0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In today's video, it's
0:02another Friday, so we're back with some
0:04Friday thoughts.
0:05Now, today's topic is a bit of a different
0:06one. I want to talk about what is changing
0:10at Tableau.
0:10Now, I have to say up front, this is just
0:11an opinion piece. It's not, there's no
0:15facts behind this.
0:16I haven't sat down with the CEO and sort of
0:18gone through all these topics. Although if
0:20you're up for that, I'd love to do that.
0:22Nonetheless, I've just basically, you know,
0:25been in the Tableau community for the last
0:28seven years, and I've been sort of heavily
0:31embedded in it in the last couple of years,
0:33I actually sort of, you know, pulled a
0:34finger out and started making content.
0:37And so what I wanted to do is just sort of
0:39try and unpick, I think, a problem. And it
0:42's a problem that's not often spoken about
0:44in the community.
0:45And it's actually starting to cause a bit
0:46of friction, generally speaking, when I
0:48talk about community, I just don't mean the
0:50Tableau community. I'm talking about Table
0:53au partners, Tableau customers, everyone who
0:55touches Tableau in some way or form is
0:57going to experience some sort of friction
0:59in this change that I'm about to talk about
1:00.
1:01Okay. Now, the thing that really hit me a
1:04couple of days ago, is I came across a
1:07quote, and I've got I've got it up on the
1:10screen here to the left and the quote goes
1:13something like this. You're only as young
1:15as the last time you changed your mind.
1:15And that's a quote from a chap called
1:17Timothy Leary. And it sort of hit me really
1:20hard when I came across it was actually
1:22through a show on Netflix.
1:24And then I ended up finding out that it
1:25wasn't original, it was by, you know,
1:28someone else. And this this person is
1:29Timothy Leary. Nevertheless, it hit me
1:32really hard because what this quote was
1:33really sort of, I think trying to get
1:35across is Listen, it's really important not
1:37to get stuck in your ways not to sort of be
1:40stuck in sort of neurotic ways and habits,
1:42and to be constantly challenging yourself
1:44to evolve and change.
1:46And I feel like this really rings home with
1:48the way Tableau has been sort of pushing
1:50its focus over the last years. And so, in
1:52order to explain this context, I think
1:54first we have to maybe do a little bit of a
1:56history lesson and again, this is an
1:58opinion piece so some of this history might
2:01be wrong factually incorrect.
2:03But nonetheless, it's how I see things
2:05changing and so it is what it is. Now on my
2:07screen, we've got my iPad I've actually got
2:09my pencil out, we're going to do some
2:11drawing we're going to have a slightly sort
2:13of more intimate session today.
2:15And I'm going to draw a few things I want
2:16to just try and explain the context where
2:19Tableau came from and where it's heading as
2:21I see it. Okay, so I'm going to draw a line
2:23first, I'm going to just do this down the
2:24middle.
2:25And this I consider the you know, the big
2:30divide between on premise
2:34and cloud. Okay. And for those of you who
2:36are not sort of familiar, when you talk
2:38about on premise and cloud on premises and
2:40means running, you know, your software,
2:43your systems in your own building in your
2:45own sort of infrastructure, essentially.
2:48So if I was to take Tableau server, for
2:50example, you run Tableau server on premise,
2:53but Tableau online runs in the cloud.
2:56So the key thing here is that Tableau was
2:58born into a particular world. And it was
3:01actually a product developed and conceptual
3:03ized in the on premise world. So initially,
3:07you had Tableau desktop, so I'll just say D
3:09for desktop, actually, I just write it out,
3:12it's probably easier.
3:13And then we had Tableau server, which
3:15followed very quickly after. And both of
3:17these came out first as an on premise
3:19software. And what has happened over the
3:22years is actually the transition has
3:24started to head the other way.
3:26Now, if we think about the companies that
3:28we know about today, there's actually two
3:31ways of run running cloud infrastructure.
3:34Apparently, my sleep time has come on there
3:36. So probably a funny note that I should
3:38probably head to sleep that gives you a
3:40note how late I record these. But
3:43nevertheless, there's probably a split when
3:44it comes to cloud infrastructure.
3:47Now, I'm just going to highlight the two
3:49that I think matter in this context. And
3:51that is first cloud as infrastructure.
3:55I'm just going to call that infrastructure.
3:57Really sorry about my spelling is awful,
3:59but that's the way it is. And then you've
4:02got software as a service. So I'll acronym
4:05acronym that as s a, s, it's a s double a s
4:10, that makes sense.
4:12So sass companies like Salesforce are like
4:14the king of sass, basically, you just get
4:16access to an application over the web, and
4:19they're using the web as a way of
4:20delivering a product to you. And what
4:23actually commonly happens if we just draw
4:25another small line here is that a lot of s
4:28ass companies tend to rely on infrastructure
4:30cloud providers.
4:32So if I just sort of draw a line here, some
4:35of those people on the left hand side might
4:39be AWS might be Google. I just type that in
4:43might be Azure from Microsoft.
4:45Okay, and all these people are sort of here
4:47on the left hand side, okay. And they run
4:50pretty much everything to let you run
4:52everything as close to the metal as it's
4:54possible, you know, they let you install
4:57pretty much anything you want on any
4:59hardware you want any time, and you know, a
5:03whole range of prices.
5:04And that's what's made those companies
5:06really successful. And sass companies, on
5:08the other hand, I've sort of taken
5:10advantage of that technology. And they've
5:12built systems and software on top of that.
5:15And it's allowed them to build software at
5:17scales never seen before.
5:19So if you take Salesforce, for example,
5:21they build an absolutely huge platform, the
5:23Salesforce platform that's built on top of
5:25AWS. And so these guys are sort of building
5:28applications.
5:30Okay. And those applications do a whole
5:33plethora of things. So I'll put a Sales
5:36force here, I just put SF for Salesforce.
5:39And, but essentially, so many services we
5:40use today are actually very much like this.
5:43If you take YouTube as an example, there's
5:46no desktop app for YouTube is simply a
5:48browser.
5:49And in many ways, that's a SAS based video
5:51player, okay, everything is done through
5:53the internet, you go to website, you play
5:55and you experience everything on the
5:57platform in that sort of mechanism. Now,
6:00Salesforce has built its entire platform,
6:03pretty much in the SAS model.
6:05So there's, there's not really a time where
6:07, as a Salesforce admin, you have to worry
6:09about things like server specs and all that
6:11kind of stuff. So everything is sort of
6:13very, very simplified in the SAS world, it
6:15's essentially the customer just gets access
6:18to something via login.
6:20And once they get access, they can start
6:22adding their users. And Salesforce in this
6:25particular instance, take care of
6:27everything else, okay. Whereas if you're
6:29going to run Tableau server, say on AWS,
6:32you still have to worry about what specs
6:34you're going to run all of that kind of
6:36stuff and then put it on there.
6:36Now, let's get back to Tableau. Because
6:38what Tableau have done in the most recent
6:40years, is they've actually been trying to
6:42if I just sort of take a different color
6:43and just take a blue color here, they've
6:45actually been trying to go over to this
6:47world.
6:48Okay. And so this company born in the
6:50desktop and on premise era, is sort of been
6:53slowly transitioning itself over to the
6:56cloud. And that's been accelerated even
6:58more by the fact they're now owned by Sales
7:01force. So Salesforce acquired Tableau, just
7:04probably over two years ago.
7:05And so this I feel has actually accelerated
7:07that change in sort of order for Tableau to
7:10integrate itself for the Salesforce
7:12platform, it has to natively be cloud ready
7:15. And so there's been an interesting sort of
7:18shift and this shift has slowly been
7:20happening.
7:22Okay, let's go back to the previous color
7:24pen, whatever that was. Now, if we look at
7:26desktop, desktop is still predominantly an
7:29altering experience. And therefore, it's
7:31still predominantly, you know, runs best on
7:34the desktop, it runs best on machine.
7:37And the web edit experience, web authoring
7:39experience is catching up. But nonetheless,
7:42it's still a mostly on premise piece of
7:45software.
7:46Now, Tableau server, on the other hand, has
7:48actually had a another part of it, which is
7:50Tableau online. So Tableau server is
7:52essentially a piece of software, you
7:55install it, you run it on your own servers
7:57on premise or in the cloud.
7:59And then once you basically set it up, you
8:01're responsible for managing the
8:02infrastructure. Tableau online, however,
8:05has actually been, you know, very
8:07interesting addition, because it was added
8:09now, I think, five years ago.
8:11And it sort of sits firmly in this space.
8:13Okay, so Tableau online sits firmly over in
8:16the SAS side. If I just keep drawing a line
8:19, and you know, this is an awful diagram.
8:21But nevertheless, this is what we're going
8:23to do.
8:24Online sits firmly on this side. And so the
8:26problem we have here is that we've actually
8:29got a company that's transitioning has some
8:32of its products in the you know, SAS world
8:34has a large legacy in the on premise world.
8:38And it's desperately trying to shift from
8:40one side to the other. The reason I say
8:42desperately is because if you look at all
8:44the features that Tableau are focusing
8:46their energy on, and a lot of the sort of
8:48design constraints that you'd typically
8:52give to you know, an architect to build
8:54something tend to focus and assume that you
8:57're running this stuff in a cloud
8:59environment.
9:00So in the olden days, whenever you added a
9:01new feature, the first thing a server admin
9:03would ask is, how much resources is that
9:05going to use? That's a classic question. If
9:08you're on a core license, you're still
9:09asking that question. And if you've, you
9:11know, still running Tableau server on
9:13premise, that is probably what your server
9:15admin is focused on.
9:16What is my background are going to be doing
9:18? How much resources is it going to be using
9:20? And where is all my sort of compute time
9:23going to be going and if you're running
9:25this in a server cluster, you're probably
9:27sharing that with you know, other resources
9:30. So you do care about these stuff, because,
9:31you know, at a high level, you care about
9:32the cost of running all your infrastructure
9:33, and making sure it's as cost effective as
9:36possible.
9:37However, if you're running on Tableau
9:38online, you just don't ask that question,
9:41you get a flat price per person on a
9:42subscription basis. And whenever Tableau
9:45adds a feature, what you care about is does
9:47it work? And will it sort of serve the
9:49needs that I have now, Tableau online does
9:52have some limits, but those limits are
9:54pretty hard to reach, I'll maybe put a link
9:55to them on screen right now.
9:57And so it's really been fascinating in the
9:59last year to see Tableau add more and more
10:02features that really assume that most
10:05companies are running their Tableau servers
10:07in a cloud infrastructure sort of setup,
10:10because Tableau online itself runs in a
10:12cloud setup.
10:14Now, the last thing I want to emphasize
10:16here is that as we move to a world where
10:19Tableau is also trying to serve a new
10:21audience, it's so much easier for them to
10:24serve that audience, if they have a SaaS
10:27offering, because the benefit of having a S
10:29aaS offering is essentially all your
10:31customers are operating on your platform.
10:35Let's say you have Tableau online deployed
10:37at one company, and you have Tableau online
10:39deployed in another company, they're all
10:41essentially running on the same hardware.
10:44And because of that, you get to see how it
10:45's being used, you can optimize it, you can
10:47optimize the resources for the things that
10:49does the most at the times it does it.
10:52And, you know, I know Tableau online runs
10:54on AWS, so they are able to scale these
10:57things up and down, it runs across borders.
11:00And it's a really fascinating sort of
11:02problem to have, because we now starting to
11:05see features that squarely place themselves
11:07in the world of Tableau online.
11:10Because if you try and sort of deploy all
11:11these wonderful features on Tableau server,
11:14the thing you're going to keep asking
11:15yourself is, how many resources are these
11:18being used? And so we're not talking about,
11:20you know, processes that are going to be
11:22running, you know, tons of backgrounds,
11:24background is doing tons of things at a
11:26time.
11:27But it's, it's interesting to see the
11:28incremental shifts that are being made
11:30feature release after feature release.
11:33And then the other thing is, obviously,
11:34Tableau is pushed to the browser. Now, this
11:37is a really interesting thing, because a
11:39non premise company has to sort of deal
11:40with two problems.
11:42And the first is getting the software past
11:44it in government. And the second is
11:46actually selling the software, so you have
11:48to convince someone to buy it.
11:50And the third thing is getting people to
11:51try adoption, it's very, very difficult to
11:54actually make sure that once someone has
11:55bought it, and they've agreed to, you know,
11:58deploy it, and to actually deploy it takes
12:00time, and then to actually give people the
12:02license key, so they get access to the
12:04thing they've paid for also takes time.
12:06So that is a massive chunk of resource that
12:08Tableau don't want to keep spending time,
12:10wasting time sort of getting into. And so,
12:13again, the on premise world poses a real
12:15challenge.
12:16It makes much more sense if let's say when
12:18your company gives you access to Tableau,
12:20they simply send you a link, you log in via
12:22email, and boom, you've got access to
12:24everything you need, an editing experience,
12:27an authoring experience, a sharing
12:29experience, and even a data prep experience
12:32all delivered through the browser.
12:34It just cuts out so many middlemen. And it
12:36also allows people to try the product. And
12:38it also allows Tableau to offer some sort
12:40of metrics back to users. So one of the
12:42problems you have with adoption is that it
12:44's really hard to see who's actually using
12:46it, and how they're working.
12:49And in an on premise world, that data is
12:51very hard to sort of get hold of, because
12:53essentially, you know, Tableau have sort of
12:55got to ask you to send over your logs, and
12:58give you sort of things like status reports
13:00and workbooks to pull this stuff out of
13:02Postgres and analyze it.
13:04It's just a lot of effort. And Tableau
13:05Online, the world is very different, they
13:06actually get to see this, they can they can
13:08see it at a pretty granular level, although
13:10they can't see the data that you're looking
13:11at, they can see sort of the behaviors, who
13:14's logging in, when they're logging in,
13:17what kind of their license, you know,
13:18estate are they using, and then they can
13:20use this information to better serve
13:22customers. So if a customer goes up to
13:24Tableau and say, hey, we're not really
13:26enjoying this feature, it's not really
13:27doing the thing for us, Tableau can
13:30probably better diagnose why, because they
13:32can actually see the back end metrics of
13:33what's going on.
13:34So we've got a company that is desperately
13:36trying to move from the on premise world to
13:39the SaaS world. And the problems now start
13:42to rise, because a large part of their
13:44customer base has actually existed in the
13:47legacy world.
13:49So what I want to do now is talk about the
13:51impact that this change has. And I'm going
13:54to go back to the quote that I started this
13:56video with the very end, I just want you to
13:57keep that in mind, because I think it is an
13:59important quote, and we'll get back to it a
14:01little later on.
14:03So the last thing I want to do is just go
14:04through each of the products and just show
14:06you how they're shifting to this SaaS world
14:08. So first of all, let's start with desktop,
14:11we've got web authoring that is catching on
14:13pace, it's actually been catching on for a
14:16while.
14:16But it's quickly adding features almost
14:18every release, there is a web authoring
14:20edition. And the biggest hurdle at the
14:22moment is formatting, sort of really bes
14:23poke formatting is still quite difficult.
14:26But in the last year, it's actually sort of
14:28come along a really, really long way, you
14:30can do a lot of things, you can start your
14:32experience in web authoring and finish it
14:34in desktop. Now, you can sort of make
14:36content in both places, you can edit
14:38content in both places, it's really, really
14:40come a long way.
14:41Of course, the issue is that we've all got
14:43the experience of desktop that's nice and
14:45crispy. So that is the standard they have
14:47to match. When they deliver web authoring,
14:49it has to really match the experience that
14:51you're seeing.
14:52In fact, it has to do more than that has to
14:54be a better experience. When you start
14:56doing things through the browser, people
14:57have a higher standard of what they expect.
14:59Because of course, we all spend time on the
15:01internet. And the companies that set the
15:03standard are companies like Apple, Google,
15:05Facebook, Microsoft.
15:07So that's the standard we sort of expect,
15:09okay. And I have to say Salesforce is not
15:12at that standard yet the Salesforce
15:14interface can sometimes feel like it was
15:17built in 1996, and can sometimes feel like
15:20it's super clunky. So in many ways, Tableau
15:22is probably ahead of the curve on this one,
15:22but they still have to meet that standard.
15:24Okay.
15:25So desktop is slowly transitioning to the
15:27web authoring experience. We've also got
15:29Tableau prep. Now Tableau prep was
15:31interesting because it was actually built
15:33as a web application, it uses this
15:35technology called electron, essentially
15:37means that it's been built using web
15:40technology and then packaged to behave like
15:42a desktop application.
15:44So although it launches a desktop
15:45application, it was actually packaged using
15:47web technology and is built using web
15:49technology. And that's why it was one of
15:51the first products to go fully web altering
15:53when that was launched. And that's why it's
15:56probably feels native in the browser, in
15:59the same way that it sort of works on
16:00desktop now, sort of been encumbered by
16:04growing pains because it's a new product,
16:05they're slowly catching up with the, you
16:07know, feature list, they need to catch up
16:09with to make it the product that people
16:11wanted to use.
16:12But it's very much well on its way this way
16:14. And it started in the desktop sort of
16:16experience. But I'd actually firmly, if I
16:19go back a couple of steps, I'd actually
16:21firmly put Tableau prep over here on the
16:23side because it's actually been
16:25predominantly designed in that world. And
16:28so it works in that world. And today does
16:31have a pretty comparable web authoring
16:33experience that is matching the desktop
16:35experience because it's a web app. Okay.
16:38Now, we've got desktop, which is well on
16:40its way to the left, it's not there yet
16:42still has some way to go. Tableau Online is
16:44already over here on the left, which just
16:46leaves server here on the right hand side.
16:49Now there's a bunch of other products,
16:50things like Tableau Mobile, they sort of,
16:52you know, live in a different world, they
16:54live in sort of the app development world.
16:56And that's always different because you
16:57know, application frameworks change on a
16:59day to day basis.
17:01But if we look at other things, if we start
17:03to look at things like the developer API's,
17:05the technologies that Tableau have made
17:07available to use on their platform, they've
17:10actually been slowly incrementally adding
17:12these to enable Tableau to talk to other
17:14technologies.
17:15Right before Salesforce acquired Tableau,
17:17there was a real big push to things like
17:19extensions, and galleries for different
17:21types of connections. And more recently, we
17:24're seeing this sort of accelerate and
17:26actually Tableau is using some of this
17:28technology to build its own internal
17:31features.
17:31And so, again, if we look at things like
17:33API's, and developer sort of access, well,
17:36that again is actually very much sort of
17:39living in this world, I'm going to put it
17:42there because it is it's very new stuff.
17:45And it is designed to sort of meet this
17:45more web centric audience, more developer
17:47centric audience, who do run more in this
17:50sort of software as a service setup.
17:53A good example is embedding, for example,
17:55if you're going to embed Tableau in a
17:57platform, you're typically going to be
17:59embedding it in what's considered a SaaS
18:01platform, because you're not asking someone
18:03to install the Tableau server, and set it
18:05all up, all you're doing is you're setting
18:07up the environment, you're going to install
18:09that stuff in your own infrastructure.
18:11And you're just going to set that up and
18:13then sell that experience to someone else
18:15through a username and a login. So again,
18:18the API's all the developer things, sort of
18:20squarely sit here in the SaaS world. Okay.
18:23So when we look at the Tableau of today,
18:25really not much left of its old heritage.
18:27Now, of course, this is not really the case
18:29, because of course, there's still a lot of
18:31people that use desktop that use server.
18:33And so I think what's really interesting is
18:36how this transition is going to change
18:38relationship that the Tableau has with all
18:40of its stakeholders.
18:42So enough sort of rambling on for me. Let's
18:45talk a little bit about the change that's
18:46going to be happening, and how I think it
18:48impacts different groups. Okay.
18:51The main groups we're going to talk about
18:52are customers, and the partners that work
18:54with Tableau, whether they're technology
18:57partners, or you know, partners that sell
18:59helps all the product resellers.
19:01And then lastly, the community, you know,
19:03the people who love the products go to
19:05conference and so on and so forth. So first
19:07, let's start with customers. Well, the
19:10interesting thing is customers buy Tableau
19:12all the time.
19:13And one of the interesting shifts is, you
19:15know, the longest serving customers have
19:17typically come from this on premise world,
19:19you know, you get a piece of software, you
19:21install it, and you're happy, and does
19:23everything you wanted to do.
19:25Those customers have sort of been educated
19:26that, you know, when new version of Tableau
19:28, they get everything at once. And so in the
19:30last few years, that hasn't sort of been
19:33quite the case.
19:34And Tableau started to add new pricing
19:36tiers, new add ons, new plugins, and that's
19:39sort of been a real challenge for some
19:41customers, especially the addition more
19:43recently of Einstein analytics, which has
19:46completely knocked the top off all the
19:48pricing that you normally get for add ons.
19:51Most of the pricing add ons are you know,
19:52the 510 dollar mark, and then this one
19:55comes in and it's like $25 per user. And
19:57even if they're not using, you know, the
19:59particular features, it's just basically
20:01the number of users that are actually on
20:03the server, or what this is priced at, I'll
20:06put it up on the screen.
20:07And so it's super fascinating to see this
20:09sort of transition. Now that said, Tableau
20:11has also been acquired by Salesforce. So
20:14there's also a whole new swathe of
20:16customers that are kind of used to this way
20:18of pricing used to this behavior.
20:21So on one hand, you've got a big group of
20:23customers who are sort of starting to get
20:25itchy feet about the way that Tableau is
20:27managing its pricing and how it's going.
20:30And on the other hand, you've also got you
20:32know, competitors like Power BI seizing
20:34this moment, changing their pricing models,
20:36going in real hard on certain pitches, and
20:39sort of seizing this opportunity, this sort
20:41of disruption to make new products and also
20:44approach customers that have typically been
20:46using Tableau and shifting them away from
20:48Tableau to their platforms.
20:49Of course, Microsoft have the advantage of
20:51something like Azure, they can sort of
20:53bundle Power BI and all these other tools
20:55very easily without really the customer
20:57noticing how they've moved this sort of
20:59pricing models around to sort of get that
21:01customer on board.
21:03Now, the final thing is, customers will
21:05come and go, it's actually very easy in a S
21:08aaS world to drop a tool, what starts to
21:11become really hard is once you've heavily
21:14invested in it, the exit costs start to
21:17outweigh the benefits of any new platform
21:20that might come in.
21:22And so the really difficult thing for Table
21:25au now with their customers is holding on to
21:28them during this transition, that's
21:30actually the biggest key factor here. Table
21:34au can sort of successfully navigate this
21:34and keep their customers and not only that
21:35gain new customers, then they'll start to
21:37get this sort of annoying effect in
21:39enterprise technology where you have lock
21:41in where it becomes sort of prohibitive to
21:43leave because you've invested so much
21:45energy and time into the infrastructure and
21:48into the sort of ecosystem that to sort of
21:51pull yourself away from it becomes really
21:51difficult.
21:51And then the other big challenge is people
21:56who work with Tableau. I think this is
22:01probably a more interesting field for me
22:03personally because as a consultant, as a
22:06member of the community, the key thing that
22:10really changes here is relationships.
22:14So the relationships we have with Tableau,
22:16whether it's personal relationships, people
22:18we talk to, people we know in the company,
22:20all the way to the relationships we have
22:22with things like product development, sort
22:24of the more abstract side of the
22:25relationship model, that becomes a little
22:28bit more tricky, because it's really still
22:31not clear how those things are going to
22:32land.
22:33And that's sort of where a lot of the
22:34uncertainty is sort of happening. Whilst it
22:37's clear that Tableau has been acquired by
22:39Salesforce, I feel like we're still really
22:41waiting to see the real impact of this.
22:44Maybe internally at Tableau, people have
22:45seen this impact.
22:46But I feel like outside, just, you know, as
22:48a partners as consultants, people who work
22:50with Tableau, who go to things like cert
22:53ifications and events and stuff, we're still
22:55just starting to see the change that have
22:57take effect.
22:59And so it's really important over the next
23:01two to three years to just watch how that
23:03relationship changes, whether Salesforce
23:05has a big impact on that relationship, and
23:08also whether the Salesforce community makes
23:10a move into the Tableau community as well.
23:13That's also a really important dynamic,
23:14where we see people who've had really
23:16strong relationships with Salesforce, as it
23:18will move into the Tableau space as well.
23:20Or will it be vice versa, where people with
23:22good Tableau relationship move closer to
23:24Salesforce?
23:25That's always an interesting sort of
23:26dynamic to look out for. Now, the final one
23:28is the impact on the community at large.
23:31And when I talk about community, I just
23:32mean everyone who loves the product,
23:33everyone who champions the product,
23:36everyone who uses the product.
23:38And essentially, this also includes
23:39customers, because the community is not
23:42about customers, the community is actually
23:44about the energy and the ethos around the
23:46people that use the product.
23:48I always say this to a lot of people, which
23:50is the people who buy Tableau don't
23:53necessarily use Tableau. Okay, the people
23:56who make the decision to buy the really big
23:58deployments of Tableau probably never have
24:00to open the product in their lives.
24:03And whilst many will do that, I think it's
24:05a good thing to do that to see a demo to
24:07see it working. When it actually comes to
24:10deploying it. It's actually the people on
24:12the ground who do the heavy lifting with
24:13these platforms.
24:15And so it's, it's very important to
24:16understand when we talk about community, we
24:19're largely talking about people who are
24:21just involved in the ecosystem, people who
24:23've been told that the company is getting
24:25Tableau, start learning it, get involved,
24:27go to some music groups, learn it, get
24:30certified.
24:31Those are the members of the community. And
24:33I think the tough thing for the community
24:35going forward is basically the quote I said
24:38at the beginning, okay.
24:40And let me repeat that quote, it's
24:41essentially you're only as young as the
24:44last time you changed your mind. Okay, that
24:46's a quote by Timothy Leary. And I think
24:47that's super important because we're at
24:50this really important junction. Okay.
24:53And we do need to sort of get out of our
24:55old habits and start to reevaluate re
24:57evaluate the product again, almost relearn
25:01Tableau. It's really, really important
25:03because as this relationship changes, there
25:06's two fundamental questions.
25:08Is Tableau heading in a direction that, you
25:10know, suits me as an individual? Is Tableau
25:12continuing to give me the product that I
25:14want to use and love and enjoy using that I
25:16can shout about from the rooftops as a
25:18proud community member?
25:20And those are two questions that I think
25:21some people are starting to have this
25:23challenge and sort of realize actually, you
25:25know, in some places it is, and in some
25:27places it's not.
25:29And if we sort of don't monitor that
25:30transition, and we don't sort of pro
25:32actively, you know, open ourselves to change
25:34as well, you know, at the end of the day,
25:36we have to sort of be explicit and
25:37understand that the product might go in a
25:39direction we don't like.
25:42But it might help other people who are not
25:44yet part of the analytics and data viz
25:46community. And so, for the good of the
25:49community, it actually might be better if
25:51let's say Tableau focus less on authors and
25:54creators, and more on analysts, people who
25:57use the reports
25:58and helping them use the product. And so
26:01that to me is the friction point. Release
26:03after release. More recently, we're seeing
26:05more features that are pitched, I'm going
26:07to say at the analyst.
26:10And I think that is where we have to start
26:12opening our minds to change, we have to
26:14sort of start thinking and evolving our
26:16thinking.
26:17It makes sense for Tableau to move in this
26:19direction, it has to keep evolving, it has
26:21to keep learning, and they do have to keep
26:23trying new things. It's a doggy dog world
26:25out there, licenses don't sell themselves.
26:28And if they're going to continue to make a
26:29product we love, they need to get money and
26:31they need to be paid to do it.
26:33But in order to do that, they are going to
26:35have to disappoint some of the existing
26:38customers. And I think we as users, we as
26:40community members have to be prepared for
26:43that.
26:44And we just have to accept it in some cases
26:46, okay. And then we have to sort of evaluate
26:48whether we want to start using other tools
26:50that are maybe cheaper, better, easier,
26:52whatever.
26:53If something comes along that is better,
26:55then we also have to be open that you know
26:56Tableau maybe not be doing what we want.
26:59But likewise, Tableau also have to step up
27:01to the challenge and they have to sort of
27:03prove to us that they're going to continue
27:05to earn the right to call us members of
27:07their community, because that doesn't come
27:09for free.
27:10They have to make a good product, we have
27:11to love it. And at the end of the day, we
27:13have to love it so much that we tell
27:15everyone else to use it.
27:17And that's, you know, one of the reasons I
27:18make videos because I love the product. And
27:20if I stop having that passion, I'll stop
27:21making the videos and I'll stop helping
27:23people learn how to use it.
27:25And that's my friend is how a community
27:27dies. Okay, so, man, I think I've probably
27:30rambled way too long for this video, but
27:32hopefully, hopefully, hopefully I've maybe
27:35scratched the surface on trying to explain
27:38what's changing, why it's changing.
27:39And how it might impact you as a community
27:41member, or as someone who's worked with
27:43Tableau in the past. Okay. Thanks for
27:46watching. I might even have to rerecord
27:48this but like who knows, you'll never know
27:51how many takes of this I did.
27:53But hopefully, you've enjoyed this video,
27:54and I'll catch you in the next one.
27:56you the next one.
27:57you
27:59(upbeat music)
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