{"id":6276,"date":"2011-11-22T06:17:11","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T06:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/index.php\/post\/looking-kool-aid-tableau-conference\/"},"modified":"2011-11-22T06:17:11","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T06:17:11","slug":"looking-kool-aid-tableau-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/looking-kool-aid-tableau-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for Kool-Aid at the Tableau conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s no secret that some people hear about Tableau\u2019s passionate users and wonder what all the fuss is about. Back in June, in fact, one skeptical industry analyst tweeted to a Tableau fan, \u201cPal, you seem to have had a bit too much Tableau Kool-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tableau users I know just shrug. People who say things like that find passion for data suspicious.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s no secret that some people hear about Tableau\u2019s passionate users and wonder what all the fuss is about. Back in June, in fact, one skeptical industry analyst tweeted to a Tableau fan, \u201cPal, you seem to have had a bit too much Tableau Kool-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tableau users I know just shrug. People who say things like that find passion for data suspicious.<\/p>\n

Then Tableau itself invited a delegation of industry analysts, most of them from the traditional end of BI, to its annual conference at the Encore hotel in Las Vegas. The company hopes for their blessing to make that leap across the chasm from early adoption to early majority.<\/p>\n

My big question: Would the industry \u201cinfluencers\u201d and Tableau\u2019s influential users play nice together?<\/p>\n

I hang out with both groups, the doubters and the devoted. I do periodic retreats to TDWI and other events. I\u2019ve also been an observer of Tableau since 2008 when I blogged that \u201cTableau is the new Apple.\u201d I have no stake in Tableau\u2019s success except that I think it\u2019s a strong part of BI\u2019s dream fulfilled, a bearer of fruit.<\/p>\n

Experts can quibble over its limitations all they want to, but they must acknowledge one thing: It excites users. Few other tools do.<\/p>\n

I spotted trouble on the first morning. In the opening keynote, CEO Christian Chabot had invoked one of his favorite themes: how Tableau would \u201cchange this tired, paternalistic BI order.\u201d As usual, he got applause. To illustrate an anecdote about dairies, he pulled out a bottle of milk and poured himself a glass. Things were going well.<\/p>\n

But about then, an industry expert tweeted from somewhere in the audience. He hinted at a suspicion of Kool-Aid: \u201cIt\u2019s just a visualization tool with publishing capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

He might as well have asked what these 1400 or so nut cases were doing there, packed into that ballroom? Why, going by numbers from Tableau CMO Elissa Fink, did Experian send 17 people, Apple 19, and eBay 35? Did they come for the gambling, the shows, and a sweet sip of delusion?<\/p>\n

Two special meetings with Tableau founders and the delegation of experts went better. As we sipped water from the Encore\u2019s handsome tumblers, Chabot and fellow founders Chris Stolte and Pat Hanrahan talked about business plans and technology. Most of the influencers asked about the technology. We\u2019ll have to watch their blogs for reactions.<\/p>\n

Eventually, we left technology for more interesting, big picture questions. Neil Raden, of Constellation Research, asked how the company would grow and still satisfy the new demands of the broad new audience? Other technology vendors have stumbled on this. I asked a similar question: If they do as everyone expects and offer an IPO, how would their passion and vision endure under the new pressures?<\/p>\n

The gist of both answers: They said they\u2019re not doing this for the money, and they\u2019ll continue to be driven by the same passion for a great tool, and that they\u2019ll be guided by the same integrity. Cynics will scoff, but I believe them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, out on \u201cthe street,\u201d influential Tableau users expressed harsh opinions of the BI regulars.<\/p>\n

One man with long experience in business intelligence and data warehousing, whose employer prohibits public statements, called the general class of BI experts \u201cprocess junkies.\u201d He said, \u201cThey don\u2019t understand that I have this data and I want to understand what it tells me. It doesn\u2019t fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly blunt: \u201cI don\u2019t care what these supposed experts think,\u201d said Dan Murray, a longtime Tableau user and chief operating officer of InterWorks Inc, a fast-growing technology consultancy. The company is listed in the Inc. 5000, and it attributes much of its growth to database development and Tableau visualization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BI people are back where we were a long time ago,\u201d said Murray. \u201cWe\u2019re past that.\u201d To him, the people who really matter in data analysis now are the ones with passion for data analysis. He said, \u201cThose are the superstars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just who the superstars are marks the line between those who\u2019ve had the \u201cKool-Aid\u201d and the BI regulars. Most of the usual experts seem to live in the backend, where database administrators and other geeks rule. Back there, the game is all about process and data hygiene. The experts love to talk about all that, and only a few actually analyze data.<\/p>\n

Up where the data analysts work, it\u2019s all about analyzing data. They take seriously all the factors that the mainstream BI world does \u2014 such as data quality and data governance \u2014 but always with the end in mind, not as ends in themselves.<\/p>\n

Ask them what they like about Tableau and their answers come down to one point: the thing gets out of the way and let them work almost as fast as they can think. It does so far better than any other data tool they\u2019ve known. They feel that the tool is designed with them in mind \u2014 not for any purchaser, not for any security goon, and for not any consultant\u2019s ego.<\/p>\n

They are passionate. I had gone to dinner with a half dozen Tableau users when one wondered aloud about the Las Vegas airport\u2019s on-time record. Someone had his laptop along, loaded with FAA data from an earlier analysis. We found seats in a bar near the casino and looked at the data. I don\u2019t know of many others for whom data analysis beats TV sports.<\/p>\n

We ordered beers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that some people hear about Tableau\u2019s passionate users and wonder what all the fuss is about. Back in June, in fact, one skeptical industry analyst tweeted to a Tableau fan, \u201cPal, you seem to have had a bit too much Tableau Kool-Aid.\u201d Tableau users I know just shrug. People who say things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business-intelligence","7":"category-data-visualization"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartdatacollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}