During the past seven years we’ve accumulated a considerable amount of experience working on Tableau deployments in nearly every major vertical market. Some of those clients had no knowledge of data visualization best practices, database architecture, or SQL–but they saw a “very cool” demonstration of Tableau in action and felt it could help them make more informed decision.
Clients sometimes have a very precisely defined project deliverables. Being precise about project objectives and desired outcomes is good but defining rigid styles of presenting the can result in dashboards and visualizations that don’t fully utilize Tableau’s capabilities. This happens when clients embark on a project before they have an understanding of the tool.
The goal of writing Tableau Your Data! was to provide new Tableau users with a reference book including introductory, intermediate, and selected advanced topics covering Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server. Best practices are discussed and examples are provided that take you step-by-step through each technique. We’ve includes a detailed function reference with code samples and explanations. In addition, case studies highlight use cases that may provide additional insight.
Because Tableau Software provides major new releases every 12-15 months–and does significant maintenance releases that provide enhanced capabilities even more frequently–the book’s companion website will highlight these changes and provide examples of new features. The companion website also includes sample materials that will help you work through the examples contained in the book.
You can effectively use Tableau in hours. Proficiency can be achieved in days. Advanced mastery requires additional time. I hope you find that Tableau Your Data! reduces your time for success for each stage of you and your team’s progression to mastery.
Dan Murray
