Data analytics and data-driven decision-making are crucial for businesses to stay ahead. But what if you're new to the world of analytics engineering and don't have much technical experience with, for example, dbt™? We sat down with Giancarlo Masera, Data Analyst at Levity, who made a career change - from a non-technical role to now working daily with dbt™.

What challenges were you facing before choosing Paradime?

I joined Levity around two years ago and was tasked with calculating key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion and activation rates. I had never worked in dbt™ before, so that was a challenge in itself. My manager suggested that we should look into Paradime, and looking back at my journey, I actually learned dbt™ through using Paradime.

The platform is very intuitive, even for someone who doesn't come from a technical analytics background. For example, initially, I create separate dbt™ files for each project. With the help of Paradime’s customer support team, I learned to structure projects with intermediate tables and create a central source of truth. This way, I could build one or two queries to solve specific business problems using a structured dataset, saving me hours and hours.

Many people out there could benefit greatly from learning dbt™ and using a tool like Paradime to streamline all their analytics work, but they might think it's too complex or technical. With the right support and tools, I got up to speed quickly, and I can tell you straight away that it is worth the time based on all the hours I'm saving and the improved accuracy of my work.

What 5 key features and benefits has helped you on your journey

1. Seamless workflow: Paradime allows me to perform all my dbt™ work in one place, from setting up projects to running queries and accessing data. The platform is really intuitive, which makes it easy to get up to speed.
2. Lineage and diagrams: As a visual person, I use the lineage feature frequently. It helps me visualize the flow of data in my projects.
3. Jinja Functions: I found that Jinja functions were super helpful for running tasks over a set of variables, automating calculations and reducing manual work.
4. Data querying: Having the ability to query data directly within Paradime helps me streamline my workflow.
5. Tailored support: Paradime’s support team helped me get up to speed in no time when I started to use the platform. They know dbt™ inside-out and they were able to efficiently train me even though I had a non-technical background. The team even taught me data best practices beyond the Paradime platform.

Do you have any advice for someone who is new to data analytics and dbt™?

My advice is to define what you want the project's final output to be, such as only a few "rich" tables, and then work backwards to find the best way to get there. Something that helped me was to document my projects and write down the schema.

‍

—

About Levity

Simple and powerful AI at your fingertips. Automate any process with images, documents, and text to supercharge your productivity. Create your own AI in minutes through our intuitive interface.

Industry

Software Development, B2B

Specialities

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Machine Vision, Natural Language Processing, Automation, Business Process Automation, and No Code

Website

https://levity.ai/

Founded

2018

HQ

Berlin, Germany

‍