I help ANY professional or team have more impact using data. Analytics demystified.

👉 WHAT I DO: I help teams and organizations develop and apply real-world machine learning forecasting skills using Python and Python in Excel.

⚙️ WHO I HELP: Every type of organization will benefit from better forecasts, including (but not limited to):

🏛️ Financial Services
🏥 Healthcare
👩‍🎓 Education
📺 Marketing
📊 Finance
💻 IT 

💰 WHY IT WORKS: In modern organizations, many external factors impact forecasts. These factors include holidays, promotions, capital investments, weather, and global economics.

Machine learning forecasting models can incorporate these external factors to produce more powerful forecasts than can be achieved via commonly used techniques (e.g., Excel's FORECAST.ETS() function).

✅ HOW I DO IT: I work under two operating models depending on your business needs:

"Done with You" - This is a coaching model where I train your team/organization and then help them successfully apply what they've learned.

"Done For You" - This is a consulting model where I do the work on your behalf.

Regardless of the mode, I focus on the nature of your business problem first and foremost. 

Before I write any code or train your team, I partner with you to develop an understanding of your business. With this baseline knowledge, I then bring my 14+ years of analytics and data science experience to the engagement. 

I can use Python in Excel or Jupyter Notebooks - whichever works best for your situation.

📞 READY TO TALK?
Schedule a free discovery call: https://bit.ly/FreeForecastingDiscoveryCall

David Langer

I've been a curious person for as long as I can remember.  I have memories of taking toys apart as a child and then trying my best to put them back together, usually with a 50% success rate.  Learning about how things work has been a passion of mine from a young age even up until this day.  

In my professional career, I've used that curiosity to focus on strategy, leadership, and execution.  If you can create a strategy, lead a team of talented individuals, and chart a roadmap to execution, you can accomplish anything.  I've found that most transformation failures are due to a lack of strategy, leadership, or execution.

I specialize in data & analytics.  Data is a powerful enabler of business strategy.  Being able to identify the value of data and potential monetization use cases is a business-critical skill set.  I've spent my career building data products that drive business outcomes that have economic value.

There exists a large skills gap with data leaders.  My goal is to help fill that gap by providing insights into the lessons that I've learned throughout my career.  I aim to help data professionals in all phases of their career journey (new to the role, mid-career, seasoned professional, senior leaders, etc..).

Aaron Wilkerson

The Data in the D Conference is coming back in 2026.

An official Save the Date will be announced soon.  We're tentatively planning for October.

We just secured our first sponsor 🎉🥳. 

If you're a company looking to support a growing community of Detroit data nerds gathering on a Saturday in the Fall, feel free to reach out. 

Now is the opportunity to get in early and choose a sponsorship slot before more spots fill up.

#DataintheDConference
#DetroitFall

Data & Analytics Leader | Professional Nerd | Lifelong Learner

Another successful Data in the D low-key meetup event is done.  Many thanks to those who came out last night.  Luckily, there was no snowstorm this month.  

We had a great time at Detroit Shipping Company: Food Hall, Beer Garden, Event Space.  It was great meeting new people, the community continues to grow each month.

Here's some of the conversations I had:
🤔 At startups you're typically the only data engineer, which has is benefits and setbacks.
🤔 Consulting projects still involve bread and butter API integrations to tabular formats.  It's not all AI work.
🤔 While everyone discuss Snowbricks, AWS data platforms are alive and well at large firms.
🤔 Stitched together frameworks are pervasive and represent abandoned experimentation and POCs that were never retired (a little bit of Iceberg, a sprinkle of DuckDB).
🤔 People reach out to me via LinkedIn and I'm bad at responding (blame the sales folks who flood my Inbox).
🤔 Access to AI models may require special requests, you have to know the right people.
🤔 AI strategy involves a healthy mix of bottom-up and top-down interactions.  Leadership wants to know the opportunities but needs help identifying them.
🤔 Databricks Apps are growing in use.
🤔 Data engineers understand the aspects of compute costs in cloud workflows.
🤔 Qlik Sense to Power BI migrations.
🤔 Snowflake to Databricks migrations.
🤔 There are instances of companies moving to Tableau, it's not all Power BI.
🤔 Many people are tinkering with Databricks but don't have it fully implemented and deployed yet.
🤔 Networking events are helpful for people looking to get into the data industry from other fields.

If you're in the Metro Detroit area or nearby, feel free to stop by.  We gather each month.

Also, the 2026 Data in the D Conference is happening again this Fall.  An official save the date will be coming soon.  Stay Tuned.

#DataintheD

This weekend, I have the great opportunity to speak at DataTune Conf.

I’ll be describing 5 things I’ve learned along the way to building a career in data.

I’ll also be describing the traps that occur when you’re looking to make career jumps.

The largest thing I see people struggle with is solving problems.

It’s understandable. From Kindergarten through college, you’re being handed closed-loop problems that are already framed for you. Your task is to provide a solution based on what you’ve been taught in that lesson or course.

Even entry-level positions (remember when those were a thing? 😉) handed you tasks to accomplish with instructions and directions.  Once you grow out of these easy problems, you're faced with open-ended problems that don't have a clear path forward.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself as your in conversations with your team, leader, and other members of your organization:
🤔 What’s the problem?
🤔 How can it be solved?
🤔 Who can solve it?
🤔 When could it be solved?

BONUS #1 – Solve problems other people care about

Don’t get in the habit of solving things that only you think are problems.  A key question to ask once you understand the problem is, "Is it worth solving?"

BONUS #2 – Tell people what problem you solved

Don’t do things in a vacuum. Make sure others are aware of what you’re doing.

BONUS #3 – Don’t become the problem

Be solutions-focused and bring solutions, not complaints. If you don’t know how to solve a problem, ask for help and state what work you’ve done so far. Be an asset, not a liability.

When I have a plumbing issue, I expect to call a plumber.  When they arrive, I expect them to diagnose the problem, identify a solution, give me an overview of what they'll do to fix the problem (with a price), fix the problem, demonstrate the problem has been fixed, and then leave.  Then, I tell everyone I know that the plumber's amazing and they should hire them too.

As your career grows, the types of problems you are solving change. Sometimes, there is no clear answer, and you have to make educated guesses. This is where strategy comes into play. Also, it may take longer to implement a solution because of the time, people, and financial resources required.

If you’re coming to the conference, I look forward to diving into this topic much more.

Today is the first Sunday of Lent ✝️

Every year, billions of Christians around the world observe Lent.  It's a 40-day period leading up to Easter in the Christian calendar. It begins on Ash Wednesday and commemorates the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent fasting in the wilderness.

Traditionally, Lent is marked by three practices:
🙏 Prayer – intentional reflection and spiritual focus
🚫 Fasting – giving something up to build discipline
🫴 Almsgiving – generosity and service to others

Forty days of intentionality can reset priorities, clarify purpose, and build resilience.

If you’re observing Lent this year, I pray that it be meaningful.

Matthew 4:1-11

#Lent2026
#soulfulSundays

The latest episode of the Data in the D Podcast is live.

Ryan Dolley, Scott Smith, and I have worked in the data industry for quite some time (some more than others).  "Data jobs" look a lot different now than what they were in 2006 and 2016.  

We chat through what skills are still relevant in a 2026 job market and how data professionals from entry level to senior should prepare for what's coming next in the age of AI.

For each of us, a theme that comes to mind is growth and reinventing yourself.  None of us are doing the same things we did 20 years ago and we've had to evolve over time to stay relevant (and employed).

Enjoy the episode!

"I've always been interested in data, but I'm suddenly concerned that AI is going to take all the data jobs."

That's what a college senior told our guest Scott Smith on the latest episode of Data in the D.

Scott's been leading analytics consulting at Wit Solutions for 20 years — from the Business Objects days through Qlik, Power BI, and now AI. His answer was blunt:

Being a generic "data person" is a risk. But pair data skills with real domain knowledge? That's where the doors open.

We also got into:

→ Why the old "dashboard guns for hire" consulting model is dead

→ How mid-market companies are solving the data team problem without building one

→ What vibe coding means for enterprise data (it's weird)

→ Why Detroit's data scene is about to get a lot more interesting

Join Aaron Wilkerson and I here: https://lnkd.in/gBy_fJGY

#DataCareers #BusinessIntelligence #Analytics #Detroit #DataInTheD

When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, and reason as a child. 

When I became a man...I still watch things from my childhood via streaming platforms.

Modern technology makes old things new. Most of my childhood favorite cartoons and movies can be enjoyed by my children. They're huge fans of the Mighty Ducks. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers....not so much.

I've been involved with BI my entire career. I've seen many forms of "BI is dead" or "BI is obsolete" but it still lives on. AI will provide significant benefits to BI and elevate it to what it was originally intended to do.

Ryan Dolley and I will talk about this on Thursday on the next Super Data Brothers show.  

Join us while I'm sure we'll discuss cartoons from our youth and eventually talk about data stuff.

#TMNT
#PowerRangers
#Voltron
#GoBots
#VRTroopers
#Transformers
#BigBadBeetleborgs
#SuperhumanSamuraiSyberSquad

Try to transform your business, rollout 25 dashboards nobody cares about. It's the story of the last 20 years of BI.

Millions spent and the number one question stakeholders still ask is 

'Can you pull that into Excel for me?'

Into this mess steps AI - is it BI's savior or destroyer?

Thursday at noon ET, Aaron Wilkerson and I are going to talk about it. Aaron runs data strategy at Carhartt and he's steering this shift now.

More Than Meets the KPI. Live, Feb 26th at 12PM ET.

Links in the comments

If you ask everyone in your company how many regularly use AI, almost everyone will raise their hands.

If you dig a little deeper, data analysis is one of the top use cases.

What does this tell us?  As the workforce continues to use AI in new ways to make their jobs easier, they'll expect it in solutions they're being presented.

This is a great opportunity for those of us who work in reporting and analytics.  There are parts of BI that will die in the AI era and there are parts of BI that will thrive.

Ryan Dolley and I will be discussing this on Thursday at 12pm.

AI turns BI from BS to brilliant.

At least that's the promise. But what's actually happening on the ground when data teams start letting AI into their BI workflows?

This Thursday Aaron Wilkerson and I are going to find out. Aaron runs data strategy and products at Carhartt and he's been watching this shift happen day by day.

Everyone has an opinion on whether AI kills BI or saves it. The answer is both.

More Than Meets the KPI. Thursday Feb 26, 12pm ET. LinkedIn Live.

Ryan Dolley, Aaron Wilkerson and 96 other attendees

AI turns BI from BS to brilliant | Aaron Wilkerson

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