The growth of data scientists is exploding right now, with no signs of slowing down, but for good reason. As this article states, data scientists hold the key to unlocking value of data for businesses. However, you don’t need a data scientist on staff to produce reports about what is occurring in your business. In the past 2 years, I’ve constantly be playing around with various data viz tools. Part of my exploration is hoping to find one that integrates easily with my data sources by clicking a few buttons – I don’t want to spend the time connecting APIs manually.

At the end of May, Google announced they would be offering a free version of the Data Studio for free to individuals and small teams. For me, it’s the perfect tool being that most of the reports I need to generate as a marketer are from Google Analytics. Especially for my eCommerce businesses, I need to show sales, users, platforms and content trends in a clean way. Data Studio can connect with individual accounts in your GA, plus, it can connect with Google Adwords. Powerful reports that most of my clients are looking for on a monthly basis. Data Studio takes it one step further allowing you these reports to be live and published to the web – much like a Google Doc would be.

I’m excited for this tool because it’s relatively simple in this version. It has the right amount of tools and metrics that I need as a marketing professional to produce reports that are informative and actionable. Much like GA, I’m sure Google will update this tool over time with use, but for now, it’s a great start for those looking for data viz tools for reporting.