April 28, 2015

Meet the Tableau Ambassadors!

Did you know that the Tableau Community has close to 50,000 users? And of those 50,000, there are a handful that really stand out. These people not only respond to other’s questions, they provide explanations and exhibit patience to get to the root of the issue. They also provide useful tips and tricks for ways to use Tableau, in addition to help organize and maintain the integrity of the community itself. In essence, they are the spirit of Tableau. I’m talking about our first group of Tableau Ambassadors for the Community Forums.

Did you know that the Tableau Community has close to 50,000 users? And of those 50,000, there are a handful that really stand out.

These people not only respond to other’s questions, but also provide detailed explanations and patiently help find the root of the issue. They also share useful Tableau tips and tricks in addition to helping build and grow our vibrant community.

In essence, they are the spirit of Tableau.

I’m talking about our first group of Tableau Ambassadors for the Community Forums.

This new program recognizes members of the Tableau Community who exhibit leadership, knowledge, and advocacy. And so I'd like to introduce to you the first group of Tableau Ambassadors:

Bill joined the Community back in 2013, but recently has been extremely active recently, answering questions and contributing to the Tableau Workbook Library.

Specialty: SQL Server, AutoHotKey, Star Trek
Favorite Viz Type: Anything interactive and clear
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Lacks structure when it comes to anything, but his data.

Joe joined the Community in early 2014 and has provided quite a lot of content, including his video on sheet swapping on dashboards.

Specialty: Sheet swapping, table calcs, backyard chickens, gardening, master swimming
Favorite Viz Type: Whatever makes the user say, "WOW!"
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Pie charts—“but I do them well.”

Jonathan joined the Community back in June of 2011, and is the oldest community member of this group. Jonathan’s known for, among many other things, his thoughtful posts explaining how to do something in Tableau and why.

Specialty: Table calcs, data blending, conditional formatting
Favorite Viz Type: Slopegraph
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Teaching people conditional formatting

KK joined the Community at the end of 2013, and has busily been helping people since. You may recognize him as the #VizAsArt contest last year. His Tableau design is stunning.

Specialty: Table calcs, data art, photography, running, aesthetics
Favorite Viz Type: Bars & lines
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Data governance and data usage policies

Matt joined the Community in 2013, and quickly climbed the ranks of the leaderboard, being the first to have 100+ of his responses marked as correct.

Specialty: Tableau tips & tricks
Favorite Viz Type: Bar chart
Self-Professed Crime Against BI:
Lack of peer review

Mark joined the Community at the end of 2014 and jumped right, in responding to posts, voting and commenting on ideas, and sharing a calculation in the Calculation Reference Library.

Specialty: Being friendly and helpful. Additionally, creating “pre-packaged reports” and executive dashboards. Administering and automating Tableau Server.
Favorite Viz Type: Vizzes related to movies/films
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Horizontally-striped reports, pie chart (it only sneaked into one dashboard!)

Shawn joined the Community in 2011, and has been an extremely active member ever since. He is constantly providing suggestions on improving the Community and getting everyone an answer.

Specialty: Foreign policy (his wife takes care of domestic issues)
Favorite Viz Type: Dual axes area chart
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Ignores “best practices” as they can limit the outcome. It’s like cooking from a cookbook without tasting and adjusting as you go.

Simon joined the Community at the end of 2014 and in addition to helping solve people’s questions, he’s added a couple of useful documents to the TabWiki.

Specialty: Retail analytics
Favorite Viz Type: “Humble” bar chart
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Donut charts

Toby joined the Community at the end of 2012 and has been answering questions since. These days, you can find him in the Server Admin space where he shares tips.

Specialty: Server admin, VBA for Excel and Access
Favorite Viz Type: The “status” chart on his Tableau Server’s maintenance screen
Self-Professed Crime Against BI: Data tables

The Tableau Ambassadors can be recognized by this icon , and can be found throughout the Tableau Community. They receive swag, recognition, and moderation rights in the Community. In return, we ask that they keep doing what they’re doing: help members of the Community, provide the Community Team with feedback, and add valuable content!