Senior Data Analyst

Melbourne-based analytics, data products and applied AI grounded in 10+ years of commercial experience.

Melbourne, Australia

Commercial analytics and data analysis insights.

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Practical analysis of how signals become decisions, where tools help and what real projects reveal when the data is messy.

All insights23 / Articles
01 / Work & TechnologyAug 2026The Job Application Process Is Now Two AIs Lying to Each Other

Candidates use AI to tailor applications while employers use AI to screen them. Everyone is acting rationally, and the system is getting worse.

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02 / Practical AI for AnalystsAug 2026I Built a Dataset Designed to Trick an AI Analyst

I built synthetic analytics tasks with hidden data traps to test whether AI could spot bad joins, missing data, misleading uplift and changing metric definitions before making confident recommendations.

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Commercial campaign incrementality analysis03 / Commercial AnalyticsAug 2026How I Worked Out Which Marketing Campaigns Were Actually Incremental

At Bakers Delight, bread campaigns produced limited incremental growth, while pizza and scone promotions changed transaction size and delivered stronger uplift.

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Analyst reviewing AI-assisted data analysis04 / Practical AI for AnalystsAug 2026How I Validate AI-Generated Data Analysis Before I Trust It

AI can speed up analysis, coding and exploration, but a plausible answer is not automatically a trustworthy one. This is the technical validation process I use before relying on AI-assisted analytical work.

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Commercial Analytics05 / Commercial AnalyticsJuly 2026Commercial Analytics: Diagnosing Sales, Customers and Product Performance

A practical guide to diagnosing commercial performance using distribution, rate of sale, price, product mix, customer behaviour and multiple data sources.

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Decision making and judgement06 / Data QualityJuly 2026Data Quality and Analytical Judgement

A practical framework for deciding whether data is safe to use, from definitions and reconciliation to comparability, context and the limits of the evidence.

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Dashboards and decision systems07 / Dashboards & Decision SystemsJuly 2026Dashboards and Decision Systems

How to design dashboards, reporting systems and internal tools around the decisions people need to make, rather than the data that happens to be available.

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Analyst analysing data with AI08 / Practical AI for AnalystsJuly 2026Practical AI for Data Analysts Without Outsourcing Judgement

AI can accelerate coding, exploration and review, but using it well creates two separate responsibilities: validating the technical output and applying human judgement to the decision.

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Australian public data image09 / Public Data & DemographicsJuly 2026Australian Public Data and Demographic Analysis

A practical guide to using Australian Census and city data across changing geographies, definitions and time periods to understand local demographic change.

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Sales decline is not a diagnosis10 / Commercial AnalyticsJuly 2026A Sales Decline Is Not a Diagnosis

Sales falling is a result, not an explanation. Start with distribution, rate of sale, price, product mix and the wider category.

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Charts usefulness image11 / Dashboards & Decision SystemsJuly 2026A Useful Dashboard Starts with a Decision

Before choosing a metric or chart, name the decision the dashboard needs to improve.

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Map of Australia image12 / Data QualityJuly 2026The Bug That Made Australia Double in Size in My Dataset

A granular projection produced an estimate of 52 million Australians. Rolling the result back up to the national total exposed the problem.

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AI in Data Analysis13 / Practical AI for AnalystsJuly 2026How I Use AI in Data Analysis Without Letting It Make the Decision

AI can write code, test hypotheses and speed up analysis, but it cannot see all the domain knowledge, internal context, relationships and organisational constraints that determine whether a recommendation makes sense.

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Data tools14 / Dashboards & Decision SystemsJuly 2026When an Analysis Should Become a Tool

Repeated questions, changing inputs, and valuable context are signs that an analysis may deserve an interface.

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Fastest data check image15 / Data QualityJuly 2026The Fastest Data Check Is Often a Definition Check

Before checking nulls and duplicates, make sure the metric, population, and time period mean what you think they mean.

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melbourne-foot-traffic-image16 / Public Data & DemographicsMay 2026Melbourne Is Becoming an Evening and Weekend City

Two years of City of Melbourne pedestrian-sensor data show foot traffic recovering unevenly: strongest at the residential fringe, after dark, and around the events calendar, while cafe and restaurant seating still clusters around the old daytime pattern.

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Illustrated Brisbane cityscape following the river through changing neighbourhoods17 / Public Data & DemographicsApr 2026What Three Census Editions Reveal About Brisbane's Demographic Shift

The third city in the series. Brisbane's demographic profile is structurally different from the southern capitals, and the data shows a city in transition.

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Illustrated Sydney cityscape arranged around the harbour and its changing neighbourhoods18 / Public Data & DemographicsApr 2026What Three Census Editions Reveal About Sydney's Demographic Shift

The second city in the multi-city census series. Sydney's migration footprint is different from Melbourne's in ways the data makes clear - from China's sustained lead in birthplace to Arabic as the standout language.

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Illustrated Melbourne cityscape showing successive rings of demographic change19 / Public Data & DemographicsApr 2026What Three Census Editions Reveal About Melbourne's Demographic Shift

This is the first in a multi-city Census series. Melbourne is diversifying quickly: India has overtaken England as the largest overseas-born population, while Christianity remained narrowly ahead of secular identification in 2021 and the linear projection places secular identification ahead by 2026.

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Analyst examining the quality, consistency and provenance of a dataset20 / Data QualityApr 2026What I Look for Before Trusting a Dataset

Before I build a dashboard, automate a report, or start analysing trends, I try to answer one question first: can this dataset actually be trusted? Here's what I check before relying on data for decisions.

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Australia Changing21 / Public Data & DemographicsMar 2026How I Harmonised ABS Census Data Across Changing Suburb and LGA Boundaries

Australian census geography changes over time, which makes suburb and LGA trend analysis much harder than it looks. Here's how I used SA1 data, ABS allocation files, and correspondence files to build a consistent 2011–2021 time series and a 2026 projection.

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Illustrated Lego landmarks, vehicles and flowers arranged as a growing product range22 / Commercial AnalyticsMar 2026How Lego’s Range Has Changed Since 2005

Since 2005, Lego has tripled the number of sets it launches each year, while the catalogue has shifted towards larger, higher-priced adult and licensed products. Brickset data makes the range change visible, although it cannot show which shift contributed most to revenue growth.

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Commercial analysis flowing from source charts into a practical decision23 / Commercial AnalyticsMar 2026How Three Datasets Helped Reverse a 48% Product Decline

A core product range declined 48% in one month. No single dataset could explain why. Here’s how combining scan data, consumer panels and custom research identified the root cause and helped return the range to 18% growth the following year.

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