I’m happy to share that I completed the Data Analytics with R course by Simmer.
R is one of those things I just knew I needed to learn and while choosing the next course to buy and invest time in is kind of a bet it still feels it has high probability of success, however as with any other technology just grabbing a general book may not do it in a reasonable amount of time, as one can fall into tech/details rabbit holes.
This course guides you through real life examples you’ll recognize if you are familiar with Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, etc and while it doesn’t include every possible KPI, it does cover relatively complex ones, content site measurement, etc, and others that are more straightforward should not be complicated to figure out on your own, besides the instructor Arben Kqiku has been available and eager to help with questions.
I loved the flexibility and control R allows when building reports, its modular nature makes it easier to reuse parts of the code (including for other reports/purposes), also its easy to inspect and maintain (important for transparency, QA and reducing points of failure), all while being run locally in my computer, no faulty internet connection related problems, no slow cloud or SaaS platform, although not always it does happen to be unresponsive.
I also liked the ability to create custom metrics, proxies and obviously the statistical rigor and visualization (ggplot2) that characterizes R and the extensibility provided by the myriad of libraries available and yet to explore.
While a lot of this can/may be done with commercial analytics tools, I think in some scenarios changing some parameters and re-running the code is easier than re-building and re-running GUI based reports.
Last but not least the business part of the course, the transparent metric selection framework that allows analysts to discuss with business people regarding the proper KPIs, etc, that truly helps improve business outcomes instead of the ‘these are the metrics that everybody tracks’ approach which often (and rightfully) gets ignored due the irrelevance to business priorities.
While R has a learning curve (not that AA/CJA/GA doesn’t have one regardless how intuitive the GUI may be) I feel the power and I can’t wait getting second nature power user level and to solve complex problems
I’m ready to make use of this advanced skill, if you have project we can start working on it.
Link to course:
https://www.teamsimmer.com/all-courses/data-analysis-with-r
Link to certification:
https://www.teamsimmer.com/simmer-certificate-verification/13F561BF5-13F282D56-8C713
Note: I’m a paying customer and I didn’t get compensation to write this post.
