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!