All Tableau Community Stories

How do you explore data? What path do you take from opening a data set to publishing a dashboard? Do you go in a straight line or a squiggly path? This week Tableau’s research team is joining Makeover Monday to help answer those questions.

I didn’t start my career in anything remotely close to this field. No, I went into American Sign Language interpreting and spent a good bit of time with a startup. Somehow, I ended up here. If you’re an oddball like me, this is what I wished I’d heard earlier.

We believe people should not be forced down a straight line, but be able to explore the data, chasing hunches, in order to focus on the best articulation of the data. Knowing more about people’s behaviour helps us improve Tableau. We want you to help us by getting involved in a special experiment next week. The research team are joining with Makeover Monday for a special “advanced logging” week. Collecting multiple log files from people all exploring the data set will give us a unique perspective on people’s paths through the data.

The feeder competitions are fierce, but no matter what your current skill level, you, too, can work your way to the Iron Viz stage. And when you do, use these tips to propel you to the top!

If everything’s bigger in Texas, and Austin keeps it weird, then it comes as no surprise that this year’s Tableau Conference has been the biggest and best yet. Some 13,000 of you came, registered, schedule (scouted), and you conquered. From the 400+ sessions to the Iron Viz Championship, people everywhere were seeing and understanding data in new ways.

Twenty minutes to the start of the Iron Viz competition, the energy in Viz Stadium was palpable. As the music blared and lights flashed, the same question was on every person’s mind: Who will be crowned 2016’s Iron Viz champion?

Over 150 attendees gathered to participate in a live Makeover Monday session at TC16. Tableau Zen Master Andy Kriebel and Tableau’s own Andy Cotgreave led the group in visualizing a data set on Austin restaurant inspection.

Mentoring is such a great way to learn for both the mentor and the mentee. Through this relationship, we provide counsel and help each other grow. This can work almost any way you’d like. It can be formal (assigned) or informal (unassigned). It can be short or long-term.

I have lived in my house for 14 years. And every Halloween, I get inundated with trick-or-treaters. Year after year, it's like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory at my house, with candy flying out the door. Now, being a data guy, what do I do? Well, that's simple—I count them.

When you hear data, what two words come to mind? Take just one minute to share your two words. Don’t worry, there isn’t a right or wrong answer—data means many things to many people. So tell us your two-word definition of data.

Here are three lessons I’ve learned through my own journey and through conversation with other women in tech.

Check out our latest round of the Best of the Tableau Web!