Readers:

One of my co-workers, David Melville, gave this to me.

Enjoy!

Michael

Readers:

This is something I just documented for work. I felt it was something useful to share with the Tableau community.

I welcome any thoughts or suggestions you have.

Thanks,

Michael

Navigating Tableau Projects

Here is a screenshot of how the current Tableau Project Page looks.

What are those numbers at the bottom of a Tableau Project?

The screenshot above explains the meaning of the four metrics shown on the Project.

Each screenshot below is a step in the navigation process.

Note: This survey was conducted in 2016 for RetailMeNot.com by Kelton Global among 1,008 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over.

Mother’s Day is a Big Deal

On the gift-giving spectrum, Mother’s Day is a big deal. According to Hallmark, it’s the second most popular holiday for gift-giving, followed only by Christmas. And when it comes to actually purchasing that elusive Mother’s Day gift, the National Retail Federation says the average American spent a whopping $172.63 on Mom in 2015. To put that in perspective: A $172 gift is about the equivalent of 36 long-stemmed red roses or 120 chocolate truffles from 1-800-Flowers!

But do moms really want to be showered with cards, flowers and candies on their big day? RetailMeNot set out to discover what dear old Mom actually wants—and the results are surprisingly affordable.

What Mom Wants

Mom’s top-three wishes are a day off, a gift card and a nice meal. (Very non-materialistic of Mom, if we do say so ourselves.)

If you want to give her the ultimate day off, write up a cute themed coupon and enclose it in a Mother’s Day card. Let her escape and do what she wants—shopping, gardening, a Real Housewives marathon, whatever—the sky (or your DVR-storage capacity) is the limit. If you go the gift card route, put some thought behind it: A gift card to her favorite yoga studio, nail salon, restaurant or clothing store is a good idea. RetailMeNot sells discount gift cards to everywhere from California Pizza Kitchen to Express. (Pro tip: Follow these do’s and don’ts for buying gift cards.)

And finally, if you cook a homemade meal, turn to a trusted source like Allrecipes for menu planning. Remember: You aren’t doing Mom any favors if you leave a messy kitchen, but don’t even think about letting her touch a sponge.

Gifts That Say “Meh”

Nothing says, “I love you, Mom,” like a new set of headphones—said no one, ever. Unless she specifically asks for them, things like electronics, housewares, clothing, candy, jewelry and flowers are better left as birthday presents.

If the data reveals anything, it’s that moms like a gift with meaning. So put some thought, time and energy into what you’re giving her. For kids and teens, these 14 DIY gifts are a great start. If you’re dead set on giving her some flowers, consider coupling them with some homemade cookies or an invitation to brunch sometime soon (and make sure you pick up the tab!).

How to Plan to Celebrate With Your Mom

Unfortunately, many people can’t be with their moms on Mother’s Day. But that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate! For one, pick up the phone—or better yet, a video-enabled device. Call or video chat your mom, and let her know you’re thinking about her. Send her a card (five to six business days in advance!) and write a nice note. Recruit a local (your dad or a younger sibling, for example) to help coordinate giving her a thoughtful gift (see above!).

Whatever you do, please do not just send her a text and call it a day.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Source: Olech, Liz, What Mom Really Want for Mother’s Day, retailmenot.com, April 21, 2016, https://www.retailmenot.com/blog/mothers-day-infographic-2016.html.

National Geographic’s June 2018 magazine cover provides a chilling affect to any reader concerned about our oceans and our planet.

The classic orange-yellow framed cover surrounds a picture of a plastic bag submerged underwater with one of its tips pointing out of glacial-blue waters and appears to look like the tip of an iceberg.

“Planet or plastic?” the cover asks the reader.

“The 18 billion pieces of plastic that end up in the ocean each year are just the tip of the iceberg,” reads a caption on the lower left side of the cover in smaller print.

National Geographic’s senior photo editor, Vaughn Wallace, posted the image by Mexican artist Jorge Gamboa on Twitter Wednesday, and it’s now on fire across the Internet, sparking a lot of conversation.

Source: McCandless, David, Best in Show – What’s the best Dog Breed, According to Data?, information is beautiful.net, https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/best-in-show-whats-the-top-data-dog/?utm_content=buffer26a04&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.

Below is a screenshot of a visualization from David McCandless’ book, Knowledge is Beautiful

David examined data on intelligence, longevity, genetic ailments and other markers to create a “data-score” and then plotted it against public popularity of various breeds, according to the American Kennel Club.

A few weeks back, the Mental Health Foundation held its annual “mental-health awareness week” campaign. Approximately 25% of British adults have been diagnosed at some point with a psychiatric disorder, costing the economy an estimated 4.5% of GDP per year. Mental illness can occur from a variety of causes, but a growing body of research seems to indicate that, in young people, they are linked with heavy consumption of social media. 

According to a survey in 2017 by the Royal Society for Public Health, Britons aged 14-24 believe that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter have detrimental effects on their wellbeing. On average, they reported that these social networks gave them extra scope for self-expression and community-building. But they also said that the platforms exacerbated anxiety and depression, deprived them of sleep, exposed them to bullying and created worries about their body image and “FOMO” (“fear of missing out”). Academic studies have found that these problems tend to be particularly severe among frequent users.

Facebook’s founding president, Sean Parker, has admitted that their product works by “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology”. An experiment by five neuroscientists in 2014 concluded that Facebook triggers the same impulsive part of the brain as gambling and substance abuse. Yet it is difficult to prove that obsessing over likes and comments causes mental illness, rather than the other way around. The most convincing effort was a survey that tracked a group of 5,208 Americans between 2013 and 2015. It found that an increase in Facebook activity was associated with a future decrease in reported mental health.

An obvious solution to the problem is to cut down on screen time. Even the most obsessive users should be able to do so. The neuroscientific study on Facebook found that the subjects’ cognitive ability to inhibit their impulsive behavior was less impaired than for drug or gambling addicts. And data from Moment, an activity-tracking app, show that it is possible for light social-media consumers to be content. Each week it asks its 1m users whether they are happy or sad with the amount of time they have spent on various platforms. Nearly 63% of Instagram users report being miserable, a higher share than for any other social network. They spend an average of nearly an hour per day on the app. The 37% who are happy spend on average just over half as long. 

The happiness rate is much higher for FaceTime (91%), a video-calling app, and phone calls (84%). When it comes to social networking, actual conversations are hard to beat. 

Source: Data Team, How heavy use of social media is linked to mental illness, The Economist, May 18, 2018, https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/05/18/how-heavy-use-of-social-media-is-linked-to-mental-illness?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/howheavyuseofsocialmediaislinkedtomentalillnessdailychart.

Readers:

Like many people, I have been fascinated with the disappearance and recover efforts of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 since its disappearance on March 8, 2014.

My previous four blog posts related to this can be found below.

https://datavizblog.com/2014/10/04/dataviz-as-maps-with-huge-search-area-mapped-mh370-hunt-resuming/

https://datavizblog.com/2014/04/24/infographic-bluefin-21-being-used-to-find-malaysia-flight-mh370/

https://datavizblog.com/2014/04/09/wsj-dataviz-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-the-depth-of-the-problem/

https://datavizblog.com/2014/03/13/infographics-related-to-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370/

Yesterday, The Washington Post published an article noting that the four-year hunt for Flight MH370 was coming to an end as the private Texas-based contractor Ocean Infinity’s search vessel, was ending their search amid rising costs and deteriorating weather.

Included in the article was this great infographic related to the search.

About two weeks ago, new questions about the plane’s disappearance were raised when a team of analysts assembled by an Australian TV channel said the 53-year-old pilot may have committed suicide — killing 238 people with him.

The theory presented was that the pilot may have depressurized the plane, knocking out anyone not wearing an oxygen mask, which would explain the mysterious silence as the plane disappeared from radar or why the wreckage wasn’t found along its projected flight path.

Other investigators have disputed that possibility, reemphasizing that they think everybody on the plane — including the pilot — fell unconscious. The uncontrolled aircraft later ran out of fuel, investigators think, and crashed into the sea.

Only the finding of the actual wreckage would help determine and explain what really happened to Flight MH370, but now the changes of this occurring have severely diminished.

Source:

Noack, Rick, Four-year search for Flight 370 to end, leaving a mystery, The Washington Post, May 29, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/05/29/four-year-search-for-mh370-to-end-leaving-an-unsolved-mystery/?utm_term=.96a97ecd7c20.

Readers:

Tableau released Tableau v2018.2 Beta 2 today. Below is a list of the announced features for beta users to test.

Enjoy!

Michael

• Symmetric Log Axis (Negative values on log axis) – Easily view heavily skewed distributions with the option to show negative values on a log scaled axis.
• @mentions – Use @mention to direct a comment or question to a specific user within the comments panel. Your colleague will be notified via email so they can keep up with the discussion.
• Dashboard Extensions Management – Dashboard Extensions in Beta 1 included the ability to add Extensions to your dashboard and to render Extensions on Tableau Server. This set of scenarios focuses on Tableau Server interfaces for safelisting and blocking Extensions and turning the feature on & off.
• Nested Sorting – Enjoy a more intuitive sorting experience. Sort dimension values within the context of each pane for better top- or bottom-n analysis of your data.
• ISO-8601 Date Parts – We’ve brought ISO standard calendar support to Tableau. You can now use ISO-8601 defined weeks in calculations and visualizations for better calendar-based analysis.
• Unions on the web – Create and Edit Unions in the DataTab on Tableau Server and Online
• Merge Mismatched Fields on the web – Get rid of those NULL value fields by merging non matching fields.
• Federations on the web – Sometimes, to answer your hardest questions, you have to integrate multiple data sets to uncover insight.
• Pivot Data on the web – When working with file based data sources on the web, you can pivot your data from crosstab format into columnar format.
• Copy Data on the web – Copy values on the web within the Data Grid
• Job Management APIs – In Tableau 2018.2 Beta 2 we have added two new APIs: GetJobList and CancelJobs to Tableau Server and Tableau Online for Server and Site Admin users. We have also extended the GetJobInfo API to include subscriptions. Previous versions of GetJobInfo only supported extract refreshes.
• Downgrade Workbook Improvements (updated) – Understand the impact of downgrading a workbook from Tableau Server or Tableau Online before you do it. When you choose to downgrade a workbook you will now see a prompt letting you know whether that workbook is fully compatible, if there are features that may be lost, or if that workbook won’t work.
• Tableau Services Manager (TSM) (updated) – Tableau Services Manager (TSM) brings you a brand new Tableau Server admin experience for Windows and Linux on the web. With a streamlined user experience, it’s easier to automate many Tableau Server management tasks, including hot topology changes for backgrounder and VizQl Server processes. Enjoy greater admin flexibility with less downtime.

The Economist, in their daily chart for June 4, 2018, presented eleven measures that take the temperature of Donald Trump’s America. Mr. Trump’s campaign slogan promised to “Make America Great Again”. He has now been in office over 500 days, and appears ready to proclaim victory for his successes. The president bases this on the assumption that the strong economy and soaring confidence are a result of his policies. “Best Economy & Jobs EVER,” he tweeted on June 4th. Dissenters assert that Mr Trump is reaping the benefits of policies enacted by the previous Obama administration and that he has achieved little beyond a tax cut that favors the rich.

In an effort to peer through the partisanship and offer us some insight, The Economist compiled 11 charts that keep tabs on Mr Trump as he progresses through the remaining 961 days of his first term as president.

Source: Data Team, Tracking America in the age of Trump, The Economist, Daily Chart, June 4, 2018, https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/06/04/tracking-america-in-the-age-of-trump?fsrc=rss.

According to Domo (cloud-based operating system), the internet users have risen from 2.2 billion in 2012 to whopping 3.8 billion in 2017. That is nearly 48% of the entire world’s population. In its 6th Data Never Sleeps report, Domo took into consideration online consumer behavior besides analyzing the amount of data which gets generated in a minute across various platforms.

The graph for social media has predictably gone way up as Snapchat witnessed a sharp and enormous increase of 294% in the number of pictures which are shared every minute. On average, 2.1 million are shared in a minute while roughly 474,000 tweets are shared. When it comes to Instagram and Tumblr, the posts shared every minute go up to nearly 50,000 and 80,000 respectively.

Source: Ahmad, Irfan, How Much Data Is Generated Per Minute? The Answer Will Blow Your Mind Away [Infographic], Digital Information World, June 13, 2018, https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2018/06/infographics-data-never-sleeps-6.html.

Source: Gueringer, Jennifer, A Visual Guide to Your Business Financial Statement, The Business Backer, May 24, 2017, https://www.businessbacker.com/blog/visual-guide-business-financial-statement/.

Source: The Paris Review, Illustrated Maps of New York Through the Ages, June 14, 2018, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/14/illustrated-maps-of-new-york-through-the-ages/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=NYPLEvents&utm_campaign=SocialFlow.

Since their inception, maps have been embellished with illustrations. Through July 16, a selection of illustrated maps of New York spanning six centuries is on view at the New York Public Library. A preview of the exhibition—along with captions written by its curator Katharine Harmon—is presented below. 

The Bronx and points north are a pristine watery world in the map of the Bronx River Parkway, the first “open landscaped highway” in the nation, and the linear “reservation” surrounding it. Established in 1925, the reservation is Westchester’s oldest park; it extends twelve miles from the New York City line north to the Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. It was originally designed in the late nineteenth century as a means of cleaning up the Bronx River, which had become an open sewer, dumping ground, and mosquito nursery. The parkway and its park, eighteen years in the making, were an immediate success; by the summer of 1927, as many as thirty-five thousand motorcars toured there on sunny weekends.

In 1946, according to this map, Harvey, Oklahoma!, and Life with Father were established hits on Broadway. Rockettes tower over the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center; and at the Met, Brunnhilde holds forth at decibel levels loud enough to disturb the peace here at the New York Public Library. Up north, a Yankee pitcher faces off against a Giants batter. On the map’s inset, apparently a list of places to take a date, a map enthusiast helpfully highlighted a choice destination. Paul Savitt worked as a successful New York advertiser for twenty-five years before deciding, at the age of forty-six, to become a full-time fine artist. His childhood heroes were Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh.

Here is a map of a “modern metropolis in the making, pictorially presented for the man who learns by looking.” The man who created this map was an illustrator, decorator, theatrical designer, and painter. Millard is best known for his Art Deco poster designs. This view of New York is packed with historical trivia and whimsical figures, while scenic insets enhance the pictorial experience.

Readers:

Yesterday, rescue divers in Thailand found a soccer team of 12 boys and their coach alive more than a week after the group went missing in a cave.

Thai Navy SEALs found the team and many infographics, diagrams and photographs have been published as part of the story in many newspapers, both print and digital.

I thought I would share some of these images with you.

Best regards,

Michael

Today, I am blogging my one-on-one discussion with Emily Kund.

Emily Kund Bio

Emily Kund is the founder and co-host of the Tableau Fringe Festival. She is a self-described fit nerd who wants to make a difference.  Besides being a mom to two awesome kids, Emily founded a women’s empowerment initiative tailored to school-aged children called Pretty Strong Smart. She loves fitness and you can often find her in the gym.  Emily is a trained life coach, trained habits coach, and trained leadership facilitator. She is Mrs. Maryland US Continental where her charity is the Junior League and her platform is women’s empowerment.  She believes in living fully engaged and taking action.  Also, Emily believes by leading herself and helping others lead themselves, we can make a difference in this world.

My previous blog on Emily:

https://datavizblog.com/2017/12/12/recap-tableau-fringe-festival-introducing-emily-kund-founder-of-tff/

Questions

Michael: When I think of people who are changing the world for the better, your name always pops into my mind. Your positive attitude, go-out-and-get-it advice resonates in everything I read from you. Where does this positivity come from?

Emily: I think I see other people who are just always sad or miserable and I feel bad.  You know the people that if they won the lottery, they’d complain about the taxes?  They miss the point that they won the freakin’ lottery! I don’t want to live my life that way, so I don’t.  And I guess I’ve read enough personal development books to know that there’s at least one good thing that comes out of every situation.

Michael: You have several websites that deal with a variety of subjects. Would you mind providing the URLs and a description of each for my readers? Can you also briefly state why they would want to visit each site?

Emily: Sure! www.analytics2inform.com is my visual analytics consulting site.  This is a practice I recently founded to help executives and Boards get the information they need to make well-informed decisions.  It’s been engrained in me for so long (probably since about 2000) about the importance of having management and the Board have information to make well-informed decisions, that it seemed natural to have this as a focus of my practice.  I started the practice for two reasons; I wanted to have a more flexible schedule to be present and spend more time with my children and because I wanted to do more data visualization/visual analytics than my full-time career of 19 years would allow.  I’ve spent the last 20+ years in banking as a regulator and within the operational areas of a bank, so I’d like to focus my work in that domain.

www.emilykund.com is my leadership site.  I LOVE leadership, like, I nerd out over it.  By the way, everyone should attend (either in person or simulcast) Leadercast Live about an hour outside of Atlanta. It’s an amazing (and inexpensive) leadership conference.  It packs a ton of value for the cost of the ticket.  I facilitated a fundamental leadership course the last couple of years and I thought tech in particular could use a good dose of leadership.  Whether that’s self-leadership or understanding the concept of followership and the leader-follower dynamic.

Of course, I have the www.thefringefestival.rocks which is all things Tableau Fringe Festival and www.prettystrongsmart.com for my women’s empowerment initiative, and I’ve kept www.wannabeawesomeme.com live because it has all of my old dataviz blogposts going back to 2013.  Now that I work for myself and I have more time, I can spend some time making TFF and PSS more valuable resources.

Michael: You founded the Tableau Fringe Festival several years ago. Can you tell my readers why you did so, and why they want to attend and/or participate in the upcoming one in August?

Emily: You can credit Paul Banoub for this.  Paul’s talk wasn’t accepted in 2015. Paul is an amazing resource and at that time, the conference was still growing by leaps and bounds and there would have been a lot of people who would not have heard Paul’s message.  So, I thought that if Tableau wouldn’t have Paul speak at the conference, then I’ll start my own conference.  I also didn’t get selected to speak that year, so I thought that if I could ask a few more people, we could have a virtual conference.  As it turns out, I gave up my slot so that someone else could speak.  It was amazing.  I know there are others, but the three talks that stood out for me; Paul’s on COE/Server, Emma Whyte’s called The Font of All Knowledge, and Chris DeMartini’s talk on how to jump plots in Tableau.  Not only do I like giving people shout outs, but it’s also the reason why people should attend (and apply to speak at) upcoming TFFs.  The Tableau community has some amazing resources and I think it sets Tableau apart from others.  Not everyone will be able to speak at conference—just from a numbers perspective.  But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a valuable message to share.  My goal is to get folks to share their message and help increase their visibility.  Zens traditionally received a lot of recognition and respect and if you’re rooted deep in the community, they still do.

But if you’re the gal out in Iowa who has done some amazing things, but you don’t have the title or following, how do people know that you’re a great resource?  TFF aims to help with that.

But if you’re the gal out in Iowa who has done some amazing things, but you don’t have the title or following, how do people know that you’re a great resource?  TFF aims to help with that.  We are getting ready to announce the speaker selections and wow!! there’s so much good stuff the applicants have brought to the table in their abstracts. Attendees have what I like to call ‘informative fun’. They learn a lot and have fun connecting with people in the community through chats during the conference.

Michael: You have also been involved in the Tableau Data + Women community. Can you tell my readers a bit about this and how they can get involved?

Emily: I’m a big believer in diversity and have this personal philosophy that if I see something that isn’t right, then I should (try to) do something about it to make it better. Data+Women efforts help raise awareness about the gender gap and provide resources to women to help them get the skills they need, be present, and get the raise/promotion/job they want.  That’s MY viewpoint on D+W. I think the objective can be slightly different depending on where you are, but seeing the lack of diversity in tech and data is something that should improve across the globe.  To get involved, look to see if there is a Data+Women or She Talks Data chapter near you and if so, help organize events or speak.  Or maybe it’s just meeting a bunch of folks for brunch to chat about what’s going on and how you can help each other.  Unrelated to data, I am part of a mastermind group that meets once a month and it’s been great! Someone could even start a mastermind group (and if you want help, just ping me—I will help provide the resources).

Michael: I recently saw George Will on a television show. He is a fairly conservative political commentator. In summary, he feels the negativity we see toward women, minorities, immigrants, human rights, etc. will pass, as they have before in our history. I am paraphrasing here, but he felt the American people will only allow it and tolerate it for so long. Do you feel some of the negativity we are seeing in our Country will come to an end soon (or significantly reduce)? Also, what can we as individuals do to help foster better equality, tolerance, and human rights?

Emily: Wow! This is a big question and I don’t even know if my answer is comprehensive enough, but I’ll give it a go.  It feels like the United States aren’t so united anymore.  Do I think it will end soon?  I think that’s relative. Six more years of our current state seems like too long to me, but if I think about it in terms of the history of our country, it’s a short period.

I want to touch on something that you mentioned in the question…that these issues will pass.  I agree, one way or another, they will pass.  But that may mean civil disobedience in the meantime.  It may mean that people get so pissed off that they are compelled to take action. The other day, the White House originally denied the request to lower the U.S. flag to half mast for the five people killed in the Capital Gazette shooting.  After public outcry, that decision was reversed.  This leads to me think—what kind of culture are we creating?  One where protest (Dakota Access Pipeline for example) and public outcries get the desired outcome we’re looking for.  And, does it really need to get it to that point?  Are we so far gone that we can’t work together?

I think each one of us has our own tipping point and until we are tipped, we’ll live with the current state.  Personally, I was having a discussion the other day about mass shootings. I’m pissed. I have been upset for awhile, but the shooting that was in my community was a tipping point for me.  So what to do?  I am a big believer in taking action.  It’s why I started Pretty Strong Smart. I wanted to focus on children so that that empowerment was part of their value system from an early age, so they wouldn’t have to have conversations in their 20s, 30s, 40s, etc on why equal pay and understanding and taking action to have diversity in leadership is a good thing.  Our actions don’t have to be these big things.  It’s the everyday stuff—Drew Dudley refers to it as Everyday Leadership.  For example, if a guy is in a meeting and sees that a woman made a good point but is being dismissed, that guy can speak up and call out that the woman’s point was excellent.

With respect to mass shootings, I’m still figuring out how I can play a supporting role in ending these tragedies as my community recently experienced with The Capital Gazette shooting. I also believe in voting based on my platform issues and will vote for a candidate accordingly.  Finally, when I worked in DC, I had the opportunity to hear some amazing speakers at special observances.  One of those speakers was Barney Frank. I believe he mentioned in his talk that silence was acceptance. That really resonated with me and since then, I have not been silent because it’s important to me that people know what I do and do not stand for.  I also had the opportunity to hear HOFer Darrell Green who said that things are caught before they’re taught.  That was a powerful message, so I try to live my values, so that my kids can catch them—-living your values is something everyone can do.

Michael: Are there particular women in the Tableau community you would like to give a shout out too? I am familiar with the great data visualizations created by Lilach Manheim and Pooja Gandhi.

Emily: Lilach and Pooja are awesome. I’m also a big fan of Kelly Martin. Kelly because her work was relatable and beautiful.  Anya A’Hearn because she sees things before I do—like data plus women or getting the message out to kids (which is something I’m working on), Leigh Fonseca for being one of the first women consulting companies that I saw.  Sarah Bartlett for being so supportive, smart, and friendly. Fi Gordon because she has a rockstar attitude, and ‘gets it’. Brittany Fong for being the activator-for getting stuff done (along with beautiful work). Chloe Tseng for being super supportive and making a vision come to fruition. Brit Cava for the being a STEMinist (who also loves a good flex Friday). Ann Jackson for being inspiring (I now participate in Iron Viz) and being supportive as I start my consulting journey— I think she gets it that there’s plenty of room for all of us.  That’s not an all-inclusive list and I am sure I have missed someone pretty obvious and for that, I apologize.

Michael: What is next on your “To Do” list? What can the Tableau community expect to see from you in the near future?

Emily: Well, now that I’m not working full-time for someone else which precluded me from doing more or better work, I would say, expect to see that—more and better.  Because I think in bullet points sometimes, I’ll just run down the top few items where I expect to see change.

Blogging– I’ve been writing on the Analytics to Inform site, so keep an eye out for my posts on there.  It feels good to write again.

TFF-I really want to make TFF administration better—and that’s on me—not the regional teams.  From shortening the turnaround time on video editing to other administrative items, I want to take TFF to the next level.

Tableau Wannabe Podcast-I am looking forward to pouring more energy into this and really making it valuable. I’ve been loving the community conversations that we’ve introduced.  In some sense, I’d like to see us get back to early days (2015/2016).

I’m also working on a couple of other initiatives and when the time is right, I’ll share them.  I’m excited for the future and super fortunate to have an amazing support system within the Tableau Community. I want to continue to give back however I can, so if someone is reading this and wants to connect with me (on pretty much any topic), let me know—I’m happy to help!

Emily’s Tableau Public Link: https://public.tableau.com/profile/emily8737#!/

Readers:

Well, TC18 Europe occurred this week and I was unable to attend again.

However, I was able to catch Francois Ajenstat’s, Chief Product Officer for Tableau, keynote address on YouTube.

Below are some screenshots and comments from his keynote.

Best regards,

Michael

Francois Ajenstat Keynote

Francois pointed out that more people and more data provide more opportunities.

He then showed the timeline of innovation of the Tableau product line. He noted that they are now releasing a new version of Tableau every quarter. Since the last conference, they have introduced four new versions of Tableau. And, just around the corner, v2018.2 is about to be released.

Over 100 new features have been added to Tableau since last year. These features focus on data, analytics, self-service, and enterprise. Francois noted that many of these features were added as a direct result of our feedback.

Version 10.5 Key Features

With the release of v10.5, Tableau introduced their new Hyper Engine. It provides faster performance, faster loading of data, support for larger data volumes, and Tableau made it a transparent upgrade for all of us.

Version 2018.1 Key Features

Three months after the release of v10.5, Tableau released v2018.1. Notice that Tableau changed their product naming nomenclature to show the year of the release and the release number within that year.

One of the most exciting releases as part of v2018.1 was Tableau’s self-service data prep product, Tabeau Prep.

Version 2018.2 Key Features

Coming soon to the Tableau community, Tableau will be releasing v2018.2.

The Tableau Platform

Prepare – Analyze – Extend

Francois then said the next part of the keynote would focus on how Tableau would help the community Prepare data for analysis, Analyze their data to provide more powerful results, and open up the platform and Extend the power of Tableau.

Prepare

Francois noted that the data we need to move our organizations forward is everywhere. It is in the cloud, it is on-premise, in spreadsheets, in data lakes, structured and unstructured, so much data that people cannot even keep up.

And, Francois noted that data is messy.

According to the Harvard Business Review, we send 80% of our time preparing the data, and only 20% of the time on the analysis.

Data prep is hard, it’s complicated, and it requires a specialist. Tableau wants to turn this around so that only 20% of the time is spent on data prep and the rest of the time can be spent on the critical work, the analysis.

That is why Tableau created Tableau Prep. You can clean and transform your messy data the same visual and direct manner you are used to with Tableau. Tableau Prep is visual, direct and smart. You don’t need to go outside of the Tableau platform; the products are deeply integrated. You can leverage your existing skills with Tableau to do better data prep.

Francois noted that Tableau industry wiz, Josh Milligan, noted on Twitter that Tableau Prep made prepping data fun.

The Tableau Prep Development Team is so excited about this product that they have been releasing new features on a monthly basis.

NEXT: Part 2 – Arthur Gyldenege Tableau Prep Demo

Ann Jackson Bio

Jackson Two is headed by Ann Jackson, our chief Analytics Evangelist.  Ann is an experienced and passionate individual with a rich and extensive background in data visualization, exploratory data analysis, data communication, and business process improvement.  She is an expert at taking multiple data sources, finding meaningful connections between them, and communicating out the insight and potential they house.  She places a strong emphasis on connecting analytical discoveries with quantifiable business improvements and overall business strategy.

Ann Jackson is widely known in the Tableau community and was named a Tableau Zen Master in 2018.  She is dedicated to her local Phoenix, AZ community and leads the Phoenix Tableau User Group.  Ann’s dedication to growing the practices of data visualization, data communication, and data literacy means that she is constantly connected and contributing to the global community.  Ann holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Masters of Business Administration in Healthcare Management.  She is also proud to be a Tableau Desktop Certified Professional and Tableau Server Qualified Associate.

Questions

Michael: Hi Ann. Tell us a bit about your Data Visualization & Analytics Consulting company, Jackson Two.

Ann: Jackson Two was founded in 2018 after many years of experience in the analytics space.  We focus specifically on using modern analytics tools and platforms, like Tableau, which enable businesses to understand and effectively use the massive amount of data they are accumulating.  Our emphasis is on fully enabling all types of people and organizations to use their data – which means everything from effective data access, data visualization, data communication, training and adoption, and implementation strategy.  We love working with clients on all ends of the spectrum and helping them derive value and meaning out of their data using visual analytics.  That includes not only the visual design and communication aspect but also building out repeatable analytics processes and systems along the way.

A lot of people ask me about the origin of the name.  It represents the partnership I have with my husband Josh.  He and I share the same passion for analytics and he has been a constant support and ally for me.

Michael: In your company bio, you state:

[Ann] places a strong emphasis on connecting analytical discoveries with quantifiable business improvements and overall business strategy.

Can you give us some insights on how we can do this?

Ann: All metrics captured should tie directly back to business objectives and be used to inform and enable decision making.  Measurement for the sake of measurement has very little value – it’s the context and comprehension from the measurement that causes people to become “data-driven.”  I will often ask “what does it mean when this number is bad, what does it mean if it’s good?”  It tends to be a great starting point because often times there may not be clear answers and even the notion of good vs. bad may be unclear.  The follow up question that comes “okay, so the metric is good, what are you going to do with it?”  Questions to both answers need to be well known and agreed upon to allow organizations to lead with analytics.  It’s also a great way to prioritize the most critical measurements or performance indicators.

Michael: Between Jackson Two and your original Ann Jackson Tableau Public sites, you have created a lot of insightful and useful data visualizations. Can you showcase your three favorites data visualizations you have created for my readers?

Ann:

My Interactive Resume: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ann.jackson#!/vizhome/AnnJacksonResume/AnnJacksonResume

I’ve always wanted to build out a resume in Tableau and finally did it.  This one required so much thought work on what I wanted to share and how.  I also spent a lot of time getting feedback from others to help shape what the final result was.  It’s very special to me because I’ve had some non-Tableau friends look at it and describe what they like about it and the design details they notice align with all the detail work I put into it.

Human Resources Report Card: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ann.jackson#!/vizhome/HumanResourcesReportCardJacksonTwo_0/HumanResourcesReportCardJacksonTwo

This one is a dashboard (or analytical display) designed to be something seen inside an organization.  It’s my take on how you can take a broad subject area, roll it up to a top level and then include supporting detail.  It’s true to my analytical style of allowing audiences to derive value without the need for narrative.  I imagine this being a display in a large meeting where several different types of people are huddled around talking about the action they’re going to take.

The Women of Iron Viz: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ann.jackson#!/vizhome/TheWomenofIronViz/TheWomenofIronViz

I love what this viz stands for – the strong leading women who contribute to the thriving Tableau community.  It was a pivotal moment for me to realize my name is among so many women that I find to be inspirational and powerful.

Michael: You lead the Phoenix Tableau User Group. Can you tell us a little about the group and the kinds of activities you have?

Ann: The Phoenix Tableau User Group (PHXTUG) is a monthly meeting bringing together all different levels and types of people interested in Tableau.  We have a very strong leadership council of 5 individuals that are dedicated to ensuring the meetings are fun for all levels and spectrums of experience.  Every month we have a hands-on activity – designed to get people working in Tableau Desktop or Tableau Prep.  The other major part of the TUG is having a speaker or multiple speakers share something related to Tableau or analytics.  As an example, we had a panel of 4 professionals in June focusing on getting a job in analytics.  In July, we’ll have Zen Master Steve Wexler present on working with and visualizing survey data in Tableau.

On a more personal level, the Phoenix TUG holds a special place in my heart because it’s how I originally got connected to the Tableau community.  It has been a great resource for me to gain broad awareness in my profession and connect with peers in my community.  Having a monthly meeting with people in the same industry and watching how we are all growing and changing has been a constant source of inspiration for me.

Michael: What is missing from Tableau Desktop (don’t include anything that is going to be released with v2018.2) and why do we need it?

Ann: I’d like to see more sophisticated visualizations natively supported – things like Sankey diagrams or network diagrams.  Often times business problems and relationships are complex and these types of visualizations can be a more direct way to comprehend than more common chart types.

A bit harder to explain – but the capability to easily build out new data sets with time being the unifying dimension.  It should be a native feature of Tableau Prep to create a table to visualize across multiple data sources spanning any dimension of time (day, month, year).  It’s taking the concept of data blending and related data source filtering and pushing it back to the table/data source level.

There are some very small things that I’d like to see as well: saving workbook themes, better control over defaults for dimensions, a clean way to describe bins in tooltips, and turning off the date drill-through feature without having to build custom dates.  I say all that with the knowledge and belief that Tableau Desktop is the deepest and most full featured visual analytics software available.  And specifically, that the workflow they’ve championed has allowed people like me to dig deep into wanting more nuanced, deeply thoughtful features.

Michael: In your day-to-day work activities in the Tableau consulting industry, what do you feel are your clients biggest pain points when it comes to data prep and data visualization? How are you able to help them here?

Ann: The leap from using something like Excel for reporting to using Tableau can be painful – oftentimes there are multiple data sources being represented and analysts are integrating the data sources together manually.  Transitioning from that mindset to connecting data sources unearths a lot of operational inefficiencies and non-standardization within data.  It takes a strong foundation of being able to work through those components to get to impactful analytics.  I help in this capacity by using visual analytics to guide clients through this growth phase.  There’s something very impactful about using Tableau as an exploratory tool to see what data applications hold and how we have to add a human touch for there to be relevancy.

I also see a lot of opportunity for growth and improvement on how to use visual analytics.  By that I mean both the correct chart types and how to use analytics to describe or analyze a process.  My clients still struggle with translating business requirements into the correct collection of visualizations that can be used to drive results.  To that end – I spend a significant amount of my time working to unearth the questions and to describe the “why” behind design and development choices.  Some of my most mature clients still struggle with identifying the right things to report on.

Michael: What is next on your “To Do” list? What can the Tableau community expect to see from you in the near future?

Ann: I recently started a video podcast with Luke Stanke called Hashtag Analytics.  It’s been a great way to express our thoughts, opinions, and ideas on the broad world of analytics in a very authentic way.  We’re hoping to keep that going – I know it’s something we both have gained a lot of joy from.

I’m going to continue participating in Tableau Public’s Iron Viz contest – similar to 2017, my goal for 2018 is to participate in all the feeder contests.

I’ve also got a busy schedule for TC18 which includes 2 different speaking sessions.  I’m delighted to take #WorkoutWednesday to conference with Luke and Rody Zakovich.  Lorna Eden and I are also taking over for Andy Kriebel and Jeff Shaffer and doing speed tipping.  She and I have a lofty goal of reaching 100 tips combined this year!

You touched on it a bit – but I’ve got a personal project of building out more business focused dashboards.  As Jackson Two grows, I think it’s important for us to demonstrate what visual analytics looks like within the confines of different industries and organizations.

Beyond that – you’ll continue to see me actively contributing to Workout Wednesday, general Tableau Twitter, and blogging.  I get a lot of fulfillment out of connecting with people globally – that’s something that will probably never go away!

Tableau Public Link (Jackson Two): https://public.tableau.com/profile/jackson.two#!/

Tableau Public Link (Ann Jackson): https://public.tableau.com/profile/ann.jackson#!/