A vision for what Tableau Could be! A single product with many experiences.

0:00Oh, it's good to be back. Now, one thing

0:08that's been going through my mind for the

0:09last two

0:10years is this problem with Tableau. And the

0:16problem is this, the way Tableau sells the

0:19product is completely detached from the way

0:22people use the product. And that might

0:25sound

0:25like a really bizarre concept and you're

0:27probably thinking, well, what do you mean

0:30by that?

0:30Well, in this video, I want to present that

0:32in two ways. Essentially, present the

0:34problem

0:35and then present the solution. As ever, let

0:37's get started. So we're not going to mess

0:39about.

0:40We're going to go straight to the Tableau's

0:42pricing page. And I'm going to sort of try

0:44and tease this out. And I'm going to use a

0:46couple of knowledges in the process. You

0:48see,

0:49when you buy Tableau, I have to say, most

0:51people are actually removed from this

0:52process.

0:53If you asked every single user of Tableau

0:57how on earth they got access to Tableau,

1:01the

1:01only thing they could probably tell you is

1:03who gave them the license key and who's

1:06responsible

1:06for managing license keys in their

1:08organization. But very few people know the

1:11experience of

1:12buying Tableau. And by buying Tableau, I

1:14mean procurement. I mean sitting down with

1:17Tableau

1:17and negotiating the total mix of creators,

1:20explorers, and Tableau viewers in your

1:24organization.

1:25And as part of that process, what you kind

1:27of have to do is you have to have a really

1:29good idea of what the analysts in your

1:31organization are going to be doing. And

1:34Tableau have sort

1:35of broken that down into these three

1:37buckets. Now, there used to be a time where

1:40these three

1:41buckets didn't exist. There used to be a

1:43time where if you wanted Tableau, you paid

1:46for Tableau

1:46server. At the time, cloud was fairly new,

1:49so Tableau server or Tableau cloud. And you

1:51paid for desktop. And there wasn't really

1:54sort of anything in between. And one of the

1:56downsides of that is that if you just

1:59wanted to use an access report, it was kind

2:01of a

2:01little bit ineffective in terms of cost

2:04because essentially you were paying sort of

2:06full whack

2:07for something that some users weren't just

2:08going to use all the features. And so came

2:11this model. This model which has Tableau

2:13creator, explorer, and viewer. And it's

2:16sort of demarcated

2:17by the expectation of what those users are

2:19going to get when they get access to the

2:21platform.

2:21So a viewer in simple terms is just someone

2:24who really just needs to see reports, needs

2:26to interact with reports, and occasionally

2:29maybe even needs to type into their

2:31keyboard

2:32and get a chart back through features like

2:34our state. That's a Tableau viewer. The

2:37lowest

2:37level but probably the most common user

2:40inside of the Tableau ecosystem. Explorers

2:43are kind

2:43of a halfway house between creators and

2:45viewers. They get given a little bit more

2:48capability

2:48but on the same token, they're also quite

2:51limited. So as soon as they hit the edge,

2:53they're almost definitely going to want

2:54creator access because as soon as you hit

2:56those boundaries

2:57in the Tableau explorer license, they're

2:59quite hard boundaries and it's quite easy

3:01to hit

3:02them if you end up sort of moving through

3:04the product. And so the way Tableau sells

3:07its product, and this is where I think

3:09there's a fundamental problem, is it's dem

3:11arcated

3:11by the way Tableau looks at its product

3:14rather than the way people use the product.

3:17You see,

3:17when you approach the product in this

3:19manner, what ends up happening is you

3:21create arbitrary

3:22boundaries that essentially decide what you

3:26have access to on the platform and how you

3:29basically access them, how you use them,

3:31how they work. And so what that ends up

3:34meaning

3:34is you need a matrix like Tableau have on

3:36their website here that sort of explains

3:39for

3:39each license the activities you can do. So

3:43govern, interact, collaborate and author.

3:46And also prepare. Now it's interesting

3:49because to me, these sort of five items on

3:52the left

3:53hand side, govern, interact, collaborate

3:55and author, prepare as well, are actually

3:58the

3:58core tenants of what makes the product

4:01really, really good. And what ends up

4:04happening is

4:06when features come about, when new features

4:08are sort of drawn up, they get put into

4:10sort

4:11of different elements of this quadrant. I

4:13can almost envisage the meeting inside of

4:15Salesforce now where they're going, right,

4:17we have this amazing feature. Okay, great.

4:19What is the feature? It's a zone visibility

4:21. Great. Who's it going to empower? It's

4:23going

4:23to empower the creator. What is it going to

4:25empower them to do? It's going to allow

4:27them

4:27to build more interactive visualizations

4:30that allow them to do more dynamic sort of

4:32capabilities.

4:33That means they can meet the needs of a

4:35whole range of people. Great. So every

4:37single feature

4:38has to sit in the matrix. And then at the

4:41end of that process, once you've gone

4:42through

4:43this matrix, they then decide which part of

4:45the platform it sits in and therefore then

4:48which price then gets allotted to that

4:50feature. And so as the platform gets bigger

4:53and bigger,

4:54what you end up with is this sort of

4:56massive matrix of not just licenses across

4:58the top,

4:59but now add-ons as well that have little

5:02capabilities built into them. Okay. And

5:06this is where this

5:08detachment from the way the product works

5:11starts to really show. Because as a creator

5:14,

5:14I'm just going to take a creator because I

5:16've been using Tableau for eight years, and

5:17I

5:17think this is the one that I can speak to

5:19the most, but maybe as a viewer and

5:21explorer,

5:22you can put something in the comments that

5:24sort of really highlights this. As a

5:26creator,

5:27what this means is that although there's

5:29one license, there's one product for me to

5:30go

5:31off and buy on the shelf, it means that

5:33there are four products that I really have

5:36to sort

5:37of battle with, Tableau Desktop, Tableau

5:39Prep Builder, Tableau Server or Tableau

5:42Cloud.

5:42And the fourth product in my head is

5:44basically these other management add-ons,

5:46these other

5:47capabilities. Because as a creator, you're

5:49going to be expected to have to manage one

5:51of these three things when the organization

5:53gets larger. So in your head, you kind of

5:57have to hop around the experience. Note

5:59that I didn't say the features, I said

6:01experience.

6:02And experience is a very different thing

6:05because experience is not about, for

6:07example, I bought

6:09this notebook. Okay. So there's so many

6:11notebooks in the world. I bought this

6:13notebook, it's

6:13called the Sidekick, it's from a podcast

6:16that I follow called Cortex, and they have

6:18a notebook

6:19called this Sidekick. It's really, really

6:22nice. What makes this nice isn't the fact

6:25that it's a notebook. What makes this nice

6:27is the experience of using it. If I just

6:29show

6:29you one of the pages, it's got a really

6:31well thought out layout. You probably can't

6:33see

6:34it so well. It's got a really well thought

6:36out layout. The cover folds over and it has

6:39a really nice sort of shiny emboss. This is

6:43some notes I'm making for the 23.1 release.

6:47The experience is what makes this product.

6:49And so that's what I'm really sort of

6:50trying

6:50to narrow in on. And what that really means

6:53is if I just, if you just sort of close

6:56your

6:56eyes as I say this and you just imagine

6:58this journey. Let's say I'm an analyst and

7:01I'm

7:01empowered with a Tableau Creator license.

7:04And I've been asked to go and solve a data

7:06problem in an organization. The experience

7:10today looks something like this. First of

7:12all, I'll connect to my data in whatever

7:15data source. Let's say we're connecting to

7:17Snowflake.

7:17The second thing I'll do is I'll then put

7:19into Tableau Desktop most likely just to

7:21get

7:22a look at the data and see how it works. I

7:24'll then realize that I need to do some data

7:27prep.

7:27So what I'll do is I'll then go back into

7:28Tableau Prep, open another product, open

7:31Tableau

7:31Prep, start cleaning my data and making it

7:33work great except for the end of the Table

7:35au

7:35Prep experience, I can't create a data

7:38model. So now I have to publish that data

7:41source

7:42somewhere. In some instances, I can't use a

7:46published data source to build a data model

7:49.

7:49So what I'll then have to do is publish

7:52that output back out to a database so that

7:54I can

7:54then use it in Tableau Desktop again. So

7:57now we're back in Tableau Desktop to build

7:59a data

7:59model that is going to help answer the

8:01analytical questions that I need. And at

8:03this point,

8:04I'm still working with the connection of

8:05the data and the data prep, the very

8:07beginning

8:07of the journey. And then once that's done,

8:10I can actually start building visual

8:12izations,

8:12making them look great and publish them up

8:15to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud where I

8:17'm

8:18essentially sharing those things. People

8:21will then look at them, give me feedback

8:22and they'll

8:22make subtle suggestions and I'll need to

8:24sort of traverse my way back through each

8:26and every

8:27one of those products. Meanwhile, if this

8:29is my actual laptop, I have Tableau Prep,

8:32I have Tableau Desktop, I have Tableau

8:34Server open as many times as I've published

8:36the particular

8:37tool. And I also have probably my database

8:40open because I need to have all these

8:42things

8:42going. And in essence, what I'm actually

8:45doing is managing Windows and managing an

8:48experience

8:48across multiple products. It's not really

8:51cohesive, yet I am a Tableau creator. I'm

8:53empowered with all these amazing

8:55capabilities, but they're scattered across

8:57so many different

8:58interfaces for doing different things and

9:01they don't sort of come together cohesively

9:03,

9:03if that makes sense. Yes, they all connect

9:05to Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud, but in

9:07terms of my workflow, the thing that

9:09actually makes me work better and faster, I

9:12have to

9:12traverse all of these different interfaces.

9:14And so that to me is the fundamental

9:16problem.

9:17And I know this exists in the viewer

9:18license and it exists in the explorer

9:20license as well.

9:21I'm purely talking from a creator license.

9:23So what is the solution? Well, for this, I

9:27take inspiration from something I do to

9:30make you guys' videos. One of the things I

9:32really

9:32appreciate about the software I use is that

9:35pretty much all of them have had the

9:37benefit

9:38of years to understand the specific needs

9:41of their users. And so one tool I use to

9:44edit

9:45videos for this channel is called DaVinci

9:48Resolve. Now, some of you might have heard

9:50of other tools such as Camtasia, which

9:52essentially does the same thing. You might

9:54have heard

9:55of Adobe Premiere Pro. They're all the same

9:58. The fundamental thing all these tools

10:00understand

10:01is that when it comes to making a video,

10:03there are different steps in the process.

10:05And so

10:05if I take DaVinci Resolve, which is what I

10:07use for editing videos, I haven't got an

10:09actual

10:09project here. I've just loaded it empty so

10:11you can see the point I'm making. The first

10:14step, and what I really want to sort of

10:16call out is what's happening here at the

10:17bottom

10:18of the window. I'll sort of make sure I

10:20highlight it on screen. At the bottom of

10:22the window,

10:23the process that I go through is broken

10:25down into different steps. Each icon

10:28represents

10:29a different step in the process. So the

10:31first step is called media because that's

10:33where

10:33I bring in all my recordings. As soon as I

10:35finish recording this video, I will get the

10:37files on my computer and I'll drag them

10:39into this interface. And once I've dragged

10:41them

10:41here, I can see them, I can mark them, I

10:43can label them, I can tag them. The next

10:46part

10:46of the interface is cutting them. So once I

10:48have all my clips in a folder, I can

10:50essentially

10:51cut them up into sort of short video

10:52segments that I'm going to use and I can

10:54bring them

10:55around, put them together, kind of get an

10:57arrangement and an order that works until

11:00I'm happy. That's sort of called the first

11:02cut in video editing. The second thing is

11:04now the actual edit. The edit is where you

11:06add the finesse, the titles, the labels,

11:09the

11:09things that sort of make the video a little

11:11bit more interesting. And you also add

11:13transitions.

11:14You cut out certain things that might be

11:16distracting. You might add zooms and pops.

11:18All of this

11:19stuff gets done here in the edit. That's

11:21where you're adding to the creation. And

11:24then after

11:24that, you might want to do some special

11:26effects. And you can see here as I go

11:28through each

11:29of these steps, the interface is

11:31fundamentally changing to enable that one

11:33activity because

11:34it understands that it's guiding me through

11:38a specific flow. And so if I sort of close

11:41this and we just go back to talking about

11:43Tableau as a creator, it seems that the

11:46version

11:47of Tableau, the perfect version of Tableau

11:50for a creator is the version where you don

11:52't

11:53have to have five things open to get your

11:56work done. I was about to say job to get

11:58your

11:58work done. And so what does that look like?

12:02Well, just bear with me here because what

12:04I'm going to do is I'm probably going to

12:06put like a graphic up on screen as I talk

12:07to just

12:08sort of narrate this. In my head, the first

12:11thing any analyst will do is connect to

12:14their

12:15data source. That's just the number one

12:17thing. Go find your data, bring it in,

12:18connect to

12:19it, make it work. The second thing you'll

12:22do is you'll want to start to do data

12:24visualization.

12:26And so in that sort of visual step, you're

12:28probably going to miss the really crucial

12:31step of data preparation and data modeling

12:33because you'll go straight to the

12:35visualization

12:36step. And when you get to the visualization

12:38step, you might then at that point realize

12:40you need to go back to do some data prep or

12:42you need to go back to do some data

12:44modeling.

12:45And that prep and modeling, I separate them

12:47as distinct steps because in my mind, they

12:50can kind of happen in a different order and

12:53in a different way. When I talk about data

12:56modeling, I talk about the relationships

12:58between the different tables, the way that

13:00Tableau

13:01allows you to do that. I think Power BI

13:02also lets you do the same thing. When I

13:04talk about

13:04data prep, I talk about explicitly shaping

13:07the data. So making sure the data is in the

13:10right shape or orientation for you to do

13:13what you need to do. So prep is about row

13:15level

13:16sort of adjustments and calculations and

13:19finesse. Data modeling is about sort of

13:21slightly higher

13:22level thinking about how the different data

13:24sets come together to enable analytical

13:26answers

13:27to be done. And so if I draw this line out

13:30for Tableau, what it actually looks like is

13:33you have your connection to data, you have

13:35your data prep, you have your data modeling

13:38,

13:38you have your visualization as the next

13:41step. And the visualization is different

13:43from what

13:44I would then call layout because dash

13:45boarding is actually a layout exercise. It's

13:48actually

13:48a design exercise. And so when you're

13:50working in a sheet building a chart, you

13:52need very

13:53different tools to when you're building a

13:55visualization. Actually, you get a little

13:57bit of that in Tableau. If you want to

13:58create a dashboard, you have to go into a

14:00different

14:00interface to do that. So that is already an

14:03understood concept inside of Tableau. And

14:05once you've done your dashboard, you want

14:07to then be able to publish it up, share it

14:09with people. Okay, so these are I think six

14:12steps. And the ideal version of Tableau, if

14:15they were really building the product to

14:18match the way they sell the product, is

14:20that they

14:21would offer the Tableau Creator experience

14:23in one application. One application that

14:26lets

14:26you do all six things in one place. So you

14:29don't have to switch tabs, you don't have

14:31to switch applications. And more

14:34importantly, when you save your work, what

14:36you're actually

14:37saving is the entire workflow as one piece

14:40of work. And the benefit of that is all the

14:43metadata of how that analytical question

14:46gets answered goes up in one file. And it

14:49enables

14:50other people to come in, look at different

14:53parts of that flow, and create tangents. In

14:57development, they call these forking

15:00projects in GitHub. I've not sworn, my int

15:03onation is

15:04maybe not good enough. But when you're

15:06developing as a developer, it's called for

15:08king, because

15:08what you're essentially saying is that I'd

15:10love to take this project and create a tang

15:12ent

15:12that goes off in a slightly different

15:14direction that suits my needs. And it would

15:17really also

15:17start to open up amazing capabilities for

15:20collaboration. Because what you can say is

15:22that, hey, I don't want the visualization,

15:24I don't want what the person has shared up

15:26to the server. But I love all the modeling

15:30they've done, I love all the data prep they

15:32've

15:32done, and I'd love to use that for my own

15:35creation. And because everything is one

15:37file,

15:37it's just much, much easier to share. And

15:40the other really important thing is it

15:42actually

15:43just leads to much, much more enjoyable

15:45experience. And I think it maybe frees up

15:48each of these

15:49steps to be more of what they need to be,

15:53if that makes sense. So if you look at

15:56Tableau

15:56Prep, as a creator, it's really hard to

15:58understand why that's a separate product.

16:01Why is that

16:01a separate piece of software if as a

16:03creator have access to both of them? An

16:05explorer doesn't

16:06have access to a Tableau Prep, they can't

16:08build with Tableau Prep. The only thing

16:10they

16:10can do is start visualizations with

16:12existing data sources. So why on earth is

16:15that a separate

16:16product? It makes absolutely no sense. It

16:18should just sit inside of Tableau Desktop.

16:20And it might be because you don't want to

16:21sort of encumber the whole product. And it

16:23's

16:23probably really good technical reasons why.

16:25But if you were just sort of, you know,

16:27really

16:27meeting the promise of picking the product

16:30off the shelf, and understanding what the

16:32product is, the one product will be called

16:34Tableau Creator. And the Tableau Creator

16:36allows

16:36analysts to build analytical workflows from

16:40start to finish. That's data prep,

16:42connecting

16:43to data, modeling the data, visualizing it,

16:46laying it out, and then sharing with people

16:49in the organization. That is the creator

16:52promise. The explorer promise starts after

16:56the data

16:57modeling step. So because explorers can't

16:59create their own data sources, they can

17:00only

17:00use certain parts of data sources that

17:03already exist, they would essentially be

17:07coming in

17:07halfway through this sort of flow. So they

17:09would only be really getting access to the

17:11latter half of that. So the visualization,

17:15the sharing, strictly speaking, the

17:18visualization,

17:19the layout, and the sharing. They wouldn't

17:22be able to connect and prep, essentially.

17:24And then the viewer would just get access

17:26to the very end part. Just be the ability

17:29to look at things, and then ask data. And

17:31then everything else can kind of slot

17:33around

17:33it. But to me, that would mean there'd only

17:36really be three products. The creator

17:37product,

17:38the explorer product, and the viewer

17:41product. And that would be one cohesive

17:43experience

17:44across the entire platform. I'm editing

17:46this video, and I realize I made a slight

17:48mistake

17:49here. What I meant was there'd only be one

17:52product, three experiences. It's just got

17:54those completely switched around. So there

17:56'd be one product, it would be called Table

17:58au,

17:58one application, you download it, and

18:01whatever license you have opens up

18:03different parts

18:05of this experience. As I've just laid out

18:08the timeline, different licenses open up

18:11different

18:11parts of that timeline. And all the other

18:14features around add-ons and so on and so

18:16forth

18:16just slot into those particular pillars and

18:19open up different capabilities. But the

18:22product

18:23vision is super clear. What the product

18:25does is super clear. And also it

18:27communicates very

18:28easily how you get access to do more,

18:31depending on the license you have. It's

18:33just all in

18:34one place. It's just much much easier to

18:37understand. And so that's my take. That's

18:40my view on this particular topic. Now,

18:42there are massive flaws with this idea. And

18:45it's

18:46something that I've sort of been mulling

18:47around in my head. And I have talked to a

18:49few people in the community about it.

18:51Sometimes sort of off-book, sometimes off

18:54the record

18:55as well. And it's super interesting to see

18:57sort of some of the thoughts that come out

18:59of it. But this is an idea. I'm not

19:01pitching this as the end all and be all.

19:05There's

19:05tons of issues with this idea. I've thought

19:07of many. I'd love you to sort of highlight

19:08what you think they are. Maybe that's a

19:10separate video. But to me, that vision of

19:16how the product is sold and how the product

19:19is built is starting to get so fragmented

19:21that I think it's getting in the way of

19:24really delivering the experience that users

19:26deserve. Not necessarily the features.

19:28Anyway, I've waffled for way too long. I'll

19:31stop

19:31the video here and I'll catch you in the

19:33next video. I think 23.1 is about to drop.

19:36Probably the day after I'm recording this,

19:3823.1 will drop. And I'll get punished for

19:40not having done any prep for 23.1. But as

19:57ever, I'll catch you in the next one.