Brought to you by: Lookout from Rudderstack

The easiest way to analyze and take action on your marketing data.

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We're experiencing a massive shift in the data analytics industry. The top 1% of data professionals are starting to build modern systems that help them do the boring grunt-work analysis that's caused them burnout for decades.

These systems utilize AI to empower non-technical workers to do analysis on their own. That way, the 1%'s can spend their time on "higher-value" projects.

The rest of us 99% and data noobs can get ahead by learning from them.

Today, I'll walk you through you one of these systems use cases & give you an idea of how you and your team could implement it.

Everyone asks you to pull the data "real quick"

So here's the problem. You as a data analyst, you've got actual high-impact projects lined up — things that could save the company money & get you promoted to senior data analyst.

But the problem is, everyone keeps asking you to do one-off, ad-hoc analysis. Like Marcus from Marketing: "Hey, I need your help. Can you pull this data for me real quick."

If you haven't gotten a message like this, you will soon.

And you think, okay, fine. I can bang this out in thirty minutes. Except it never takes thirty minutes.

You pull the initial data. Marcus says that's not quite what he meant. You're a dozen iterations in. You finally build him a dashboard and a CSV with the new target audience.

He loses the link. Forgets about it. Never uses it.

All that time and analysis — wasted.

Then your annual performance review comes around and your boss asks why you didn't finish those high-impact projects. And you have to say, "Well, I was really busy doing ad hoc analysis for people like Marcus from marketing."

Another year without a raise. 😭

This happens to data professionals all the time.

How the top data teams solve the ad-hoc analysis problem

In 2027 and onward, I think we'll have less of this problem due to cool tools like Lookout from RudderStack.

These platforms bridge the gap between the data and the business context — the people actually making decisions — without overtaxing the data team.

RudderStack specifically helps data teams coordinate with their marketing teams to avoid unnecessary ad-hoc project work.

So instead of you pulling the data for Marcus...Marcus pulls the data for Marcus. And even analyzes it with the help of Lookout. And even pushes the actionable insights to marketing platforms downstream.

This frees you up to focus on what's called higher order work. The bigger initiatives that actually get you raises.

Like updating a prediction model to be more accurate. Building out the company's AI plan and infrastructure. Whatever is really important for you to do.

But you (and the data team) stay in control. The marketing team gets accurate and timely data. They can take action on it. They stop bugging you. And they can hopefully make more money for the company.

That's the goal, right?

I recorded a video of this use case in detail. You can check it out here.

Why this matters for your career

Lookout is an awesome example of these agentic tools coming out. Lookout and Rudderstack are perfect for marketing teams.

If you work in marketing (or know someone in marketing), check out it out.

But you have the chance to learn about these systems now & get a leg up on the competition.

These tools won't take your role as a data analyst, but they will change how you work.

And if you're just breaking into data, these types of tools will help you do data work in your previous domain faster and more effectively.

Overall, I'm pretty excited & optimistic about the future of data + AI.

I plan on writing more about this in future issues so stay tuned.

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LATEST EPISODE

The Top 1% of Data Analysts Stopped Doing Grunt Work. Here's How.

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DATA JOBS OF THE WEEK

• Global Revenue Operations Analytics: Data Analyst Intern — Seagate Technology
• Associate Data Analyst, Marketing — Cengage Learning
• Remote Business Analyst job — Apply for the Remote Business Analyst job
• Business Analyst — Public Consulting Group
• Salesforce Business Analyst — Stealth Solutions

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🙋‍♂️ What are you working on?

2026 is winding down. I'm curious what you're working on right now. Here's what I'm focused on at the moment:

1 - Learning AI skills: I'm pretty decent at using AI...but I'm trying to figure out how to have ME stop using and instead have my AI use my AI...kinda meta, I know.

btw, someone replied to a previous newsletter (love when people reply), and said, "I hope you aren't using AI to write these..." I thought it was interesting. I didn't know if they were accusing me of writing these newsletter with AI? Or if they just wanted to check? Or what.

Here's the truth...could an AI possibly make as many typos and grammar mistakes as I can? Nooooooo!

But I do use AI in the process. I script a lot of my podcasts, and then record them, and then use that script and transcript to start these newsletters. But I do a lot of edits too.

2 - I'm training for my 3rd IRONMAN 70.3. This one will be in my home of Utah County. Very excited. I have 280 days until race day. I'm putting in the work now!

3 - I'm recording some awesome podcast episodes. One with a dude who was ABOUT to pay $25,000 for a Master's in data when he found DataCareeerPodcast.com and started listening. He canceled the Master's - followed SPN - landed a job.

4 - I got a bunch of boring house projects. Just finished up a big remodel of our basement. Now it's smaller stuff: hanging up Christmas lights, fixing the leaky sink, hanging stuff, etc.

5 - I'm working on improving FindADataJob.com. We are adding more jobs & more accurate listings and information. It's fun. If you haven't checked it out, you should.

A little peak into my world. Feel free to reply with yours!

Hope this was fun / helpful!

Talk next week,

Avery