My first dbt project, and what I'd do differently

The first time I set up dbt, I dumped every model into one folder. Six months later it was unmaintainable. Here’s the structure I use now:

models/
  staging/     -- 1:1 with source tables, light renaming
  intermediate/-- reusable joins and logic
  marts/       -- business-facing tables

Test as you go

The single highest-leverage habit is adding tests from day one:

models:
  - name: stg_orders
    columns:
      - name: order_id
        tests: [unique, not_null]

These catch broken assumptions before they reach a dashboard someone trusts.