Tableau on Tableau

Molly was one of my first friends at Tableau. Though we’ve taken different roles at the company over the years, we share similar ideas about how the software impacts people’s lives. In this episode we talk about the career lessons we’ve learned while working at Tableau, and we discuss the challenges involved in developing a training program around a piece of software designed to be intuitive.

Changes in technology and job responsibilities have altered the lives of workers everywhere. For people who have built their careers around data, Tableau is a major influencer in how they perceive information, communicate facts, and prioritize their time. In this episode, MK Quigley joins to discuss her career working with data, feedback about Tableau. MK and Charles also have some choice words for people who request Dynamic Parameters as an idea for feature improvement.

We’re back! The new Gartner report raises important questions about how the leaders in the analytics market differentiate themselves. Also, the new release of Tableau version 10.2 prompts Wilson and Charles to discuss some of its notable features.

This week - a discussion of the strange, funny, unique stories from Tableau's history. Working at a tech startup with a focus on data means there are a lot of passionate personalities who spend their time in interesting ways. This week's guest Dustin Smith reminisces about what happens when you get a room of data nerds together. And Dustin and Charles reflect on the pieces of Tableau culture that can teach us about how to build a truly data driven organization.

Back by popular demand, Andrew Hill joins the podcast with Tableau employee Dan Huff and special guests Matt Higgins and Scott Wasserman to discuss the things companies often fail to consider when implementing Tableau. Analytics success is tied to software, leadership, and people. Also, Andrew gets a surprise.

Tableau's internal viz competition is coming to a close. In this episode, Wilson and Charles discuss the contest so far and what they've learned about data visualization from sponsoring and consuming the analytics created by members of Tableau. Also, Cotgreave's law, and when to defy convention when creating data visualizations.

There are a lot of buzzwords and catchphrases in the B.I. space, but “Self Service” might be the most frequently used, and most poorly defined. In this episode, Wilson and Charles reflect on their experience seeing customers of all sizes implement their own versions of Self Service analytics, and track a history of Tableau’s perspective on it as it has evolved over the years. Plus, Charles shares a great cocktail recipe.

The terms “Dashboard” and “B.I. (Business Intelligence)” have become nearly interchangeable when discussing today’s technologies and the general zeitgeist that surrounds them. Wilson and Charles discuss the problems with using Dashboarding as the solution to data questions within a business, and explore ideas around storytelling and sharing data in a provocative way.

If you ask a Tableau user the most important thing to learn in order to become a Tableau expert, they'll probably say "calcs." Calculations are consistently the most hotly discussed topics on Tableau's web forums and are also the most commonly requested topics for more training. Wilson and Charles discuss why calculations are so prominent in the world of analytics and how you should think about them as a Tableau user.

This week Wilson and Charles share stories from the world of Tableau Sales. Wilson is delving into internal sales data and trying to improve his impact on the business. Charles is struggling with how to communicate the message of Tableau to more customers. Both scenarios have relevant implications on how the market interacts with Tableau. Listen and learn what your heroes are up to!

Tableau fanboys and girls, unite! Follow along with Wilson and Charles as they recap the Viz Whiz tournament so far and learn who to cheer on in round 2.

Charles welcomes special guest Andy Cotgreave to the podcast to talk about Tableau, visualization best practices, and how to improve your viz skills. Check out Andy’s blog at http://gravyanecdote.com and learn more about the Makeover Monday project at Andy Kriebel’s blog, at vizwiz.blogspot.com.

What does it mean to be “Tableau-Smart?” Wilson and Charles discuss the differences between memorizing techniques and truly understanding something. Check it out homie.

How do you know that your Tableau Server is sized correctly? That the views are performing the way they should? How do you enable your users to access the Server efficiently? And how can you know when you’re ready to add more hardware? The answer is careful planning and vigilant monitoring. In this episode we share our framework for a successful and healthy server.

In which Wilson and Charles channel their inner Colin Cowherd and sound off on an internal data visualization tournament.

If there has been a theme to our first 7 episodes, it is about the challenges that customers face when trying to implement a new technology. Most of our discussions have focused on the theory behind this, trying to understand why it’s difficult and how changes in your thinking can help make new technology deployments easier. In this episode we try to get more specific, talking about Tableau’s Drive methodology, why technology deployments get more difficult at scale, and things our customers typically struggle with.

Wilson and Charles welcome their colleague Andrew Hill to talk about a growing trend in how customers use Tableau. More and more, companies are trying to communicate data to their customers and other external audiences. These exciting use cases represent a change from the traditional model businesses use when deploying Tableau. How should we respond to these situations? What are our responsibilities as Tableau advocates? As salespeople?

For the past two years, Wilson and Charles have been organizing a Tableau-wide data visualization competition called “Viz Whiz.” Listen to learn about this exciting educational and cultural project, why it’s important, and advice for companies trying to start their own competition.

In the aftermath of Tableau Conference 2015, Charles and Wilson debate the growing interest in companies attempting to put in agile and data analytics driven cultures. To what extent can you build a set of cultural values? How do you enable agility when it comes to data without defeating the purpose? Also, Charles gets a little too excited about Aaron Sorkin.

The Tableau Conference is a great opportunity to explore the partnerships and practices that make the data community special. Wilson and Charles discuss the growth of the Tableau community and the emerging culture around data analysis.