HOW TABLEAU CHANGED MY LIFETableau Seattle Customer Event

INTRODUCTION

@russellspangler

russellspangler@gmail.com

www.linkedin.com/in/russellspangler/

RUSSELL SPANGLERGlobal EHS Business Intelligence Manager

@ Amazon

• 6 Years of Tableau server & desktop experience

• Winner of 2016 Iron Viz “Food Fight” competition

• 2016 Iron Viz championship contestant

http://public.tableau.com/profile/russell.spangler

My organization is hiring data specialist! (Ask me for the details)

CINCINNATI TO SEATTLE

Tableau helped me land

my job!(My last 3 companies had purchased

Tableau and needed someone to lead

the growth)

Cincinnati to Seattle2,327miles

Car: 35 hours

Train: 2 days 11 hours

Walking: 32 days

Biking: 9 days

FAR FROM HOME

https://www.yelp.com/biz/collective-espresso-cincinnati

HOW I GOT HERE

I’m a data person.

My Experience

Masters of Science, Information Systems

Bachelor of Science, Information Systems

MY BACKGROUND

Minitab

Excel

Crystal Reports

SSRS

Microstrategy

SAS/JMP

COBOL

Perl

VB6

Java

ASP.net/C#

SQL

SQL

Analytics (R)

Python

Data Visualization (Tableau)

Graphic Design

Cloud based tools (AWS / Azure)

Recommendations

http://stevensanne.com/data-viz-in-6-weeks-wk-3-perception-cognition/ http://blog.fusioncharts.com/2014/03/how-we-decode-visual-information-podv/

Preattentive ATTRIBUTES

Preattentive attributes to help create focus on the important pieces

• Use attributes to focus attention within your design

• Combine multiple attributes to enforce focus

• Color & Shapes (Red down arrow)

• Length & Color (Highest value bar with a bright color)

PreATTENTIVE ATTRIBUTE TEST

How Many 5’s?

DATA VISUALIZATION 101

How Many 5’s?

(Time to Insight)

Data visualization principals make it easier to

understand data

DATA VISUALIZATION 101

HOW I GOT HERE

August 2013 – currently 42K views

MY FIRST PUBLIC VIZ

EVERYONE STARTS SOMEWHERE

2016 Food Fight Iron Viz Feeder

Contest WinnerCurrently 34K views

Learn how to build the viz:

http://www.slideshare.net/RussellSpangl

er/seatug-presentation-viz-amp-share-

seattle-tableau-user-group

Inspired by Sushi Kashiba http://www.yelp.com/biz/sushi-kashiba-seattle

PEOPLE LOVE TABLEAU

Notable Features

• Custom Polygons

• Interactive Voting System

• Custom Icons

• Graphic Design

• Hand built dataset

Visible Areas

• Charts & Graphs

• Tableau Workbooks

• Structured Datasets

• Tangible End Results

Note: The Awesome Part of Data Visualization

Non-Visible Areas

• Data Hygiene

• Data Management

• ETL

• Structuring Data

• Database Design & Management

• Organizing & Locating Data Sources

• Non-Tangible “Non-IT” End Results

Note: Non-Glorious Part of Data Visualization

DATA ICEBERG

Sketching or Wire Framing.

Recommended to help reduce

getting stuck during the

building process. Understand

the focus/goal of the report.

SKETCH & FOCUS

Connect to Data and Build.

Review your data before

building.

DEVELOPMENT

Revisit and Tweak.

Use end-user feedback to help

finalize your design. Make sure

your end-users are happy with

the report.

FEEDBACK

Review Your Creation.

Does your design make it

easy to answer the questions

you are trying to solve?

REVIEW

Tip: During development build the more difficult visuals first to confirm your data structure

MY PROCESS

WHAT IS TABLEAU

• Better charts and graphs

• Advanced analytics

• Requires data to be

structured

VISUALS

• Calculated measures

• Custom data connections

• Command line server

administration and automation

PROGRAMMING

• Data visualization tool

• Server product provides a

centralized reporting portal

• Scalable server architecture

Software

• R integration

• Basic forecasting

• Drag and drop interface

DATA MINING

• Interactive (dashboard actions)

• Allows discovery

Extras

• Copy & paste

• Live connection

• Extract (fast snapshot /

refreshable)

• Predefined data connections

(easy to setup data feeds)

DATA

WHY IS TABLEAU AWESOME

Leverage Tableau’s strengths

• Keep it Simple: basic chart types (lines & bars) with a high level of execution

• Design: Make it look great (at least better than Excel)

• Color: Use a modern but simple color palette

• Create Interactivity: Use dashboard actions

• Make it Meaningful: Focus on the end user and goals

• Build Trust: double check your data & numbers

The 30* second test

• Dashboards should be clear and easy to understand (if you don’t know what

you are looking at within 30 seconds, the design could be too complicated)

• *Exact timing target varies

FIRST REPORT STRATEGY

WAKE UP CALL

The Test

• Display a current report and ask questions regarding the data

• Time how long it takes for people to answer

• Display a newly designed report and ask similar questions regarding the data

• Time the results & compare

Time to Insight (quantify your return!)

• The time it take end users to answer their questions

• The value of time of end users and the reduction of time your reports can provide

• 1 report reduces 15 minutes of work for 20 end users each week = savings of 5 hrs/wk or 260

hrs/yr

• The higher up the end user is in the organization normally equates for the need for faster

insights

Tip: Reach the “AHA” moment when people realize current reports might not be the best

TEST YOUR VIZ

Non-analytical users want to use Tableau to understand their data

Areas of interest

• Self-service reporting

• Real-time reports

• Remove dependency on developers

• Centralized reporting portals

• Large amounts of data

• Variety of data sources

• Compatibility with AWS / cloud products

• Development speed / rapid prototypes

• Intuitive features for users

• Automation capability

• Interactive reports / data discovery

MY EXPERIENCE

Hurdles

• Legacy products and legacy reports

• Cultural change for better data

visualization practices

• Cost

• Large scale data management

• Security

• Trust in the data and the new product

EC2 (recommend minimum r3.2xlarge, <25 users)Tableau Server CPU or user licensing structure

S3 (EBS for performance file storage)File storage and expanding EC2 storage

RDS General database requirements (Amazon Aurora for increased performance)

Redshift Large amounts of data and high-end database performance

Data Pipeline Scheduled automated ETL tasks

CloudWatch, Loading Balancing, Lambda, and SNS Additional functionality

TABLEAU AWS architecture

Successful Implementation Benefits

• Reduced server administration

• Automated backups

• Scalable architecture

• High availability across multiple regions

• Automated alerts

• Scheduled data import & export processes

• Ability to handle large amounts of data (‘big data solution’)

• Triggerable processes based on custom criteria

• Downgrade or upgrade with only a few clicks

Having a strong data backend allows Tableau server to focus on rendering

visualizations

THE PAYOFF

Create a positive environment for data visualization growth

• Be a resource for internal tableau support

• Host open office hours and training sessions

• Encourage training and additional educational opportunities

Support growth in

• Data modeling & structure

• SQL

• Data visualization best practices

• Graphical design

• Data analytics

• Journalism

Tip: Spend time each week and visit a few websites & blogs

BUILD A CULTURE

Running Tableau Server on Amazon AWShttp://kb.tableau.com/articles/knowledgebase/running-tableau-server-on-amazon-aws

Distributed Tableau Server Environments http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/distrib.htm

Tableau Server on AWS (AWS whitepaper) https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/tableau-server-on-aws.pdf

Tableau Server System Requirementshttp://www.tableau.com/products/techspecs#server

Tableau & Redshift Portalhttp://www.tableau.com/stories/topic/amazon-redshift-and-aws

Tableau Enterprise Deploymentshttp://www.tableau.com/drive

AWS offers free-tier

usage for some

products!

https://aws.amazon.com/redshift/

AWS & TABLEAU RESOURCES

Modern Approach Enterprise Analytics

http://www.tableau.com/community/events/modern-approach-enterprise-analytics

Tableau Public Authors, Gallery, and Viz of the Day

https://public.tableau.com/s/gallery

Tableau Help Resources (Quick Start, Videos, and Forums)

http://www.tableau.com/learn

http://www.tableau.com/support/manuals/quickstart

Tableau Forums & User Groups

https://community.tableau.com/community/forums

https://community.tableau.com/community/groups

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

ThankS!