Thinking of becoming a data analyst in 2026? This roadmap covers the essentials to get started with confidence.

Metabase is an open-source business intelligence (BI) tool for data visualization and analytics. Readers can find documentation, tutorials, and community forums to learn about using Metabase for data exploration, dashboard creation, and generating insights from data. Additionally, they can learn about connecting Metabase to various data sources, building custom dashboards, and sharing reports with stakeholders.

Metabase

A beginner-friendly roadmap for aspiring data analysts covering foundational concepts and practical skills. The guide progresses through six steps: understanding data basics and types, getting started with Excel/Metabase/SQL, exploring and preparing data through filtering and cleaning, summarizing data using aggregations and statistics, working across multiple tables with joins, and creating visualizations and dashboards. Each section provides curated resources and links to tutorials for hands-on learning across three main tools: spreadsheets, Metabase BI tool, and SQL databases.

Become a data analyst in 2026: a practical roadmap

Step 6: Data visualization and dashboards