# Best features showcased at Tableau Conference 2025

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2025-04-19
- **Format:** Video · 31 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, AI & ML, Industry trends
- **Tools:** dbt; Tableau (ai, cloud, extensions, formatting, maps, parameters, prep, pulse, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/best-features-showcased-at-tableau-conference-2025
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg5dQ-G2OvY

I'm back for day two of Tableau Conference 2025, this time recapping Devs on Stage and the new Devs on Stage Labs with a colleague. We run through the standout features across the three dev segments, from Prep and analytical page extensions to colour palette themes, accessibility, the DBT connector and experimental ideas like Tableau Sketch.

## Key takeaways

- Devs on Stage returned as its own segment this year, with a new Devs on Stage Labs format where teams showed very early builds and asked the audience to vote on direction rather than pledging to ship them.
- Roughly 90% of what was shown targeted core Tableau, with AI capability infused throughout to demonstrate why the analyst role and agentic workflows are changing.
- Standout core features included viewport parameters, analytical page extensions, colour palette themes you can build and save in-product, dynamic colour ranges powered by parameters, accessibility narration and keyboard navigation, rounded corners, a recycle bin and an activity log.
- The DBT connector behaves more like a cube (you can't edit the model in Tableau) and oddly references Tableau Bridge, while the Google Sheets/Slides plugin appears to fork the data source rather than maintain a live two-way link.
- None of the features carried release dates this year, so expect maybe a third to ship within twelve months, with the everything-on-Tableau-Next dependency a key risk to delivery.

## Chapters

- 0:00 Devs on Stage format and Labs
- 2:36 AI infused into core Tableau
- 4:45 Dev One: Prep, Python and extensions
- 9:19 Dev Two: Pulse, colour and accessibility
- 15:21 Dev Three: identity, recycle bin, DBT
- 21:34 Devs on Stage Labs experiments
- 28:52 Will it ship? Final verdict

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/best-features-showcased-at-tableau-conference-2025

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena