Sidekick
Your AI-powered community data assistant
Make maps and visualizations in seconds, ask for data recommendations, and answer questions about your community with Sidekick. The AI-powered assistant is designed to help anyone unlock insights from community data faster and more efficiently, with zero training or data expertise. Sidekick makes it easier than ever to explore, interpret, and apply data to drive meaningful change.
📌 Key Features:
Instant Insights: Ask questions and get data-driven answers in seconds.
Simplified Data Exploration: Navigate complex datasets with intuitive AI support.
Actionable Recommendations: Receive context-rich insights that guide impactful decisions.
🎯 Improvements & Enhancements
Show Work: Check Sidekick's work and ensure it is referencing the requested dataset and geography accurately.
Save to a Report or Dashboard: Streamline your workflow and bring visualizations like maps and charts into a new or existing mySidewalk Report or Dashboard.
Share Visualizations: In addition to being able to download PNG and PDF files of visualizations, the Share Visualization feature enables users to create live, embeddable, links to dynamic insights.
💡 Why It Matters:
Time is precious. Sidekick acts as your data partner, breaking down barriers to data access and interpretation, so you can focus on creating solutions that matter. Whether you need quick facts, community comparisons, or trends over time, Sidekick empowers you to harness data as a catalyst for change.
👉 Explore Sidekick: Ask a Question
mySidewalk Academy
Platform training, at your own pace.
In 2024, we expanded mySidewalk Academy, our dedicated learning hub designed to help changemakers master data storytelling, dashboard creation, and community analysis. With a focus on practical skills and real-world applications, mySidewalk Academy empowers users to turn data into actionable insights that drive positive change.
📌 Key Features:
On-Demand Courses: Learn at your own pace with courses covering data visualization, analysis techniques, and best practices.
Expert-Designed Content: Get guidance from the data experts who built the mySidewalk platform and know our tools inside and out.
Introductory and Advanced Content: Our introductory training content will give you a solid foundation. Additionally, we offer two advanced courses, each approximately 20 minutes long, focusing on custom boundaries and uploading data.
💡 Why It Matters:
Knowledge is the cornerstone of change, and data literacy is essential for driving informed decisions. mySidewalk Academy equips you with the skills and confidence to harness data effectively, ensuring that every insight you uncover translates into meaningful community outcomes.
👉 Explore mySidewalk Academy: Start Learning
Time Series & Bar Charts
Platform training, at your own pace.
Major updates to time series and bar charts included the ability to normalize your data over time, and the bars in your bar chart individually. You can also chart more than one variable on a time series and swap between geographies and variables as your focus.
Best Practices Dashboards
Build Dashboards and Visualizations that drive action and amplify community impact
We cataloged our best practices for Dashboards & Data Assets and Visualizations to help you be more impactful with data. These resources serve as comprehensive guides for creating your own dashboards and a variety of visualizations that effectively communicate insights, tell compelling data stories, and drive informed decision-making.
📌 Key Features:
Step-by-Step Guidance: Clear, actionable steps for structuring dashboards that resonate with your audience and visualizations that are bound to engage.
Best Practice Examples: Real-world examples showcasing effective data storytelling and design principles.
Tips for Engagement: Strategies to increase dashboard engagement, ensure insights reach the right stakeholders, and data is represented accurately and effectively.
💡 Why It Matters:
Well-designed data is more than just visualization and storytelling—they're a catalyst for action. By following best practices, you can present data in ways that foster understanding, alignment, and progress within your communities. The dashboards below empowers users to amplify their impact by transforming complex data into clear, actionable insights.
👉 How to Build Your Own Dashboards & Data Assets: Start Here
👉 Visualization Best Practices: Start Here