Tableau Made My Career – Here's Why That's Becoming a Problem

0:00So last week I said um that I was losing the passion for learning Tableau.

0:05And the context I gave for that is that I've been learning for Tableau for quite some time and it's

0:10It's it's it's really a coincidence that today of all the days, the visit of the day is by um Wakar Ahmed Shaikh.

0:19I think I've said that correctly.

0:21Apologies if I haven't.

0:22Um but his visit of the day

0:25is about his journey about learning Tableau.

0:30And um there's pure coincidence.

0:32I I I didn't know this was going to be visit of the day and it's going to be something I'll come back to later in this video.

0:38um because I think it's actually quite a good visual way of explaining what I'm about to explain.

0:44Now I think to really break this down, I have to break it down into I said three components.

0:49First of all, learning, uh passion for learning.

0:52And then specifically passion for learning tableau.

0:55And and why why I've reached the point where I've I think I'm pretty confident

1:00that I'm uh able to say that in a in a compelling way but also puts me in that dilemma because my job is to learn Tableau to teach you.

1:07So we'll come to that towards the end.

1:09But nonetheless.

1:11The the thing I wanted to to really touch on with learning and my relationship with learning is that I've been very fortunate over the years to have been able to learn tools and technology

1:24right at the cusp of them becoming a prominent source.

1:28The very first experience I have of this is learning HTML

1:32and JavaScript and CSS when the web was something that was taking off.

1:37I r I remember vividly, uh in secondary school, a friend of mine called Chris Pateman um pulled me aside and he said, Hey look, um

1:46You're into your gaming.

1:48D do you know that games are developed using code?

1:51And and I didn't quite believe him.

1:53I thought games were

1:54something sort of more complex, you know, uh graphics and 3D.

1:58But I didn't I didn't ever really think about how those games were developed.

2:01And he sat me down and he he he pulled out a pen and notebook and he said, I'm not gonna show you how to code a game, but I will show you

2:08how to create a web page that could have a game in it.

2:11So he's basically showing me the construct of the page and he literally wrote down

2:16uh the HTML to create a simple page but said hello world.

2:21So a header, a body tag, you know, script for any JavaScript and whatever at the beginning.

2:27And then he closed it off and then he introduced me to this concept called CSS.

2:30Now I really didn't think much of it, but uh literally two months later, I I sort of

2:37It was like uh he planted something in my brain and I just went down this rabbit hole and I kept on digging and digging and digging.

2:42Fast forward two years later, I've learned enough HTML and CSS to be able to have built a website.

2:48So

2:48One of the first websites I built was for a shipping company called Calvi Marine and if I just go and find them, they're a shipping company based um in the UK.

2:59And the great thing about this project is I found a friend of mine whose mum was a logo designer.

3:04It's called Max.

3:05And his mum designed the logo that they still use today.

3:09So this logo up here was actually designed by my friend Max

3:13I didn't design this website.

3:14We designed the website using a CMS system called Joomla.

3:19And the funny thing about learning and the funny thing about these things is

3:25They always take you down rabbit holes and this is this is this is what I find exciting about learning.

3:30So you you start with a topic HTML CSS then you get a project to go build a website so you build a website now you've done the website

3:37Um but then to build a website in a way where a non-developer can use it, you need a CMS system.

3:42So then I learned about CMS systems and I went to Joomla, I went to Drupal, and then WordPress was just kicking around as a potential system

3:51And that even went all the way down into this rabbit hole of um hosting.

3:56So I even started a web hosting company back then.

3:58I did it all.

3:59So I still run a hosting company today.

4:01I just host my own websites on it.

4:03But nonetheless

4:04Yeah, Jubla's been running for 20 years, and for most of those 20 years, I've actually been able to learn and keep up with HTML and CSS.

4:12I never stuck with it long enough to become a web developer, but it was always something I was passionate and interested in.

4:17That was one of the first early experiences where I rode a wave for close to seven years until I got to university and then I went down the design route.

4:27And um it was serious interesting because when I finished university, I then stumbled into data.

4:33And you can see this because this is when I s discovered the concept of

4:37quantified stuff.

4:38If I if I go to my own profile, let's uh open this in a new page.

4:42Um we'll come back to that page.

4:43If I go to my own profile you'll notice a lot of my visualizations are about

4:47um tableau and they're about myself, personal um information that I've garnered from apps, uh fitness apps and so on and so forth.

4:56So

4:56For example, this visualization, I have an app that's sat on my phone for the best part of 15 years.

5:01Not always the same app, but a range of apps that collect your location data on a frequent enough uh basis.

5:07This one I use moves.

5:08I now currently use an app called Arc.

5:10But I use that as a really good way of learning how to work with data.

5:14And um again, Tableau was something I stumbled into at university.

5:18A friend of mine

5:19at the time called Craig.

5:20I met him through university work.

5:22Ended up joining him at the Information Lab.

5:24You might know of them.

5:25I joined Information Lab as I think the 11th employee.

5:28And that was how I stumbled into the world of Tableau.

5:31And in that journey, I was learning about data.

5:33I was never really learning Tableau, I was learning about data.

5:36But here's a big butt

5:38Table became a tool that allowed me to express myself in a new way.

5:44And this was really exciting because I felt like I was cheating.

5:48I was I was I was I was hack I was almost like

5:51I was learning a really valuable skill in data that just so also happened to be super interesting, like building visualizations like this about my own.

5:59uh you know travels through London um if I go back to my profile doing it with music doing it with a whole bunch of different themes

6:07It was just a recurring theme and something that I really, really felt passionate about.

6:11And I really thoroughly enjoyed it.

6:13I I really thoroughly enjoyed the

6:15problem solving challenges.

6:17This is the music uh listening habits and I remember this viz.

6:19It was featured on the Last of M website at the time.

6:22It's so bad.

6:23I can't believe it even works.

6:25Um but yeah this was built with uh let's see I haven't actually updated it since it was updated so 2014 was the first time it was published um so nearly a decade ago uh version one been viewed 18,000 times

6:38And um I think I updated it in 2023 because there was uh something with public that was changing that meant you had to go in and republish anything you wanted to keep.

6:47Nonetheless

6:48Um I learned how to work with music, I I I learned how to work with Last of M and I learnt APIs.

6:54And so the thread here is that I've always been able to string this journey

7:00uh of learning but it's always been paired with a passion for something else so this in this case it was a passion for understanding myself understanding the world

7:11understand how to work with data.

7:12I kind of weaved all of these things into one place.

7:15And i if I'm honest, if I'm honest, I felt like Tableau was one of the tools that allowed me to also explore this concept of design in data.

7:23So data visualization and a sort of

7:26uh infographics and you can see that I've followed this thread through a lot of my visualizations.

7:32Like um when I took the music listening thing to the next level.

7:36I really enjoyed um this specific uh page.

7:42I was really proud of this.

7:43I I actually, you know, printed this out and and set it up as a PDF and I put it out and

7:48I can do that again, but I was really proud of this because what this showed me for the first time is hey, these are my top um 25 artists, and this is what their music looks like.

7:57if you take their attributes and you find an average for their attributes.

8:02So the red line is the average for that artist.

8:04And you can see that different artists had really distinct shapes.

8:07Obviously they had songs that were outliers, but those were also really easy to see.

8:12But I I was really proud of being able to visualize music in this way.

8:15And again, figuring this out in Alteryx, in Tableau, was in itself a journey.

8:20I learned so much about

8:22you know, modeling data and it it wasn't modeling data through SQL.

8:25I was doing it all through Altrix and visually, um SQL was the skill that I I guess I didn't really need at the time.

8:31But nonetheless, I was

8:32I was pairing these two things and maybe even as I talk you can see that the passion for understanding these things and the way they work and just using them using them as a vehicle to learn the tool better

8:46to then be able to go and use them in a consulting context was something that I really thoroughly enjoyed.

8:53And so I've always said that look people's passion for learning

8:57always comes from not just the passion for learning, but also comes from a passion of wanting to understand the way something works, wanting to sort of

9:07understand um how things come together.

9:10So when we work in the world of data and when people say they have a passion for working with data, what they really mean is they have a passion for understanding the things that they're analyzing.

9:20Understanding the things that they're trying to explore.

9:23And throughout my time with Tableau, I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

9:26I've really thoroughly enjoyed it.

9:27And it's been really, really exciting.

9:30However

9:30That is a path that I started a long, long time ago.

9:34So if we actually go back now to the visit of the day here, let's go all the way back to this visualization

9:44When we go back here, what is super interesting is I'm talking about something that I did now over a decade ago.

9:49I started learning Tableau over a decade ago.

9:51It's now my 12th or 13th year using Tableau.

9:55And if I look at this journey, I actually draw a lot of parallels.

9:59Number one, I didn't achieve anywhere near as much of this in the same amount of time.

10:04But I think there's a couple of good reasons.

10:06Um, you know, content today is is much, much, much more readily available than it was back then.

10:12Back then, um, you had to go to a training in person, you had to go to

10:16um maybe a paid course by tableau to learn the product.

10:20Maybe you had to go through certifications.

10:22All of that was just consumed and managed in different ways.

10:25And blogs have always existed back then, but even then there were fewer people writing blogs

10:30The usual names and suspects have always been in the community.

10:33So Andy Krieble, Craig Bloodworth, many people have always been in the community contributing to that.

10:38sort of um community of knowledge, let's say.

10:41But when you look at sort of this visualization, do you see uh lots of journey in in terms of

10:48people's understanding when they discovered certain things, when they discovered certain channels, um, when they hit a a milestone, their vis of the day.

10:55I've had two visits of the days myself.

10:57So I very much resonate with this journey, the highs and the lows, and um I find it super interesting that this visualization exists.

11:04But here's the thing, and this is the fundamental thing.

11:08I think Tableau's done something super exciting in that whole entire time in 12 years.

11:13And this is really coming to where, you know, I have an issue, which is

11:18For somehow for 12 years, Tableau have managed to create a product that has continued to innovate and keep me interested in working with data in lots of different contexts.

11:27To the point where today I will say to you that, you know, one of my favorite products in Tableau, and it doesn't matter what anyone says to me here, like I I'll I'll just keep

11:35I'll keep drumming this beat home because I really do mean this and I'm happy to go toe-to-toe with anyone who doesn't agree.

11:43Tableau prep is single-handedly one of the best experiences working with data anywhere on this planet.

11:50And the reason that is, is because you can tell that the team that designed it really thought about two things.

11:57Number one

11:58How do you make it easy to understand what you're doing with your data?

12:01Number two, how do you show people what they're doing with their data?

12:05Now, those two things aren't the same thing.

12:07Understanding what you're about to do.

12:09And then seeing what you have done are two completely different things.

12:13And actually that's one of the abstract things with working with Tableau, being able to visualize what you're trying to achieve, then going ahead and doing it.

12:19and being able to sort of plan out that method of work.

12:22That in itself to get to that level of understanding of the product is in itself something that takes maybe two, three, four years of working with the product day to day

12:30to be able to get a problem and know how you're going to get to the path.

12:33That kind of that kind of lends itself really well to consulting if you're thinking of doing something like that, because that's exactly what consultants do.

12:39They they guide clients from where they are to where they need to be.

12:44But

12:45The thing is, since Tableau prep the innovation

12:53And the direction that I think lots of Tableau parts have gone into.

12:59By parts I mean the different product suites.

13:02They've really exploded.

13:03They've gone in lots of different directions.

13:06And the critical thing that I found with them is that they have introduced new ideas and new concepts, some of which I love.

13:15The data model absolutely love that.

13:17It's completely changed the way I work with data.

13:19And if you haven't yet seen it, go ahead and check out my video about the data model with Kirkman Road to Masterclass

13:255,000 people have watched it.

13:26Um I've heard lots of great feedback about how people are starting to get it.

13:30And if you look at the comments, you'll see people watching the video and then coming back a month later and saying, I get it now, right?

13:36So that that's exactly what that video is for.

13:39Um

13:40There are great pieces of innovation like that today.

13:44And what they do is they enable you to go back to a solution maybe you built three years ago and get re-excited about it.

13:50But the really difficult thing I found, and this is where I've sort of I've just come to sort of terms with this, and I've just sort of just been very honest with myself, is that

14:00The best bits of tableau that I enjoy using the most have built on the patterns of the last few years.

14:07And I think going forward, that maybe can't be the case.

14:10Of course, things are going to change in analytics

14:13Um trends are gonna come and go.

14:15But I've always felt that Tableau's managed to evolve the product, keep it moving with the times, whilst also holding on to its heritage.

14:23And grasping this thing that I really find hard to explain, especially to Salesforce generally when I communicate with them.

14:31That it's really clear to me that sometimes the product decisions lack what I call the intuition of the product.

14:39And by that I mean it's a really simple one, a really simple one

14:43If I ask anyone who's been using Tableau for two years, what happens when you double-click?

14:48They expect Tableau to automatically add something to the canvas.

14:52They expect Tableau to automatically open up a menu.

14:55There's just some behaviors that you come used to.

14:58When I drag and drop onto the marks pane, I expect a certain behavior.

15:01When I double click in an empty space and it's somewhere where I can write a calculation, I expect it to open up the calculation window.

15:08These are all subtle but very small cues

15:11that are learned behavior, they're learnt expectations.

15:15And what I've realized in the last um few months is that there's just so many of those that I've just they're just they're just muscle memory.

15:22They're in the back of my hand.

15:24Um they're in they're in my mind.

15:26When I think of how to explore data, I try it in other tools and I realize it don't those features don't exist.

15:31I'm I'm evaluating Sigma and I'm using Sigma on a daily basis at the moment and I'm finding

15:35finding it painful because I'm looking for these things that have become productivity gains in in Tableau, but I'm not finding them.

15:42Same thing in Power BI as well.

15:44So

15:46Because the product lacks all what I would call these intuitive things, it lacks sort of this intuition of the heritage of Tableau.

15:54I'm finding myself having to relearn a product I thought I knew for the last decade.

15:58And that's not a bad thing, because of course things change.

16:01And I've I've been asked this question, hey Tim, if you were gonna move Tableau into the future, what are the bits you would keep?

16:08And I find this question really interesting, but I also find it truthfully really irritating.

16:16I find it interesting because that is actually a really good question.

16:19What would I what would I bring?

16:21What would I what would I leave behind, right?

16:24But I find it irritating because I never thought that that that was on the table, right?

16:30And I never thought that was the offer.

16:32I always thought

16:33There was a way to build on the tableau we have today and still keep innovating the product forward.

16:39Now, I'm not a

16:41I'm not a industry expert.

16:43Um I'm a consultant, but I'm not an industry expert.

16:45I don't know what's happening in all analytics stores in the world.

16:48I don't sit on the C-suite of any analytics product to be able to see

16:52the kind of headwinds and challenges that they they're anticipating they're gonna have to deal with.

16:56And let's be clear, you know, Salesforce, um, Power BI, Microsoft

17:00They're all positioning themselves to be able to deal with things that challenge their revenue.

17:05So I totally get that there are decisions that, you know, kind of tie your hands and mean that you have to go in a certain direction.

17:12But that said, when I look at Tableau Next, I see a product that just has so much in it that I just don't have any passion to learn

17:24It doesn't matter how good it is, I'm just not excited to learn it.

17:28And that's because of two things.

17:30I feel like I've learned Tableau already.

17:32It's not something I want to relearn.

17:34So if you put it in front of me, although I will go and learn it and I will, although I will go and play with it and I will, and you'll see the videos here on this channel.

17:44That passion, that energy, that excitement, what I showed you earlier, that um you know, when you saw my face was explaining all those other things, that just won't be there.

17:54And when that's not there

17:57Then Tableau is just like any other tool.

18:00It's just like Power BI, just like Sigma.

18:03The same frustrations that I've just explained to you that are lacking in those tools.

18:07from Tableau.

18:09When those things that I look forward to, you know, making my life easier aren't there, then it just becomes another tool.

18:15And I but and when it's just another tool

18:18I might as well evaluate everything else.

18:20I might as well take a look at everything else that's available because hey, I'll tell you this, that the analytics space is very, very crowded.

18:28There are lots of great competitors

18:31if I just if I just sort of rattle off a few, if I go to count, um I'll just keep typing um here on the screen and just go to their homepage.

18:40Okay.

18:41Count is another approach to using data within a team.

18:45Um let's go to another one, hex uh.

18:48tech.

18:49Um I've actually got a video um to to go through this platform planned very soon.

18:53I'll come onto that towards the end.

18:55Again, another great tool.

18:57Let's let's let's do this again.

18:59Let's go to Sigma Analytics.

19:01You can see I actually have um quite a few bookmarks on Sigma because I'm learning it.

19:06Good old Click is still sponsoring.

19:08Oh poor click.

19:10Let's just open all these tabs just so you can see the craziness.

19:13Tableau sponsoring ahead of Sigma.

19:15Wow, it's getting competitive.

19:16You can you can really tell who who's uh who's who's interested in in the tab in the in the tablet customers.

19:22So there you go.

19:23There's Sigma.

19:24Sorry, um your Sigma alternative for modern BIK

19:28Wow, that's a really thought spot.

19:30Come on guys, that's really cheap.

19:32Your Sigma alternative for Modern BI.

19:35That is that is really that is really cheeky to buy an ad spot.

19:41on the term.

19:42Okay.

19:42But that's a smart move.

19:44Sigma themselves, okay, AI apps and so on and so forth.

19:47Like the the space is just crazy full of perspectives.

19:51That's not even including

19:52Power BI, business subjects, click, you know, all these things that are incumbents in the space that are still there.

19:58And of course Salesforce itself with Einzign Analytics or the people there sort of deprecating from that.

20:04It's a super busy space, but I'll say this the minute I lose passion for anything, I might as well evaluate something else.

20:12Why?

20:13Because I might as well go and see if something else strikes that passion for me or strikes that energy.

20:18And so for me as a consultant

20:19I'm using what my clients are using and my clients are using a mixture of tools.

20:23Sigma is one of them.

20:25Altrix, a good old Altrix that I love to hate, but I love the product.

20:29People still using that

20:31Um Snowflake, Databricks, uh, use a lot of Snowflake.

20:34Not that it's in the same league as Tableau, but nonetheless, it's all there.

20:38So I think I think I'm I'm really laboring this point now and you're kind of getting it.

20:43I

20:44I have to be really honest with myself and say, hey, like if you see me teaching Tableau, if you see me learning Tableau, I think I have to be honest with you as an audience and say that just understand

20:57That when I'm doing Tableau Core, I'm super excited.

21:02I'm really passionate about the things that I see there.

21:05But when I when I'm doing Tableau Next and it the the

21:09I'm feeling like I'm having to relearn the tool.

21:12It's a very different type of energy.

21:14And I think you'll see it in the content that I make.

21:16Definitely.

21:18But I feel like I have to be upfront about that and I have to be genuine about that because if you see it then and and then you don't you don't buy it then of course you you you're gonna say something.

21:28It's not gonna come across so well

21:31And so it also changes my approach to how I make content because if if I'm not passionate about something, how do I how do I get around that problem?

21:37I need to make interesting videos.

21:39Um I think I want to still help people learn Tableau.

21:42I still have a passion for that.

21:43So my approach is different.

21:45Um there's less to cover on the Tableau space, obviously, that's new, if that makes sense.

21:50So my opportunities to go back and redo a bunch of videos that I've done that are still helping people every single day

21:57Improve those.

21:58Bring those up to date.

21:59Bring those up to speed with the modern platform.

22:02There's a bunch of stuff that I've missed over the years that I think I can now make content on.

22:06Take the master class approach.

22:07Do go out and do these really big pieces of content.

22:10Frankly, many other people have done this exact approach

22:13especially in the data space you've got lots of data creators that have taken the easy bit of you know explaining tableau and have done a really good job at that and they've you know gone and got massive audiences and crowds but as soon as you dig into the depth of those things there's not much there.

22:26So I think I can add depth.

22:28I can add way more experience as a consultant, as a visionary, as an ambassador, than I think uh anyone else can.

22:36Um, but I also want to

22:39Bring people and be the source for people to continue to understand what Tableau is becoming as well as what it was.

22:47And so that's going to be continue to be a challenge.

22:50Now, there's there's there's three really simple way.

22:53Well, there's a simple way to solve this problem.

22:55And so

22:57How do I solve this?

22:58Now YouTube absolutely hates um no con confusing the algorithm.

23:04Like if I if I start making Tableau Next content and people then click on it

23:08it's absolutely going to tank my channel.

23:10So this is a genuine problem.

23:12If I start making videos about other analytics tools and I do it on my Tableau channel, it's also going to tank the channel.

23:19So really there's only there's only one solution and that is

23:22to make three separate channels.

23:25So this channel will stay Tableau Tim.

23:28Simple as that.

23:30Um

23:31A new channel probably be titled something less tableau, more Tim.

23:36And that will be the the date the data channel.

23:39That's where I'll talk about every other tool other than Tableau.

23:42Right?

23:42Because it's really coming from my perspective.

23:43I'm Tableau Tim, so everything else I talk about can go on that channel.

23:47Altrix, Sigma, Count, Hex, all of those can go over there.

23:50And I think it's good because

23:51You as an audience, if you're still following Tableau, can do that.

23:54But you have the choice to choose to go and follow something else and have that in your feed if you'd like it to.

23:59And I can also meet new audiences in that in that realm as well

24:03Then the very final one is this Tableau Next piece.

24:06And I think this is the right thing to do, and that is to create a purpose-built channel just for Tableau Next.

24:13And I'll call it Tableau Next with Tim.

24:15And that's it.

24:16That's going to be my way of solving this.

24:17This way I keep the the entities separate.

24:20And actually each channel has to do its own bidding.

24:23has to fight for its own interests and it has to gain its own audience.

24:27And obviously I'll cross-link and cross-share between them.

24:30That is easy to do.

24:31I can even do collaborations.

24:32That's something that's now easy to do.

24:34So

24:35I can do something on the Tableau Next channel in collaboration with Tableau Tim and you'll be able to see that and it's going to be a really good way of solving that problem.

24:42That's something that's only become possible in the last month, which is why I'm doing it now rather than trying to break things up.

24:48So

24:50I hope that's been a good explainer for that.

24:53Now, this whole time we touched on Tableau Public and

24:58Another perspective I touched on in the last video was I don't think Tableau Public is helping the Tableau brand.

25:05Why?

25:06Tune in tomorrow to find out more.