## Metadata - Author: [[ilan-man|Ilan Man]] - Full Title:: The Many Hats of a Data Analyst - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://locallyoptimistic.com/post/data-analyst/ - Finished date:: [[2023-07-29]] ## Highlights This could also be a good distinction between [[Business analysis|Business analysis]] and [[Data analysis|Data analysis]]: it does not entirely disconnect Data Analysts from the domains. Business Analysts are short-term vs. data analysts being long term [[Data team roles|Data team roles]]. > While data analyst responsibilities often overlap with those of a business analyst, a good data analyst also builds models, performs experiments, works cross functionally and occasionally spikes on more technical projects – all tasks that require time. Business analysts, however, operate on their business team’s schedule, requiring quick turn around and answers to very specific questions. A business analyst might answer the question, “Why did sales drop last week?”, whereas a data analyst works on a question like, “What is the single biggest driver within our control to increase sales?” The latter type of question could require weeks of work; the former perhaps a few hours. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f1zmm5qyrveejktkx9bhq5)) > Data transformations – transformations that take in application or third party data and transform it according to business logic – used to be the domain of the [Data engineer](https://blog.getdbt.com/does-my-startup-data-team-need-a-data-engineer-/), and in larger organizations it still is, though tech companies are more likely to hire an [Analytics Engineer](https://www.locallyoptimistic.com/post/analytics-engineer/) to do this work. But until the Data team gets large enough to specialize, data analysts perform these tasks ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6f2474zmwadb3ad462zfmxc))