Tableau Queen

I have been getting a lot of love and support this past week regarding the Tableau competition that I won last Thursday but I have also received a lot of questions regarding what the hell Tableau actually is. I think a lot of my friends don’t know what I actually do for work so I figured this would be a good time to explain both.

So Tableau is a data visualization software. We now live in a data driven world and knowledge is power. In order to make the best decisions, in my opinion, you need to have the information or evidence to back that up. Data comes in many different forms and it is stored in different ways so it can be a bit tricky to look through tons and tons of rows and columns in excel to gather any insight of value. That’s where Tableau comes in. Tableau facilitates the creation of charts and other visual graphics to help users become consumers of their data.

I became obsessed with Tableau and I passed my certification exam last year in the summer of 2019. I started getting a lot of questions from people across the firm regarding Tableau questions, which was pretty cool that I could meet new people through this. Today, I use Tableau every single day at work and I absolutely love it.

Alright, so the competition. One of the teams at work that specializes in data and analytics hosts a competition each year (much like Tableau does for all of its users) and participants are given the same data set and asked to analyze the data and create a dashboard to present their findings. It seems pretty straight forward but with such broad instructions, it’s hard to pick which direction to go in. This year’s data set was covering something that I don’t work with a lot in my role but I like to think that data analysis is relevant in all fields and can be done following the same basic steps.

Take time to understand the data & use case

First, one must understand the data and how it relates to the business use case. To do this, I start by loading the data into Tableau and letting the data speak to me — omg how nerdy did that sound!!!!! But really, what is the data trying to tell me? Which charts are best to represent data like this? What are the obvious things standing out? How do they compare to similar circumstances/criteria?

Know your audience

Next, how can I get my point across. It’s important to consider who your audience is and how well they understand the data. When you don’t know who your audience will be, you have to make sure that your dashboard is very clear and easy to understand. The point of you doing the analysis is so that others don’t have to spend a ton of time trying to do it, they can just glance at your dashboard and understand the point of it. Dashboards are often judged on “the 5 second rule” which basically means that the point of your analysis should come across within the first 5 seconds that a user engages with it.

Pay close attention to detail

Once I have my main point(s) then I start fine tuning the layout and cosmetics. It is important to be consistent with the font and color scheme as each component on the dashboard can be used as a visualization tool. You want to make sure that your fonts and colors are adding value to your main points. If it’s not the main point, then I would suggest using a basic font/color and only using bright/fun fonts and colors to draw attention to a specific part of your dashboard.

Present with confidence and tell a story

The last piece is presenting the dashboard. A lot of times, you won’t get the chance to present it so it’s super important that your dashboard is clear. It’s so easy to get caught “doing the most” by adding way too many charts and other elements. Remember “K.I.S.S.” No, not the band - Keep It Simple, Stupid! This applies to all aspects of life but particularly in this case. Your dashboard is aggregating and presenting data in a way that should be easily consumable by your users. Always keep the users in mind. If you are lucky enough to get time to actually present, practice. I must have practiced my presentation no less than 50 times. If you have a time constraint, do not go over it. Stick to the main points and tell your story - if you have done a good/clean analysis, the data will naturally guide you through the storytelling.

If you have an appetite for this kind of posts, please let me know in the comments!