Play with your strengths:
Today marks the start of Dashboard Week for DS45, and it’s already been a dive into the full cycle of data analysis and dashboard creation. Our task for the day? To create a visualisation using data from the Women's UEFA 2022 games, with the dataset stored in SQL on our Snowflake server. This wasn’t just a test of our dashboarding skills but also an opportunity to practice SQL—something that’s crucial for understanding the information we’re working with.
Now, I’ll admit upfront: football (or soccer, depending on where you are!) isn’t exactly my area of expertise. So, I spent a fair bit of time digging through the various tables in the database for inspiration, running SQL queries to get a feel for the data. More importantly, I tapped into the knowledge of my colleagues who know the sport better than I do. This combination of querying and collaboration led me to focus on an area I found intriguing: Player Substitutions.
Connecting to Snowflake and Getting to Work
Once I had my focus, the next step was to connect the data to Tableau Desktop. Using Snowflake as the connector was pretty straightforward. I selected Snowflake, logged into our server, chose the appropriate warehouse, database, and schema, and then located the table related to Substitutions. Within minutes, I had my data ready for analysis.
Visualising the Data
With the data at hand, I set to work on creating the KPIs. I built individual sheets for each metric, using SQL queries to validate the numbers as I went. This process wasn’t complex, but it was important for ensuring accuracy.
For visualisations, I went with a combination of donut charts and bar charts to keep things simple yet informative:
- 3 donut charts to provide a quick, easy-to-read snapshot of the overall substitution trends.
- 4 bar charts to dive deeper into the data, breaking down substitutions by position, team, and individual players—both those substituted and those making substitutions, along with the number of occurrences.
I kept the calculations minimal and chose to focus on design clarity. No need to overcomplicate things—sometimes, simplicity makes the strongest impact.
Owning My Weakness and Playing to My Strengths
When it came time to present, I didn’t shy away from the fact that I’m not the biggest football expert. Instead, I embraced it. I acknowledged my learning curve, but I also demonstrated that even with limited knowledge of the subject, I could still dive into the data, learn quickly, and deliver a polished dashboard within a tight deadline.
This project was a reminder that while there’s always room to grow and refine our skills, it’s important to play to your strengths. For me, that’s building simple, clean, and visually appealing dashboards. I leaned into that, and it paid off.
Looking Ahead
There’s always time to reflect and think about how to improve for future projects. Today, I found that even when stepping into unfamiliar territory, focusing on what I do best—good design, accurate data handling, and clear communication—allowed me to create something I’m proud of. As I continue to grow, I'll look for ways to enhance both my football knowledge and my data skills. But for now, I’m happy with how things turned out, and I’m excited to see what the rest of Dashboard Week brings!