Making Friends and Enemies

with Pivot Tables

Ryan Barnett

ryanbarnett@me.com

612-709-9978

―You need a pivot what?

One sec, boss‖

Pivot Tables: A Tool of the Devil

• Sort

• Count

• Total

• Average, Max Min

• Make sense out of LOTS of data

Creating a Pivot Table in Excel

• Mac version: Data > Pivot Table

Report

• Office 2007 (PC): Insert > PivotTable

Go get data.

It can’t be that hard.

A genius can build you tools.

Thank you, Adrian.

My Data

• 10 of tonight’s speakers or audience

members

• 615 Tweets

• May or may not be related (thanks,

Lynsey)

Categorization = $$

• Subject

• Direct response to

• Conversation (included @) or telling

• Within author’s theme/persona

• Hash tag

• Gender

• Ryan’s ―Rating of Doom‖

We talk to the world

instead of with it.

Common Themes

• We like to reply—adopted and frequent

• Food is a common denominator, but so is

humbleness and thanks (8 of 10)

• Event promotion is widely adopted

• We shared our Ignite glee

• Mr. Novak loves Jetpaks

We talk as much about hash

browns as we do our day and

night jobs.

Ryan’s Score of DOOM

Direct Replies

Lessons Learned

• Pivot Tables are powerful

– Cheap (compare to Business Objects,

Cognos, etc.)

– Relatively Easy

– Just a tool

Lessons Learned

• Let the data tell a story

• Make judgment calls—anger or

surprise loved ones.

• Analysis = $$

• Play with the data