022 | Tom Dobson
Let's Rework: Mobile Data
On July 3, 2020, Carmen Ang at the Digital Capitalist released the following article and visualisation. She aimed to explore international differences in the price of mobile data. Whilst in many ways she succeeded, there are several ways in which her work could have been improved
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Fri 08 Apr 2022 | Tom Dobson
Nerves & Curves: Week One at The Data School
Coming from a small town, moving to London to start a new job at The Information Lab was daunting. One week in, sitting at a benched table at the TIL offices and surrounded by the chatter of ping-pong and laptop keyboards, I can report that I shouldn't have worried. Let me take you through the week
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