Introduction

I'll confess that when I was initially approached to write a book about Google Data Studio, I was hesitant. At the time, I was building a reputation, and some authority, on the subject. I particularly enjoyed blogging, giving presentations, and collaborating with newfound colleagues. It was exciting to explore the bounds of what was possible with each new release. But write a book on the subject? That was another matter, for sure.

I thought it might be a fool's errand to try to capture all the capabilities of such a quickly evolving platform in book form. After reading and reviewing hundreds of resources about Google Data Studio over the past few years, I had seen many "ultimate" guides published on the web, only to be outdated soon after their release. I seriously considered turning down the opportunity.

What changed my mind was a reflection on why I enjoyed working with Data Studio in the first place. It was the feeling of empowerment. I had found Data Studio to be like the Swiss Army knife of data visualization tools: although it certainly is not the best tool for every job, you can do quite a lot with it, and it is easily accessible.

Developing the ability to make sense of the tremendous amounts of data generated in our society is a challenge as well as an opportunity. Both individuals and large corporations can benefit from increased access to data if the tools to work with it are accessible and approachable. I believe that Data Studio meets these requirements and can help in the democratization of these skills.

The development of data literacy, and increasing your ability to communicate insights through visualization, is not just a set of skills to be used in a business context. Although it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to develop these skills, you can go beyond the business context and use these capabilities for your community and your personal interests.

Data Studio continues to evolve sophisticated features, but the fundamental capabilities have remained available and accessible to users at all levels. My approach to writing this book was not to provide an exhaustive detailing of features or to dive into the latest or most exotic implementations, as fun as that might be. The challenge in writing this book was to provide the reader with access to the fundamentals and guide them through the development process with examples that are relevant to their interests. The goal is to provide a foundation for those who want to explore or develop data skills.

During the writing of this book, which took several months, there were more than 20 Data Studio updates and releases. Despite all those changes, there have been only a few cosmetic updates to the examples provided. My hope, and so far, my experience, is that this book will be of value for some time to come. It is designed as a survival guide: a resource to get you started and see you safely through the challenges of working in areas that might be unfamiliar.

Beyond this book, you should find resources available to empower you to pursue your own interests even further and take advantage of new features as they become available.

Who Should Read This Book

This book is primarily designed with novices in mind. It is heavily weighted in favor of those who may be unfamiliar with the many different systems and services available. A wide range of applications are covered in this book, and chances are good that you will have an interest in several of the topics. This book should help

• Beginners looking for an accessible way to get started building skills in data visualization and analysis
• Those interested in gaining experience with data visualization tools
• Organizations looking for better ways to communicate their community involvement
• Small business owners looking to gain insight and monitor their websites and business listings
• Freelancers or small agencies looking to add better reporting capabilities for their clients
• People involved in organizations that can benefit from better reporting and communication capabilities
• People who have an interest in building their data skills and literacy for career enhancement
• Those who need to gain experience using Data Studio specifically due to business adoption
• Individuals interested in using their own data for personal growth
• People interested in analyzing and reporting on public data

What You Will Learn

This book provides a practical guide to many of the steps in the data life cycle. You'll learn how to find data, connect to data services, retrieve data, and study the basics of data preparation. We'll cover the basics of report design as well as using reports for analysis and insight discovery. And, of course, you'll learn all about using Data Studio as a tool for data visualization, analysis, and communication.

Throughout most of this book, we'll use a basic cooking analogy to guide you through the steps of creating reports and applications. We'll usually start with the finished product so that you can see the main components used in each example, and we'll then proceed to re-create the example.

For each example, I'll walk you through all the steps and not just how to create the report itself. It's important to know how and where to shop for data, how to prepare the data when necessary, and how to use the finished product.

Data Studio is a tool that can help you find your own insights from data in addition to being a medium for visual data communication. The more you work with data, the more you will build greater intuition as to where to look for insights. At the same time, your skills in analysis will grow. Again, there is no substitute for practice and experience.

It is my hope that as you work with your own data and learn to use the tools discussed in this book, you'll become more than a passive consumer of other people's work. Hopefully, you'll develop an appreciation of well-crafted communications. Also, you may develop a healthy skepticism for data presented in ways designed to promote a conclusion rather than to highlight an insight.

You have to expend a lot of mental energy in order to gain your own insights and even more energy to communicate them to an audience. I have found that working on topics and areas that interest me personally provides the motivation to expend the effort required.

My advice is to find an area of your own interest, in your personal, business, or public life, and explore that area with the tools now available.

How This Book Is Organized

Each chapter in the book has its own set of online resources. You'll find links to the live Data Studio examples, online references, and services. In addition, sample data files are provided for Part I so that you can follow along using the example data. You can access all of the online resources at www.wiley.com/go/handsondatastudio.

Part I: Data Studio Basics

This group of chapters covers the basics of working with Data Studio.

• Chapter 1: Data Studio and the Data Citizen This chapter is designed to introduce users to the tools and skills that you'll be building by following the examples in this book. It explores the concepts involved in the data life cycle, the increased demand for data skills, and the roles that Data Studio can fill.
• Chapter 2: Cooking with Google Data Studio This chapter will help users new to Data Studio to get up and running with the tool. Starting from scratch, we go from account setup, to personal financial data retrieval, to basic data preparation. After data preparation, we build the example report.

  Along the way, you'll be introduced to basic Data Studio concepts and how to use the fundamental features of the tool. We'll cover in detail how to set up a Google Sheet with a new data connection and add that to your report. We'll also explore several of the fundamental chart visualizations and focus on configuration options that are most commonly used. Finally, you'll learn how to share the report.

• Chapter 3: Enhancing Basic Graphs This chapter builds on the example created in Chapter 2. Here we cover the setup and configuration options that are important to most users, from chart visualization options to time range comparisons. I also provide an introduction to grouping concepts in order to build the updated report.

  This chapter also covers how to copy Data Studio reports and reuse elements in order to save time. You'll learn more about static report design and how to use Data Studio to create password-protected PDFs for safe report sharing.

• Chapter 4: Data Exploration with Interactive Elements This chapter sticks to using personal accounting data, but instead of creating static reports, we build a workbench designed for analysis. The chapter then explores the major interactive features available to Data Studio users, and it provides guidance on using various interaction options.

  This chapter also introduces you to modifying and augmenting data using Data Studio functions when it is inconvenient, or impossible, to modify the source data. The last part of the chapter explores how to use the report as an analysis tool to answer specific questions.

Part II: Business and Marketing Applications

This part caters to the natural strengths of Data Studio. The focus here is on reporting...