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Making Analytics Accessible

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Derek Steer, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer

May 23, 2016

3 minute read

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Since day one, Mode has been a product built by analysts, for analysts.

As analysts, we're at our best when free to uncover unexpected truths that push our businesses toward better decisions. This requires tools with the flexibility to answer any type of question. But the answers don't end with us. In order to make lasting impact, we must make our work easily accessible to everyone.

Power. Knowledge. Accessibility. Today we've got updates to share on all three fronts.

SQL to Python in seconds

Ever try to calculate a median in SQL? I have, and it's terrible. Time series analysis, regressions—even simple descriptive statistics—can be difficult in SQL. Python makes these and many other techniques trivially easy. Unfortunately other barriers have historically made Python a less than ideal choice.

Python can be hard to set up and maintain. It's a pain to share. It's disconnected from the SQL that often creates a data set in the first place. With distracting code and irrelevant scratch work, notebooks can be off-putting for someone just looking for an answer. If not meticulously stored and documented, the work isn't discoverable or reusable.

Our plan to support exploratory analysis workflows in Python is probably one of the worst-kept secrets of all time—just take a look at the first article ever written about Mode. We've always felt that connecting SQL and Python would help analysts move faster, and we're pretty excited to say, “it's here!” 🐍

Starting today, you can use Mode to pass the results of a SQL query straight into an integrated Python notebook for exploratory analysis. After you've explored, transformed, and modeled, you can pull the most relevant output cells from your notebook into a code-free, shareable report anyone can update on their own.

Check out this quick video to see how it works!

Open community resources

As analysts roll out Mode, people across their business see SQL right alongside data and a light bulb flips on: “I can do this.” We're thrilled to see this leveling-up happen over and over among the diverse set of companies using Mode. The trend is freeing up analytics teams to tackle the work they were hired to do, and empowering other teams to access data with confidence.

Over 250,000 people have learned to write better SQL using Mode's free SQL tutorials. To continue enabling the “citizen data scientists” helping companies turn raw data into action, we're adding Python tutorials and practice problems that feature real-world business data. Anyone can transform raw data into answers given the opportunity.

In many cases, learning to do simple data manipulations and pivoting in Python is more straightforward than in SQL. By enabling learners to skip Python's tedious set-up steps, far more people can learn the basics. It's a big step toward advancing analytical skills across entire organizations.

Our existing SQL tutorials and the new Python tutorials live together at community.modeanalytics.com. Expect to see more here in the coming months.

P.S. Watsi has generously anonymized and opened their row-level data to power these tutorials. Please consider paying it forward: join Watsi's Universal Fund to help patients around the world access medical care.

New pricing

Mode is rolling out new pricing plans to help you get up-and-running quickly and enable everyone in your business to access knowledge.

The Standard plan, designed for growing teams, costs just $19 per user per month. The Plus plan offers additional features that enable large, data-driven companies to create an open, collaborative culture around data in a cost-effective, scalable manner.

Some of your coworkers might self-serve data without ever touching code. Some will dabble in SQL from time to time. Some will live exclusively in SQL. Others still will spend their time building complex models in Python. The new pricing is designed to open up the right tools to the right people at the right time, and help everyone access data in the way that works best for them.

However you and your team choose to explore data, Mode speaks your language.

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Additional Resources

template

Defining Metrics: A Template 
for Working With Stakeholders

Guide

10 Things Modern Business 
Intelligence Should Enable Today

video

Watch a Product Tour of Mode

Get started with Mode