Explain data for viewers & new enhancements: New in Tableau 2021.2

0:00Hey it's Tim here in 2021.2. Tableau have

0:03enabled explained data for viewers but they

0:05've also given

0:06the explained data interface a massive rev

0:08amp and they've given authors additional

0:10controls as to

0:11how explained data works for the viewers

0:13who can now access the feature. The thing

0:15is though it's

0:16not enabled by default so in this video I'm

0:18going to show you the new interface and how

0:20to set it

0:21up so viewers can use this in their own

0:23exploration of data. Right let's get stuck

0:25in I'm here in

0:26Tableau 2021.2 I'm actually just going to

0:29open the sample superstore workbook this is

0:31a workbook that

0:32everyone has so we can just go ahead and

0:34open it and once this is open I'm just

0:36going to go through

0:37essentially what's changed with explained

0:39data once this opens up and here we are we

0:41have the

0:41executive overview this is a very standard

0:44sort of sample workbook it's pretty much

0:46the only sample

0:47workbook you should use to compare

0:49performance on Tableau server and Tableau

0:51desktop but anyway we

0:52want to go to the product level breakdown

0:55because here we can actually get some

0:57useful analysis for

0:58our data and I know this is the same for

1:01everyone so it's a good place to go now if

1:03I go over here

1:04to the corporate tab you'll see that I have

1:06two data points that are a little bit sort

1:08of

1:09different compared to the other data sets

1:11so as a viewer what I might want to do is

1:13you know

1:14understand why that is what's causing the

1:16behavior to be so different in these

1:17particular data points

1:18and so in the past what you've been able to

1:21do is to just click on the data point and

1:22of course if

1:23there's any actions or filters that of

1:25course changes the visualization but the

1:27key thing here

1:28is the explained data has previously been

1:30in the past sort of not been available for

1:32viewers that's

1:33this option here it's actually been

1:34available for authors so that they can

1:36understand what's going

1:37on and it can sort of help them you know

1:39understand where to go next with their

1:41analysis but now this

1:42option is available for viewers and so when

1:45we click on this little option here we'll

1:47get this

1:48new interface for explained data now you'll

1:50notice a couple of things previously it

1:52used to be a pop

1:53up window where it opened up in the middle

1:54of the window and you could see the

1:56analysis and drag

1:57things around this time around we've got a

1:59new interface item for tableau and I think

2:01this is

2:02actually a bigger deal than it is because

2:04the fact that we've got this whole pane on

2:06the right hand

2:06side suggests that this won't be the only

2:08thing that will live on this right hand

2:10side part of the

2:11pane but nonetheless explained data is the

2:14first thing that we see here and we can of

2:17course see

2:17the different analysis that it's pulled out

2:19now the way explained data works is it does

2:21some

2:21statistical analysis of the fields and it

2:24tries to understand hey what's causing this

2:26particular

2:27data point to behave this way and it does

2:29that by looking at all the fields pulling

2:32out the pertinent

2:33measures that it thinks are important the

2:34person dimension that it thinks is skewing

2:36things and it

2:37tries to summarize that for you in a

2:39detailed view so if we have a look at this

2:40we've got this

2:41explained mark and for the record the

2:43explained mark is always the mark you

2:45selected so this

2:46explained mark is this data point here if I

2:48selected a range of marks I think it would

2:50work

2:50over a broader range but generally speaking

2:52it works better on just one mark because

2:54then you're

2:54sort of focusing in on the question now um

2:58the office supplies hoover stove red

3:00corporate

3:01appliances essentially what's explaining

3:03this particular data point um and then

3:05there's three

3:06values here that's pulled out so profit

3:08sales and profit ratio okay so you're

3:09saying there's a higher

3:10than expected profit and then when you

3:12click on this arrow here on the right hand

3:14side it actually

3:14goes to a new page in this particular pane

3:17and it runs a little query in essence it's

3:19actually

3:20doing some analytics for you the fact that

3:21it runs that query means it's actually quer

3:23ying the data

3:24itself to try and give you the analysis

3:26that it thinks is pertinent and you'll see

3:28here that

3:28there's two key things that are important

3:30so you've got the mark attributes okay so

3:33record

3:33level values and their aggregates in the

3:35data source sample superstore may be

3:37contributing

3:38the value of sum of profit so if I then

3:41open this explanation it says the average

3:43profit here is

3:442179 so basically the average profit for

3:47this uh bunch of items is rather high and

3:50if you notice

3:51that it actually sort of drew a

3:53visualization for me there so it's really

3:55taking me deep into

3:56the analysis and now we're three levels in

3:58deep we've understand look the mark has

4:00this sort of

4:01strange behavior the average profit is

4:03super high and you can actually the really

4:05cool thing is this

4:06is actually a chart you can actually

4:08interact with it and just it's like you're

4:09in a dashboard

4:10and you can actually interact with it and

4:12you can then start to see how this might be

4:14skewing your

4:15data okay the other really cool thing is

4:17this really small icon here where you can

4:19actually

4:19pop this chart out so if you want to bring

4:21out this chart if you click on that icon it

4:24actually

4:24creates the chart for you I don't know what

4:26it's going to do here I haven't actually

4:27tried this

4:28myself I think it creates a new sheet and

4:30there we go it keeps the pane open on the

4:32right hand side

4:33and now we have this exact same chart now

4:35available on the main screen and actually

4:38this

4:38is analysis that you can take on the only

4:40downer here is it's put this label over the

4:42data point

4:43it's sort of not so smart this little label

4:45supposed to be pointed to this data point

4:47and so it just explains that anomaly really

4:49well this is nice if you need to just print

4:51this out

4:51very quickly put this in a pdf or you've

4:53got some edge case data points you've done

4:55some dashboards

4:56and then there's three data points you can

4:58quickly use explain data hopefully to get

5:00at these insights

5:01much much more quickly okay now the key

5:03thing is it's opened up a new view and our

5:06selection has

5:07changed so one thing you'll notice is that

5:09it's telling us just here that your

5:10selection has

5:11changed essentially it's noticed that what

5:13I've picked in my view and generally

5:15speaking if we're

5:16talking about views I'm talking about what

5:18I've picked in this sort of box here in the

5:20space that

5:21I build my visualization it's telling me

5:23that that's changed because that's changed

5:25the analysis

5:27that it's doing which is over here in this

5:29explain data window which I'll just go

5:31behind my face here

5:32is actually no longer accurate okay so it's

5:34basically just telling you hey your

5:36perspective

5:36has changed you might want to reselect

5:38things okay but I don't want to actually do

5:40that what I want

5:41to do is go back to the analysis that I was

5:43doing which is over in product and you can

5:45see that when

5:45I go back here now this little message that

5:48was here is gone so it has some contextual

5:50awareness

5:51of what's going on I'd love a little back

5:53button here in the explain data to take me

5:55back to

5:56where I was doing the analysis but

5:57nevertheless it does remember where you are

5:59and it sends you

6:00back okay so that's the first thing we've

6:02only just done the first bit of analysis

6:04here on mark

6:05attributes the other thing if I just

6:07collapse this in we'll see that we have

6:09relevant measures here so

6:10the measures may be contributing to the

6:13higher sum of profit so basically it's

6:15looking at the average

6:16profit and then it's basically looking at

6:18the sales forecast and the sales so if we

6:20open up the sales

6:21forecast the average self-forecast is

6:23increasing the expected profit of the

6:25explained mark now

6:26Tableau is just doing what it can to

6:28understand your measures so sometimes this

6:31analysis doesn't

6:32sort of quite hit the mark for me because a

6:34sales forecast is a sales forecast how can

6:36that be

6:37increasing the profit it can't so in this

6:39analysis it's just basically looking at the

6:41forecast it

6:42doesn't understand that the sales forecast

6:44and the sales are two different things so

6:45in this case I

6:46can sort of disregard the sales forecast

6:49but I'll show you how to solve that

6:50properly in a second

6:52and if I go to sales here this is the

6:53actual field we're interested in the

6:55average sales is increasing

6:57the expected profit of the explained mark

6:58so in this case I think this is accurate

7:00because this

7:01is not our forecast this is our actual

7:03sales value so in this case you can see yet

7:05another chart and

7:06if I hover over it it gives me the detail

7:08that I need to see there and I can actually

7:10start to work

7:11with it more clearly now you'll notice that

7:13I said before that the sales forecast wasn

7:15't pertinent

7:16so you can actually remove this from the

7:17analysis so let me go I'm actually going to

7:19need to move

7:20my face up here to the top and what I

7:22essentially need to do is you see this

7:24little gear icon when

7:25I click that I get this amazing pop out and

7:27this pop out does a couple of things number

7:29one it

7:30shows me what fields are being used in the

7:32analysis and number two it shows what

7:34explanation types are

7:35actually being computed in this data set

7:37and most importantly it also gives me a

7:40place where I can

7:41actually enable this for viewers so if you

7:43don't tick this box viewers won't be able

7:45to use explain

7:46data when they're doing their analysis so

7:48you can keep this as a creator author only

7:51feature

7:51or if you tick this box it's not ticked by

7:53default you'll actually enable this for

7:55viewers to do their

7:56own insight now when you do that as you've

7:58just seen you know it pulled up sales

8:01forecast as

8:02something that you know is is important

8:04when I know it's not important so you need

8:06to be able to

8:06sort of go in here and curate these things

8:08you might want to change for example some

8:11of the

8:11analysis it's doing you might have a data

8:13set that doesn't lend itself well to

8:15extreme values because

8:16it's a you know in an edge case data set

8:18you might have some sort of analysis that

8:20doesn't make sense

8:21of number of records doesn't make sense

8:23because you're dealing with really large

8:25data sets where

8:26things move around a lot and so although

8:27tableau thinks it's relevant it might not

8:29actually be

8:30relevant because you understand the beta

8:32data better than it does so these are all

8:34things you

8:34can do and when you tick this box allow

8:36explain data to be used in the workbook

8:39when viewed online

8:40you get additional options so you allow all

8:42users to see extreme values explanations

8:44with record

8:44level data and do not show extreme value

8:47explanations so by default this is on do

8:49not

8:50show extreme value definitions essentially

8:52by default tableau is not going to start

8:55talking

8:55about what's happening at the extremes of

8:57your data but it will still show you as a

8:59creator

8:59you'll still be able to do that but if you

9:01want to enable that you can of course tick

9:02that radio

9:03button and it gives you a warning extreme

9:05value explanation display record level

9:07information in

9:08underlying data do not enable extreme

9:10values if your workbook uses sensitive data

9:13so essentially

9:14this is a security thing that you need to

9:16be aware of because if you enable explain

9:18data and then you

9:19don't give people sort of the ability to

9:21drill down to that data and then through

9:22explain data

9:23they're actually able to get to it that's

9:25not going to be a great look so again it's

9:28off by

9:28default so you can't really make this

9:30mistake but just be aware of this warning

9:32that it's really

9:33really important okay so nonetheless you do

9:35get a lot of controls here now before when

9:38i came to

9:38this fields page you'll notice that it didn

9:40't show up i had a little bug and it's now

9:42loaded you can

9:43actually change what's being analyzed so i

9:44can actually go down here to some of sales

9:46forecast

9:47and you'll see that it's an automatic i can

9:49set this to never include this in analysis

9:51because

9:51the forecast is exactly that in this case

9:54it's actually in a forecast based on a

9:56parameter

9:57so it doesn't make any sense to have that

9:58in there essentially it's just a parameter

10:00that lets you

10:00choose the percentage and that changes the

10:03forecast based on ourselves so it doesn't

10:05make

10:05sense to include that in this analysis so

10:07if you click never include you click okay

10:09now that will

10:11never be included in my analysis and so

10:13although it's in here now if i was to click

10:15out again and

10:16i was to reselect things okay so if i was

10:19to go in here and then do this again and

10:21then just do this

10:22and you should see that it will think about

10:25it again and if we go back into profit and

10:29we look

10:29at the sales analysis that it did we should

10:32now notice that the sales forecast is no

10:35longer there

10:36and you can see that that's worked exactly

10:38as described we only have sales in here so

10:40you do

10:40get control but again you've got to spend

10:42the time you've got to invest some energy

10:44into making that

10:45work okay i'm going to move my face back

10:47down here just where i'm used to it being

10:49and i'm just going

10:49to go back so that's just a deep dive into

10:51one of the analysis that it's doing you can

10:54see here

10:54that's done profit sales and profit ratio

10:56and again each of these analysis it's going

10:59to choose

10:59different mark types and different things

11:01each time and you've got to really sort of

11:03you know

11:03play around with your data and explore it

11:05but i think this is a nice addition because

11:07it gives

11:07people the ability to just go a bit beyond

11:09what they've been given in terms of

11:11reporting and it

11:12can also help people sort of articulate

11:14better what they'd like to see maybe there

11:16's a there's

11:17an angle in one of these extreme values and

11:19maybe there's an angle in another part of

11:20the chart that

11:21you know works a lot better now again the

11:23analysis that you get there is really

11:25really powerful

11:26but tableau is always making a guess as to

11:29which fields it's using so you can see here

11:3216 of 35 fields now when you click on that

11:34little blue text if you're wondering where

11:36i went i'm just

11:36down here on the bottom right hand side and

11:39when you click on that it actually shows

11:40you what was

11:41used and what was excluded in that analysis

11:43so every time you tick on something or you

11:45select

11:45something it's going to look at it and try

11:47and guess what it should include and what

11:49it shouldn't

11:50include let's just try that with another

11:53data point so let's just go in here and if

11:55we go to

11:56another chart let's go to this customers

11:57tab i want to go to completely different

11:59visualization

12:00okay and let's select um i'm going to

12:02select sales here at the top and you'll

12:05notice this time i've

12:06selected a grouping i've selected a

12:08dimension and you'll notice that you see

12:10you don't get us data

12:11with this particular feature that's

12:13something to be aware of you know it only

12:15works on data point

12:16so now if i go and select central you'll

12:18see that it turns up and now when i select

12:20that again it

12:21goes off and does another analysis and you

12:23'll see that i get a lot more this time i

12:25actually get

12:26a lot more of a story going on and there's

12:28a lot going on here and again this might

12:30just need a

12:31little bit of pruning as an author to make

12:33sure this makes sense but essentially if

12:35you go into

12:36any of these marks you'll start to

12:38understand that it's actually doing a lot

12:40of analysis behind the

12:41scenes and this time around you'll see

12:43instead of 16 it's actually given us 18 of

12:4635 fields so every

12:47time it's doing an analysis it's trying to

12:49make an educator guess what fields actually

12:52matter and

12:52it's using statistical methods that frankly

12:55i don't fully understand but um you can

12:56actually

12:57click on this learn more link and it opens

12:59up a tab i'll just bring this into the

13:00window here

13:01it's opened up in my other screen and you

13:03'll see here how it works and so you can

13:05actually go in

13:06and read more about this sort of type of

13:08analysis and breakdown that it does but

13:10essentially it's

13:11it's actually sort of well thought through

13:13now like all of these features that you use

13:15sort of

13:15machine learning and ai it's useful just to

13:18bear in context that you really need to

13:20sort of understand

13:21where these features are coming from um

13:23they might drive your analysis they might

13:26inform where you go

13:27next but you still have to apply a little

13:29bit of rigor and thought in your own work

13:31as a creator

13:32to say is that does that actually make

13:34sense in this analysis or with this data

13:36set okay so that's

13:37the explain data feature set i think it's a

13:39really cool addition the fact that it's

13:42available for

13:42viewers is a really big thing as well

13:45because i think for a long time tablo has

13:47been a very

13:48creator-led product and it's great to have

13:50some of this power come to viewers in a way

13:52that's so

13:53much easier for them to instigate without

13:55ever having to write a calculation or set

13:57anything up

13:58and it's leading on the work that authors

14:00are doing as well because of course you

14:02know authors

14:03build these data sets and and sort of make

14:05these available to people so that's a

14:07really really quick

14:09summary of the new explained data features

14:11in 2021.1 i think this is actually a bigger

14:13deal than

14:14than i can sort of emphasize in this video

14:17because um a couple of things you know just

14:20just the simple

14:21fact that they're willing to sort of bring

14:23this whole panel here and here and sort of

14:25bring it in

14:26on the right hand side really suggests that

14:28tablo is moving in a direction where they

14:30want to help

14:30the user understand things and this right

14:33hand side panel is going to be where that

14:36context is

14:37conveyed it's going to be where that story

14:40is told and explained data is the first

14:42thing here

14:43our state is sort of different because it's

14:45more of a an analysis that starts with the

14:47question

14:48but explained data somewhere where you know

14:50some explanation is given context of our

14:52data seems to

14:53me like he's going to come here now the

14:55other thing i would actually love is if

14:57this pane was made

14:58available to authors so it's great that

15:00explained data can have this space i'd love

15:02to put filters

15:03in here i'd love to put controls in here so

15:05fingers crossed they've done half the work

15:08they've put

15:08their own feature in there i'd love to be

15:10able to put my own features in there maybe

15:12add a little

15:13filter section in there just to make my

15:15dashboard a little bit more user friendly

15:17and easy to use

15:19but that's pretty much explained data in a

15:20nutshell it's not a new feature but it has

15:22been made available to viewers and they

15:24have given it a revised interface so it's

15:27no longer

15:27a pop-up and it's actually very prominent

15:29and now everyone can use it along with

15:31their license so

15:32that's really good to see thanks for

15:34watching if you enjoyed this video you know

15:35what to do

15:36otherwise i'll catch you in the next video

15:39about 2021.2