Seattle Data Guy In 2024
Reviewing my client trends and your favorite articles
It’s now been two years since I left Facebook(and probably getting close to the time I can stop referencing that fact). My consulting company now has been around for nearly a decade and I’d say we’ve started to hit a solid stride.
One of the things I enjoy doing is at the end of the year reviewing the work I have been doing under the Seattle Data Guy umbrella. So in this article, we will be reviewing the client trends I have seen, highlighting some of the top pieces of content I have put out as well as discussing some of the new goals for 2024.
To start off, here are some quick numbers to recap the work done under the Seattle Data Guy.
Filmed 25 videos and 29 lives
Held 2 virtual conferences with over 4000 people signing up(You can find the videos here for the most recent one here)
Wrote 50+ articles and newsletters
Landed well over a dozen different projects(ranging from greenfield data stacks to product analysis)
Gained 37,000 new newsletter subscribers
Developed a course for people interested in starting their own independent consulting company
And recently I just passed 80,000 YouTube subscribers
But enough metrics.
Let’s review everything from the type of client work I did to the most popular articles and videos I put out. We’ll cover:
Client Trends - I will review the types of clients I took on, both in terms of size and type of work.
Most Popular Articles - There are so many articles that I put out this year that I wanted to go over just a handful that y’all really enjoyed.
Most Popular Videos - In many of my newsletters I will share a video from the Seattle Data Guy Youtube channel. Here are some of the most popular from 2023.
What Was New - Conferences, Courses And Advising - This section was added this year and is a chance to reflect on new challenges and work I took on in 2023.
1. Client Trends
Shifting Trends And Greenfield Projects(~45%) - There were some shifts in the types of projects I was taking on in 2023. First I got several larger greenfield projects that took up a bulk of my time. These projects tend to require either rebuilds from the ground up or more commonly a companies first data stack that goes beyond Excel. In comparison to 2022 this category went up from 31% in to the nearly 45% referenced above.
Solution Design(~25%)- There was also an increase in the solution and design work our team took on in 2023. This tends to be work where a client has our team come in, look at their needs, and provide a recommendation for a solution. Much of this feels like it's driven by the combination of the sheer amount of choice offered in every data vendor category and the sometimes differing needs of different clients. One product will be great and affordable for client A and for other clients it could easily cost 10x as much and not be worth it.
Marketing(~15%) - In addition, income from marketing shifted from 10% to 15%. My goal is to keep this around 10% so it’s a little higher than I’d like. Personally, sponsorships and other marketing activities aren’t the goal of the Seattle Data Guy. I love working with data, so we’ll see what next year looks like.
Training And Education(~5%) - As in the past, I don’t focus heavily on training and education. However, I did add a course in 2023 for those who want to become consultants which I’ll discuss more later.
Everything Else - Now the numbers above won’t equate to 100, but the other categories tend to be areas I don’t focus on. In turn, I limit how many projects I take on in them.
2. Popular Articles
In 2023 I really made an effort to put out at least 4 articles a month with some form of graphic. Now I didn’t always write 4 articles but I think I put out a lot of great pieces. Here are just some of the viewed articles.
🔒 Normalization Vs Denormalization - Taking A Step Back - There is a lot of focus on AI and in general all the shiny new technologies. I wanted to take a step back and review some of the basics of data modeling and management. Especially after seeing some very scary data models.
Breaking Out Of Tutorial Hell - If you’ve worked in tech long enough, then you’ve likely experienced tutorial hell. You start one tutorial, get a few videos in, get busy, stop, get discouraged, and start another tutorial a few months later. Here are some tips to break out of it.
Data Engineering Vs Machine Learning Pipelines by
- There are a lot of companies that use Airflow to deploy their ML models. Since Airflow is also considered a popular tool for data engineers, what is the difference between the standard data pipeline and the ML pipeline?7 Essential Templates for Data Analytics Consulting - I strongly believe that companies will look more and more to consultants to help them navigate the ever-growing complexity of the technical world. That’s why I have put together these 7 templates for those looking to start their own consulting company.
How To Fast Track Your Career As An Engineer by
- Ryan has accelerated his career from junior to Staff engineer at Facebook in just a few years. In this article, he talks about what he did and the traits he believes are required for engineers to fast-track their careers.
My favorite article from 2023:
🔒 A Decade In Data Engineering - What Has Changed? - This was one of my favorite articles. I really enjoy looking at industries over a larger period of time and not just focusing on what is new. So I went over the past 10 years of data engineering and the various trends and highlights that occurred every few years.
As Christmas has just passed us and the New Year is about to start I wanted to offer all my readers a special gift! If you use the code below you’ll get 55% off of my newsletter forever!
3. Some Of My Favorite Videos
In 2023 I took a bit of a break from trying to put out as many videos as I have in the past. Part of this was due to the fact that I put out a considerable amount of lives as well as my consulting work being busier than the prior year. But I still feel like I put out some solid videos.
Data Modeling - Why Data Engineers Need To Understand It - Skills Data Engineers Need To Know
What Is It Like To Be A Data Engineer At Netflix, Target And Confluent - With Xinran Waibel
Will Data Engineering Exist In 5 Years - Is Data Engineering A Good Career Choice?
The Realities Of Airflow - The Mistakes New Data Engineers Make Using Apache Airflow
Data Modeling Challenges - The Issues Data Engineers & Architects Face When Implementing Data Models
4. What Was New - Conferences, Courses And Advising
In 2023 I decided two things, first I wanted to run a virtual conference, and second I wanted to create a community and course focused around consulting in the technical space. What I didn’t expect or aim for was having several companies reach out to me to become an advisor. In the end, 2023 had a lot of new challenges that I really enjoyed taking on!
Conferences - Specifically with the conference I was able to run two, the first which I ran on Youtube here and the second where I used a solution called Accel Events. The videos from the second conference can be found here. Personally, Accel Events made it far easier to run the 2nd conference, so I imagine I’ll be using it again.
Advisory - One thing I wasn’t planning for in 2023 was having both Mage and Estuary ask if I could come on as an advisor. Overall, I have really enjoyed the experience, especially in the moments when I have been able to provide advice and requests for product-level changes.
Course And Consulting Community - Towards the end of 2022 and early in 2023 I had dozens of people reach out to me asking for advice on consulting. At first, I started doing a few lives answering questions, but eventually, I created a course to help individuals accelerate their ability to start their own consulting company. The course covers everything from the basics to more nuanced lessons that I have picked up over time and is currently called the Technical Freelancer Academy.
Seattle Data Guy In 2024
As always, I want to say thank you to all my readers and subscribers. Every time you read, share and like any of my content, it really does mean the world to me. As someone who has been putting out content online for 7-8 years, it really keeps me excited to write more!
Now looking towards 2024, here are just some of the things you can expect, but let me know if you have topics or events you think I should put together!
Building Stand Out Content - Recently
put out a 5-minute podcast discussing some of the issues with AI-generated content and how fast some companies are cranking it out. The truth is I am more than a little concerned that the information and content that exists on the public internet will become more and more derivative. That’s why I’d like to focus on creating content that is unique, valuable, and goes back to the primary source. Meaning I will aim to have a quote or two from a foundational primary source included in my articles discussing technical topics.Data Dinners - One idea that I didn’t get to in 2023 that I’d like to try again in 2024 is putting together data dinners. Now I have been part of a few data dinners, but never as a host. So we’ll see if we can put them together in 2024!
Technical Freelancer Academy - I really have enjoyed the community that has started to come around the TFA. In 2024 I’d love to see it grow 4-5x. So I am working to build even more value for both current and future consultants. This means more private lives, QA sessions, and other unique content!
State Of Data 2023 - Like in 2023 our team has been surveying data leaders and practitioners from companies of all sizes to understand what tools are being used and what problems are data teams solving! So if you want to help us understand the data landscape then…Please fill out our data survey so we can better understand the state of data infra.