Learning Domo: How Natalie Knudson became her company's Major Domo

Tuesday, June 06, 2023

Natalie Knudson is the VP of Analytics at Better Earth Solar and has been their MajorDOMO. Prior to being a client, she never heard of Domo, knew anything regarding SQL or ETLs and didn't know how to make a dashboard. Within 9 months of working together, she has not only made 80+ Dashboards for Better Earth, but also she is centralizing data, solving problems and creating a data-driven culture for her work.

BACKGROUND

John Le: What did you do before your current role?

Natalie Knudson: My entire career has basically been finance and accounting. I've done it for about 10 years. Well I was actually in mortgages for a while where I did foreclosure processing and got into the solar industry and did finance and accounting there.

WHY Domo?

John Le: Why did Better Earth even choose Domo?

Natalie Knudson: We use a system called Insightly and none of the competitors, Tableau and Power BI, were able to pull the data we needed from Insightly.

John Le: When did your manager tell you that you were going to be using this thing called Domo?

Natalie Knudson: The controller of this company [Pat Mullen] basically got with me and said he saw me making manual reports and asked if I wanted to use Domo. So he jumped on a 20 minute call with me and gave me a super, super quick walk through of Domo. He showed some learning material and said to use you [dashboard dudes] as a resource. In about a week, I went through all of your trainings before we even met. I watched videos and everything I could get my hands on. I think it took me about two weeks to build out a dashboard of stuff I had been doing super manually every day.

Honestly, the biggest problem I've solved is bringing all the data together and putting it in one spot. The real problem we've solve is not having 20 different points of data and having people look at 20 different points of data.

John Le: How did the company react when they saw all these dashboards you produced?

Natalie Knudson: Everyone thought it was awesome...I actually got promoted. I helped Pat build out a dashboard and asked Pat if he was looking to centralized the data for the company because I really like [Domo], it's pretty easy and I learned it myself. He said he talked with our Chief Strategy Officer and they said "Honestly let's talk about it. We never really considered it, but you're a great fit for the position".

HoW DID you learn domo?

John Le: Now you had no experience with SQL. So when you first learned ETLs was that through my videos?

Natalie Knudson: Yes. So the video that helped me the very most was the video that went through how you use each tool in the ETL. I actually remember. I was in my new apartment. I barely moved in. It was just me there on a weekend folding some laundry and I was like "I gotta do my training on Domo today". Everyday I'd do 30 minutes. So I grabbed my laptop...and that video is 45 minutes long. I remember the 30 minute timer went off, but I finished watching it because it was very helpful. Everyday I would build something out and run a preview.

John Le: I'm an Excel pro and I tell people whether it's Excel, SQL or Domo, it's like an onion. It's not something you can cram for. You get good at cutting an onion, by doing it 10,000 times. How many dashboards do you think you've made?

Natalie Knudson: 80+. It's almost 10 [dashboards] a month. Learn to be fearless in your learning. Domo provides so much, your stuff [Dashboard Dudes] is very helpful and be very consistent. I learned because I didn't go a day, including weekends, without doing at least 30 minutes of Domo.

John Le: I'd like to share some insights I have about you. First is the tenacity. The second thing...I love the inquisitive nature you have. Lastly, I like that you preach and share it.

the return on investment

John Le: What's a problem you've solved with Domo?

Natalie Knudson: When we started with our Domo Dashboards for customer service, wait times were pretty high. The reason [Domo] solved the problem is because there were more eyes on the project and more attention and because the data was so centralized, it pushed the leader and his leader to see this as an issue. The leader of Customer Success is phenomenal and has reduced those timelines.

John Le: Worst war story you have

Natalie Knudson: So I had this parent dashboard and accidentally deleted it! It was a big learning lesson to slow down. "Slow down Natalie" is the whole theme of our relationship.

John Le: What's your favorite tool in ETLs?

Natalie Knudson: A group by obviously.

John Le: Ha. Love a good group by. You know how there are Taco Tuesdays? There needs to be Thursday Group Bys. Well thank you ver much Natalie.

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