Looker integrations you can't live without?

[katietee12]

I missed the whole year of efficiency thing in 2023, and am trying to catch up in 2024. Are there any blocks, applications, or plug-ins in or out of the marketplace that have gifted you a ton of time? Thank you! Bonus points if you built something yourself! 

[paulmrau]

If you’re getting efficiency directives, see if you can translate them into goals you can support. We’ve had success implementing the OKR framework to drive cross-department unity around our KPIs. 

I’m not sure where you’re overall data stack is at but here are a few of our biggest time savers:

• dbt has ramped up our data team’s ability to self-serve transformation
• Github for version control of our ML code.
• Report Automation: Rollstack for embedding looker dashboards in PowerPoint presentations for MBRs and QBRs, etc., 
• Just now exploring some of the marketing integrations to support our growth teams, in particular, Segment, HubSpot, and Google Ads -- let me know if there's others that have worked well. 
• Very excited about the Looker AI workshop on building custom apps next month as well

[katietee12]

Thanks @paulmrau , I've had my sleeves up learning dbt recently, so much potential.

The report automation stuff looks intriguing because it's always been time consuming to configure my visuals in powerpoint the way the leadership wants them.

I don't think I've ever talked to the marketing team. Sales yes, but mainly for MBRs & QBRs. I may grab some coffee with our marketing director to see if she has any data needs on these platforms.

[datanerd10]

This is a pretty good list, @paulmrau. You didn't mention data security and compliance at all, so I'd ad Vanta to the mix as well.

[katietee12]

Yeah really good point on data security and important for my industry. TY

[amitbiri12 · Accepted solution]

This feels more like a question about the modern data stack (MDS), which has gotten very robust thanks to fierce competition and generative AI in everyone's back pocket. Without knowing more about your skill set, team skill depth, and current stack it's hard to give strong advice, that said, automation and efficiency will always be in style.

Here's a list of my ideal stack, but each of these have some pretty good competition, and note, not all are in the Looker Marketplace.

• Dashboards = Looker
• fivetran for elt/etl;
• Rollstack for sending dashboard visuals and tables to slides & decks
  (if you do a lot of presentations for reporting)
• segment for collecting and tracking
• customer analytics - mixpanel
• BQ for warehouse
• dbt to transform data
• github for collaborating on dev projects
• datadog for visibility

[datanerd10]

Solid round-up, Amit!

[katietee12]

Hey @amitbiri12 , thanks again for taking the time to do this breakdown!

[katietee12]

Thanks for the detailed run down, @amitbiri12 -- I wasn't thinking of the whole modern data stack, but this is a great list. Of these, what are the quick wins?

[amitbiri12]

Rollstack was the quick win, because it was turn-key for non-technical people to connect looker to slides & ppt, It was a huge time saver for our team. 

Not quick, but standing up dbt to advance our data modeling and transformation, which just makes everything we do in Looker more impactful. In a similar way, Fivetran for ingestion. Basically if we don't have good data, we can't do our jobs.

P.S., deleted my last comment so I could nest this one.