Section 05

Start Here

Who this playbook is for and the implementation flow you'll follow.

This playbook is for engineers, analysts, and architects who need to design repeatable data systems from scratch.

After reading this playbook, you should be able to

  • Choose the right system pattern for the problem
  • Create a clean project structure
  • Move data through Bronze, Silver, and Gold layers
  • Validate data before reporting
  • Export business-ready outputs
  • Know when a local system should become a cloud system

Implementation flow

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1. Identify data sources
2. Create project structure
3. Load raw data into Bronze
4. Clean and standardize into Silver
5. Build business-ready Gold tables
6. Validate outputs
7. Export to Excel, BI, API, or dashboard

First project recommendation

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Start with DuckDB if:
- You are one person
- The data fits on one machine
- The output is Excel, CSV, or a simple dashboard
- You need speed more than infrastructure