Innovative Tableau

Preface

Data is everywhere today. Technological advances have made it possible to track and store more data than ever before, providing a competitive advantage for those who can best harness and translate this twenty-first-century “oil.” The best way to convert raw data into valuable insights is through analytics and data visualization, and—just like we need refineries to transform oil into more useful products—we need tools to help us capture the potential competitive advantage data can provide.

In a crowded field of analytics and data visualization tools, Tableau’s pace of innovation has helped it emerge as a clear leader in this space for the foreseeable future. As of this writing, Tableau has been recognized as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms for eight consecutive years. In 2019, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce, which will only further expedite Tableau’s trajectory and make its products an everyday need for hundreds of thousands of users around the world. Simply put, there has never been a better time to learn and level up in Tableau.

One secret to Tableau’s success is that not only is it consistently providing product innovations, but the company also provides a platform with a unique flexibility in the market which allows its users to create their own innovations. You can now design dashboards down to the pixel, integrate third-party applications through dashboard extensions, refine approaches within the product, and even invent new chart types.

This Book’s Purpose

I wrote Innovative Tableau as a sequel to Practical Tableau: 100 Tips, Tutorials, and Strategies from a Tableau Zen Master to build on the foundation laid out in that book and share innovations that will help us collectively change the world with data.

This book has three objectives:

1) To catch you up on the product developments introduced since the release of Practical Tableau

Although Tableau is almost constantly introducing new product features, it also does an uncanny job at keeping the heart of the product intact. In fact, of the 100 chapters in Practical Tableau, only a single chapter has become obsolete since it was first released in 2018—and that’s due to a change in the company’s license model; not the product itself.

For this reason, we chose to publish a completely new sequel as opposed to a book update. However, we want to bridge the gap between the first and second titles by filling you in on what’s new and keeping you on the cutting edge of what Tableau is capable of.

2) To help you level up

To me, the biggest compliment is when somebody asks, “You made that in Tableau?” This is not to say that Tableau doesn’t help you make beautiful visualizations and seamless user experiences on its own, but it means that you have an opportunity to set your work apart. This book is a guide for getting the most out of Tableau and pushing the envelope on what you can deliver.

3) To inspire creative applications of the fundamentals

You will come to realize that you can combine individual techniques to create what I call “creative applications of the fundamentals.” This book shares many of my favorites in the hope that you can immediately improve your own and your audience’s experience with Tableau. Most important, I hope it inspires you to think differently when you’re using Tableau and sparks your own creations that you will pay forward.

This Book’s Audience

This book is relevant for anybody who wants to get more from Tableau, make more engaging and effective chart types, improve their own authoring experience, and deliver world-class analytics tools to their audiences.

That being said, it is assumed you have read the first book in this series, Practical Tableau, and/or have the prerequisite level of Tableau experience to match the content in the first book.

This Book’s Structure

The one hundred chapters in this book are organized in four parts:

Part I

You’ll get my updated advice on how to learn Tableau and be introduced to my favorite product capabilities that have been released since Practical Tableau was published.

Part II

Practical Tableau included 29 tutorials on making a variety of charts, and this book includes 36 more! You’ll go beyond the Show Me button and read tips on making fundamental chart types more engaging, integrating technical features to make charts more effective, and creating nonstandard chart types and designs, including many you won’t find anywhere else.

Part III

You’ll see some of my favorite tutorials for making your life easier as a visualization author.

Part IV

This final part includes some of my favorite tutorials for making your audience’s life easier as an analyst.

Many tutorials in this book were created using Tableau Public and can be downloaded from my Tableau Public portfolio.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.

Note

This element signifies related content from Practical Tableau (O’Reilly, 2018).

Note

This element signifies a general note.

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Acknowledgments

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Tableau’s team of developers for creating a platform that allows so many of us to make a positive impact with data—and have fun doing it. Most of you do not get much public glory, but I hope you are well-aware that your contributions are immeasurably grand on a global scale.

There are also the present and past Tableau employees, many of whom have helped shape my career. Thank you for your mentorship and friendship, Alivia Hale, Amanda Boyle, Andy Cotgreave, Ben Jones, Brad Welch, Colby Pash, Daniel Hom, Dash Davidson, Edward Beaurain, Elissa Fink, Ellie Fields, Jennifer Nguyen, Jewel Loree, John Iwanski, John Jensen, John Wilson, Jonah Kim, Jordon Scott, Kevin Krizek, Kyle Gupton, Lauren Rogers, Mac Bryla, Michael Long, Ross Perez, Amy Sarah Elliott, Scott Teal, Sophie Sparkes, and Tracy Rodgers.

The most unique thing about Tableau is its community. It is difficult to describe if you have not experienced it, but the best way I can summarize is to say Tableau has somehow managed to create a community of people, based on a software, with whom I genuinely want to hang out. Just good folks trying to help one another improve our careers and the world around us.

I never thought it would be possible to make so many friends through a software program I use for work. These people have played a critical role in pushing one another to new heights, motivating me personally, and just making life more fun. This is where I am going to fail miserably at recognizing everyone who has inspired me along the way. Thank you Adam Crahen, Adam McCann, Andi Haiduk, Andrew Kim, Andy Kriebel, Ann Jackson, Anthony Armstrong, Anthony Chamberas, Anya A’Hearn, Ben Sullins, Brandi Beals, Bridget Cogley, Brittany Fong, Carl Allchin, Cesar Picco, Chloe Tseng, Chris Love, Christopher DeMartini, Christopher Scott, Corey Jones, Craig Bloodworth, Curtis Harris, Dan Murray, David Murphy, David Pires, Emily Kund, Emma Whyte, Jacob Olsufka, Jason Harmer, Jason Penrod, Jeff Plattner, Jeffrey Shaffer, Jeremy Poole, Jim Donahue, Jim Wahl, Jonathan Drummey, Josh Tapley, Josh Jackson, Joshua Milligan, Justin Hinckfoot, Keith Helfrich, Kelly Martin, Ken Flerlage, Kevin Flerlage, Lindsey Poulter, Lorna Eden, Lucas Brito, Mark Jackson, Matt Chambers, Matt Francis, Matt Hoover, Michael Perillo, Mike Cisneros, Mike Moore, Neil Richards, Nelson Davis, Pablo Gomez, Patrick McCormick, Patrick Moore, Paul Banoub, Paul Chapman, Peter Gilks, Pooja Gandhi, Ramon Martinez, Rina Petersen, Rob Radburn, Rody Zakovich, Sarah Bartlett, Sarah Nell-Rodriquez, Sean Miller, Shine Pulikathara, Simon Beaumont, Skyler Johnson, Steve Bennett, Steve Fenn, Steve Wexler, Ty Fowler, Will Perkins, Will Strouse, Yamil Medina, and Yvan Fornes.

And, most important, thank you to my wife, Amy. This book, business, and life, would not be possible without you.