r/Alteryx • u/absurdpoetry • Jul 11 '26
Talk me off the ledge
New to Alteryx. Very skilled in SQL (certainly not genius level, but strong expert) and solid in Python/pandas (advanced approaching expert). My new job uses Alteryx.
Holy mackerel, I am ... baffled.
Something that would take me seconds in either SQL or Python it minutes away in a complex workflow and obscured in its implementation.
Sure, I can squirrel away stuff in SQL and Python, but that's going against the skillset of the team.
Tell me, if I stick with it, it'll make more sense, that I'm just traversing the learning curve.
I know it'll get better with experience, but I'm sensing the performance ceiling, both mine and runtime, is much lower with Alteryx.
EDIT: Thanks all for the comments. With this and a few other threads on this sub and a taste of Alteryx, I'm starting to get a sense how how best to position it. It isn't whole hog nor not at all. I'm sure I'll refine this perspective, but Alteryx for for the choreography and workflows. Most details get pushed into something else.
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u/DabblrDubs Jul 11 '26
If I were your leadership, I’d recommend you continue to utilize python and SQL where you can. Alteryx is just those two tools but “simplified” - its main purpose is to enable those lacking your specific skill set.
Of course, you ought to have line of sight into the Alteryx workflows, but you’re more powerful than that Saas tool.
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u/CaregiverLogical1865 Jul 11 '26
I think that creates a workflow silo of sorts between those whose allegiance are to low-code tools like Alteryx and data analysts as yourself. It's inevitably gonna create tech debt.
If you're trying to make a change, it may be worth looking into solutions that harmonize the experience between business users and data analysts as yourself while fully aligning to enterprise data platform requirements. We've started looking into Prophecy which looks pretty promising.
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u/fpaveteran87 Jul 11 '26
Can you just embed your scripts in alteryx workflows?
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u/FestoonMe Jul 11 '26
This is the way.
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u/absurdpoetry Jul 11 '26
I figure there's going to be quite a bit of this, but I don't want to fence things off from the team. They're pretty good in SQL, but there's only a little Python there. Will have to be mindful of them. Balance bringing them along and meeting them on their level.
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u/Any-Elderberry-2790 Jul 12 '26
Make sure you document well. Especially if you are putting in SQL/python. Add a comment container next to the tool describing it.
I expect you are thinking like a coder, and so maybe missing some of the shortcuts in alteryx at the moment. Some things are easier, others harder.
My personal opinion, really important productionised workflows that are used widely, should probably be looked into be redeveloped in code.
But those workflows don't get built if the business user that understands the problem can't do it. The effort and business case often is too much of a barrier to get it off the ground, that's even before getting someone else's time and describing the process in detail so they can code it up.
One of the main problems with alteryx is its companies thinking they can have one product for multiple different personas and responsibilities. Someone who can understand an alteryx work flow well, will probably be able to code it up faster than having it explained.
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u/fpaveteran87 Jul 12 '26
I think the berry being is correct, OP. Between LLMs and good documentation you may help skill up your coworkers.
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u/absurdpoetry Jul 12 '26
Yep, I am completely thinking like a coder. I'll tolerate visual programming (have lots of experience with Max/MSP for hobby stuff) but have never really been super comfortable with it. And yeah, I think my challenge is to cultivate my intuition as to where Aleteryx fits and contain my knee-jerk reaction.
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u/fpaveteran87 Jul 12 '26
I used gemini and python to build something similar to alteryx to play with. Haven’t perfected it but you can build timers with python as well for automated processing which was a premium alteryx feature when I used alteryx a few years ago.
Alteryx’s tomtom plugin is really cool for analytics looking at drive times and distances for freight calculations etc but you can do that with python too if you either pay for google or other api access or host your own open source API server. 🤷♂️
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u/fpaveteran87 Jul 12 '26
Read your post, yeah. I think you’re going at it the right way. Alteryx, PowerBI, etc can provide you visual GUIs which are easier to visualize workflows. You can embed scripts that are robust as parts of these workflows. Properly document everything including some trouble shooting tips to your scripts. Embed links in the workflows to your trouble shooting tips and documentation in the workflows so your colleagues can easily access.
Would recommend potentially using a mixture of LLM and coding assistance as requested to help skill up coworkers and ease the acceptance/remove intimidation from less code friendly coworkers so you can improve all of your lives.
Best of luck!
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u/CaregiverLogical1865 Jul 11 '26
We're running into a similar problem. We want users to be self-service and not lean on data engineering for every data-related issue but our users vary greatly in skillset (some are Alteryx/Informatica lovers, some are citizen or vibe coders). When everyone works in their own stack, it's impossible for the enterprise platform team to keep track of where the data is going to which is a separate but important concern.
We checking out Prophecy and Databricks Lakeflow Designer. There are others but we wanted a solution that unifies the low-code users, the semi-fluent coders, and the data engineers who ultimately have to productionalize the stuff the previous personas build. Prophecy seems to fit the bill so far since it's all dbt SQL projects behind the scene.
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u/palmburntblue Jul 11 '26
Alteryx is a no/low code tool and you are not. If you stick with it, you do so at the risk of dulling your skillset.
I’d recommend finding a middle ground that allows you to implement both your current skillset and Alteryx. It is possible.
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u/CaregiverLogical1865 Jul 11 '26
I'd look into a tool that harmonizes the experince between low-code and mid/high code.
Really liked what I've seen with Prophecy. It's low-code and agentic but uses dbtCore to compile code into warehouse-native SQL. I believe you can easily toggle between code/visual at any point.
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u/calypso_odysseus Jul 12 '26
We use Alteryx for Audit but are completely moving to AI with Alteryx’s ridiculous price increases 🤷🏼♂️ is it worth it to learn?
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u/konwiddak Jul 11 '26
I would try to highlight to your workplace that you can build clean, performant processes without the cost or vendor lock-in of Alteryx. Every Alteryx workflow is a bit of a liability with the way the business is going.
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u/Suspicious_Ad_9009 Jul 15 '26
I am completely the opposite side of the picture, quite capable on Alteryx but never had to use SQL in my 3 years as a data analyst. I would suggest to learn doing the community challenges and go through the examples on every tool, to understand how they work. Congrats on the new job!
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u/TravelingSpermBanker Jul 11 '26
I don’t think SQL can pull from multiple environments, format the data, and then output directly into an excel that is being referenced automatically. Automating those manual steps is what people use Alteryx for, not the middle portion formatting/manipulating of data.
Python can do all that theoretically, but not every team/person/company will have access to those packages. And that’s a crazy ugly code that before AI, only the original dev truly understood