Telling the Story of Data

If there’s one thing that Jared Moen '18 MSBA has taken away from his business analytics courses at St. Thomas, it’s this: making sure he's communicating clearly and effectively to management at Wells Fargo.

Moen's job is to help people make sense of the data. As Data Management Consultant, he provides guidance for highly strategic, agile data solutions. He works with 1,000 team members across 200 different teams. "It's a blast," he says.

He credits an early course, Spreadsheet Modeling and Visualization, to jump-start his influence and visibility at Wells Fargo. “I was able to apply what Professor Olson taught us in class to the next day at work,” he says. “That class has had the biggest and fastest impact on my career so far.”

As a result, Moen has became comfortable tackling larger data sets at work, quickly boiling them down to what matters. He summarizes through various tables, charts and graphs for others to use in their decision making. And his managers are taking notice.

Telling the story of data is crucial in this fast-growing industry. Senior managers want to see their analytics visualized quickly and make sense. Moen's data visualization skills have since led to increased responsibility at work. "I designed an analytics dashboard for senior management. Now people know who I am because of what I can build, analyze and present.”

Analytics tool courses like Data Analytics and Visualization has exposed him to specialized analytics methods and applications, like Tableau, a leading visualization software. And a course in Storytelling has helped him develop another data skill in huge demand – building a compelling narrative.

“Storytelling with analytics is huge right now,” Moen says. “Companies like Wells Fargo are always looking for people who can tell a story with the data.”