0:00Hey, Tim here. In this video, I'm going to
0:01be covering Tableau Exchange and Tableau
0:03Accelerators.
0:04I'm going to do these in the same video
0:05because I think it makes the most sense.
0:08In case you missed it, at the Tableau
0:09conference, Tableau announced something new
0:11called the Tableau Exchange.
0:13And in relation to that, they talked about
0:15something called the Tableau Economy.
0:17Now, the Tableau Economy is essentially the
0:19ecosystem they're trying to build to bring
0:21partners, authors,
0:23and people who want to use Tableau together
0:26by creating a marketplace, essentially,
0:28where they can exchange assets, whether it
0:30's workbooks, connectors, extensions,
0:33all of these things that we've known in the
0:35past, but in the future, that's going to
0:36grow into a much bigger library of
0:38different types of assets.
0:39In the first iteration, they're calling
0:41this the Tableau Exchange.
0:43So you can see over here on the top left,
0:44this is the Tableau Exchange.
0:46And at its launch, we have three main
0:48things.
0:49We have extensions, connectors, and acceler
0:51ators.
0:52Now, these are not new things.
0:54Don't sort of be fooled by the branding
0:55here.
0:56These are things that have existed before
0:58today.
0:59This is just a much nicer way of accessing
1:01and browsing these things.
1:03Now, people might argue that accelerators
1:04haven't existed today, but I'll show you
1:07these have existed because of essentially
1:09what they are, templates.
1:10So first of all, let's go look at the
1:12extension gallery.
1:13This is what was used to be called the
1:15extension gallery.
1:16You can actually go check out my video on
1:18the in-product extension gallery and some
1:20of the other stuff I've done on extension.
1:22My colleague Andre has also built some
1:23extensions on here, and you can find
1:25extensions from various partners, including
1:27the Information Lab as well.
1:28But what is really interesting here is that
1:31this is now a sort of central place to come
1:33and find these.
1:34And this sort of marketplace is really
1:36starting to grow, and it's really becoming
1:39like a really lively place to sort of find
1:41these things.
1:42So this is nice that we've got a home page.
1:43You can filter it.
1:44You can kind of go around and browse it
1:46however you want.
1:47You can maybe look at specific extensions
1:50that do specific things.
1:52For example, if I go to the right and
1:54export data, there's the Export All
1:56extension by the Information Lab, which
1:58allows you to export multiple data sources
2:01as different sheets in Excel.
2:03It's a really sort of simple extension.
2:05Now, what is interesting is that at least
2:07at launch, there's no extensions on here
2:09that seem to require money, although in the
2:11past, extensions have required money, if
2:13that makes sense.
2:14So the TableXchange doesn't have any sort
2:16of transaction platform yet, doesn't have
2:19any of that.
2:19I'm sure it will in the future.
2:20This is just the obvious direction this is
2:22moving in.
2:23So that's the dashboard extensions.
2:25These have been talked about a lot in the
2:27community.
2:27So if you don't know what these are, go and
2:29check them out.
2:30If we go over to the connectors, this is
2:32something that was released in 21.1 and 21.
2:362.
2:37So, yeah, there were some extension
2:39connectors here in 21.1.
2:41Essentially, what these are are connectors
2:43built by third parties for Tableau.
2:45So essentially, they gave partners the
2:48connector SDK, which will essentially allow
2:50them to build their own connectors for
2:52Tableau without Tableau having to do the
2:54heavy lifting.
2:55I sort of hope these will make their way
2:56into virtual connections as well.
2:58So people can connect sort of really
3:00interesting third party data sets like, for
3:03example, Strava and social media platforms
3:05that have always been a pain in the neck to
3:07sort of connect.
3:08I'd love Google, for example, to build a
3:10Tableau connector for Google Analytics that
3:12's a little bit better than the Google
3:13Analytics one that's in Tableau today.
3:15So that would be really, really cool.
3:18But essentially, these are here.
3:19You can use them.
3:20There's not many.
3:21It's a very small group, but there you go.
3:23That's what's available.
3:25Now, if we go to accelerators, this...
3:29I find this really difficult to sort of
3:31really understand where I land with this
3:33feature.
3:33But let me first explain what it is.
3:35Then we can have a debate about whether it
3:37's a good thing or not.
3:39Accelerators are essentially templates.
3:41These templates that you can install come
3:43with a connection preconfigured and then
3:45you can just get going from the get go.
3:48Let's have a look at a few.
3:49If you've used Salesforce, you might be
3:51used to tracking opportunities in Sales
3:53force.
3:54If I click on that and I go down here, you
3:55'll see that this is the dashboard that is
3:57essentially there.
3:59If I scroll down, you've got different
4:01things that you can sort of connect to.
4:03And these are all dashboards, essentially.
4:04They've just been slotted in.
4:06And over on the right-hand side, you can
4:08see the type of connections in the metadata
4:11and which versions it works with.
4:13So this is sort of really good.
4:14If I go down and let's look at some sort of
4:16slightly more sort of off-piece.
4:18Let's go to this telco one here.
4:20You can see that it answers these key
4:22business questions, these KPIs, these
4:24required attributes.
4:25And then you go in and then there's your
4:28accelerator and this is your cockpit for a
4:30telco.
4:31And I mean, just put aside the way this
4:33looks for now.
4:35Let's just ignore, let's just assume this
4:36is a beautiful dashboard.
4:38Essentially, what this essentially offers
4:40you is the ability to grab this and drop it
4:42into your own telco and connect the right
4:44things up,
4:45connect the right variables, map all of
4:47that stuff.
4:47I'm sure that takes a bit of effort.
4:49I'm sure it's not straightforward.
4:50But you essentially map all your various
4:52data sets and you're pretty much good to go
4:54.
4:54And you have dashboards ready to go.
4:56And from this, you can customize them.
4:58You can make them do different things.
5:00You can kind of pull out what you want,
5:02dump what you don't need and sort of go
5:03from there.
5:04But it means you're not starting from zero.
5:06Some of these do have quite nice sort of
5:08design and they do pull in some nice
5:09information.
5:10But generally speaking, this is how they
5:12all work.
5:13Now, none of this is new.
5:15None of this is new at all.
5:17It's purely been rebranded.
5:19Why?
5:20In September, Tableau acquired this company
5:22.
5:22Actually, not Tableau.
5:23Salesforce acquired this company, Linato SA
5:26.
5:27And essentially, they actually already were
5:29building these templates and they were
5:30making
5:31them available on their website.
5:32It's sort of a weird thing that Tableau
5:34acquired this company and the templates are
5:36still publicly
5:37available over here.
5:38So it's no coincidence that they're
5:40actually also called accelerators over on
5:42this website.
5:43And if you go to the accelerators tab and
5:45go down, you can see that a lot of these
5:47icons
5:48look eerily similar to what we've seen in
5:50the Tableau exchange.
5:51So what makes me a little bit frustrated
5:54about this feature is that it just feels
5:56like Tableau
5:57of Wholesale just basically picked this up
6:00and dropped it into a rebranded place
6:03without
6:03really doing what I would expect as a sort
6:05of Tableau developer, some quality
6:08assurances
6:08to make sure this feels like Tableau.
6:11And the simple thing is, for example, Table
6:13au, the Tableau font, it's a font that we
6:15all
6:15know.
6:16If you go and download some of the sample
6:18Tableau workbooks, these don't look like
6:20sample
6:20Tableau workbooks.
6:22If I go to some of the tabs here, you'll
6:24find tables.
6:25You'll find things that just don't make
6:27visual best practice sense.
6:29You'll find things in here you're told not
6:32to do in Tableau training.
6:33So it's a whole load of sort of drag and
6:35drop.
6:36I mean, look at this.
6:37This is actually a seasonality analysis
6:40that's available as an accelerator.
6:44And it's by Tableau and it's free.
6:48But this just doesn't feel like Tableau at
6:51all.
6:52There's just no quality assurance in my
6:54mind that the final product has been vetted
6:57before
6:57it's appeared here in the accelerators
6:59course.
7:00Instead, what they've gone for is they've
7:02just gone and grabbed everything that they
7:03acquired from this company, all of these
7:05things, and they've just dumped it inside
7:07of this
7:07rebranded sort of place.
7:09And it's really sort of not nice experience
7:13, if I'm honest.
7:14It's not a nice way to sort of be brought
7:16into this new product.
7:18And it does sort of point to an important
7:20question about the exchange, which is who's
7:22going to play the role at Tableau of making
7:24sure they curate the content on here so it
7:26doesn't become a dumping ground of tons of
7:29stuff that isn't best practice or isn't
7:31well
7:31used.
7:32Now, as an author, there is another issue
7:34with this, which is I'm not essentially a
7:36template person.
7:37There used to be a time when people said
7:39that with Tableau, you didn't need
7:41templates because
7:42you could build it yourself.
7:44It seems like we've moved on from that.
7:45And I don't know when that philosophy
7:47really changed, but to me, that's a super
7:49important
7:49thing because we spend so much time in the
7:52community showing people how to do stuff
7:54because
7:54we truly believe that it's really that easy
7:57.
7:57And with these accelerators, you're sort of
7:59setting the de facto standard for what
8:02people
8:02who are new to Tableau are going to think
8:04is good practice because, of course, it's
8:06being endorsed and it's been built by Table
8:09au.
8:09Every single one of these says by Tableau.
8:11So if you get a dashboard, if you buy a lot
8:14of Tableau, if you spend a lot of money,
8:16some
8:16people spend six figures on Tableau, and
8:18then you end up with one of these, you're
8:19going
8:20to say, "Oh, yeah, Tableau built this
8:21starter.
8:22It must be good practice.
8:23That's what they're recommending."
8:25So it's also a bit of a kick in the teeth
8:27to everyone in the community who spends so
8:30much time putting a lot of love and blood,
8:32sweat, and tears into beautifully designed
8:35stuff that's just sort of far better than
8:38this, much more well thought through.
8:41And none of that seems to be sort of made
8:43its way here.
8:44Now, look, I don't want to dunk on someone
8:46who actually did work on these workbooks.
8:49These workbooks were built by people, and I
8:51'm always sort of reticent of sort of dunk
8:53ing
8:53on something and realizing there's someone
8:54out there who actually worked on these
8:56things.
8:56But the key thing here is not that Linato
8:59didn't do this quality assurance.
9:01They're a company building a bunch of dash
9:03boards as a starting tool pack.
9:05The key thing here is that Tableau's
9:07acquired this company, and there's been a
9:09lack of,
9:09I think, due diligence to make this look
9:12like a Tableau product, look and feel like
9:15a Tableau
9:15product.
9:16Instead, it's just been lift and drop
9:19straight into a place without what I would
9:21hope any
9:22person, anyone at Tableau who builds dash
9:25boards would not approve some of these dash
9:27boards
9:28as sort of final output.
9:30So I don't know what this really means.
9:32I don't know what this really sort of says
9:34about this whole setup.
9:35But I'm not angry.
9:36I'm not ranting.
9:37I'm just saying it's a shame.
9:38It's really unfortunate because there's a
9:40bunch of philosophies here that seem like
9:42they've just been picked up and left on the
9:44road when the whole time in the community
9:47we've always said that Tableau is a great
9:49product to use.
9:50It's easy to use, and here's how to do it.
9:52I make videos showing people how to use
9:54Tableau because I think it's easy to do
9:56that.
9:56I'm not going to be making videos showing
9:58people how to make templates because they
10:00're
10:00templates.
10:01They are cookie cutters, and I don't think
10:03they allow you to really express and learn
10:04from this stuff.
10:05I'm making these videos for everyone, not
10:07just authors as well.
10:09So I don't know.
10:10I'm really frustrated with these acceler
10:12ators.
10:13And if we just go to the accelerator list
10:15here, and they do have some companies that
10:18are already using this.
10:20Tableau is obviously a big customer because
10:22it's been acquired.
10:23But if we go to this little explorer here,
10:26there's this sort of dashboard here.
10:28And if we go to one specific area, I'll
10:31just show you how little work has been done
10:34to
10:34sort of adapt this.
10:35So this is the hospitality.
10:36Okay, so let's look at hospitality finance.
10:39You'll see this is the cockpit.
10:40Now this cockpit looked very similar to
10:42what I've shown you before.
10:44And again, it has the same sort of fields
10:46and so on and so forth.
10:47So we've got a bunch of properties.
10:49And the information here actually looks
10:50pretty good.
10:50You've got some snapshots of what this
10:52looks like.
10:53So you can have a little peek into some of
10:55these dashboards.
10:56But look at this.
10:57This is the exact same dashboard we were
10:59just looking at, but it's being used in a
11:00different
11:01context.
11:02So let's go back and let's go look for that
11:04exact same dashboard.
11:05In fact, if I go over here, select
11:07hospitality, we'll see the same two dash
11:10boards.
11:11Click on hospitality.
11:12And again, basically the same list of stuff
11:22.
11:22And as we scroll down, you'll see the
11:24accelerator loads.
11:25Now I mean, how is this an advert for an
11:28accelerator, right?
11:29Look at the spinner on this.
11:30It's taking ages to load.
11:32I mean, the least time I can do here is
11:34make sure that these load quickly.
11:37I mean, and when you get there, this is
11:39just not good for his best practice.
11:41And again, I don't want to dunk on someone
11:43who has spent time on this.
11:45The context of how they worked on it is not
11:47the same content.
11:48I would expect Tableau to be evaluating
11:50these.
11:51And so if we go through, you can see pretty
11:54much all the tabs in here are like for like
11:56identical.
11:57So we landed on the cockpit and all these
12:00tabs here are pretty much the exact same
12:03tabs
12:04that we're seeing over here.
12:05So no real change has really gone into any
12:07of these either.
12:08So I think that's the same.
12:10You know, you bought this company in
12:12September and in three months, all you've
12:14done is copy
12:15and paste into this feature.
12:16I mean, I know that's a feature in 21.4,
12:19but I didn't think it would happen here on
12:21these
12:21accelerators.
12:22So look, I'm frustrated with this feature
12:25because I don't think it's Tableau at its
12:27best.
12:28But here I am showing you where this
12:30feature works.
12:31And so I hope people find this video about
12:34accelerators and I hope they see how
12:36passionate
12:37I am that I don't think these are good
12:39examples of things you should be using.
12:41But what is good about this is that
12:43partners and other people are hopefully
12:45going to be
12:46able to put stuff in here that is of high
12:48quality that you're going to love.
12:50And as a very simple example, I'm just
12:51going to show you an example of what you
12:53can find
12:53for free in the Tableau community that is
12:56also a template that you can deploy in your
12:58organization.
12:59I'm going to go to someone I follow a lot
13:01on Tableau Public, a colleague of mine,
13:04Ellen
13:04Blackburn, I go to her profile all the time
13:08.
13:08So let's go to Tableau Public profile and
13:10she's built some templates.
13:11Now she's a colleague of mine, so of course
13:13I'm biased.
13:14But just look at some of these templates
13:16that she's built.
13:17These are manufacturing dashboard templates
13:20that she's built and just look how
13:21different
13:22the quality of this is.
13:24So you need to be excited about where this
13:26kind of stuff dropping in the accelerator
13:29gallery rather than the stuff that Tableau
13:31seems to have just sort of copy and pasted
13:33from a context that doesn't really really
13:35make any sense.
13:36So yeah, check out the cool stuff in Table
13:39au Public.
13:39If I'm brutally honest, I actually think
13:41Tableau Public search function is going to
13:43be a better
13:44example.
13:45So if I, for example, do hospitality here,
13:47let's fingers crossed, we hope we find
13:50something
13:50vastly better.
13:52Again, okay, yes, some of these are good.
13:54Some of these aren't so good.
13:55Tableau Public is about people learning.
13:57Oh, look, we've got the Tableau accelerator
13:59dashboard that's been published to Tableau
14:02Public as well.
14:04It gets worse.
14:05Not only have Tableau not sort of put these
14:07somewhere, but they've put them all in
14:08Tableau
14:09Public as well.
14:10So now they become sort of searchable and
14:12there's even someone who's favorite of this
14:14as well.
14:15Anyway, nonetheless, if you look at
14:16hospitality, look at this dashboard here.
14:19Who's built this by Dee?
14:20I don't know who Dee is.
14:21I'll have a look at their profile in a
14:23second.
14:24But this generally has more thought gone
14:26into it than some of the stuff we've seen.
14:28So this is just a demo template.
14:30It has a lot more thought.
14:31It has a style.
14:32It has some sort of formatting thought
14:34through.
14:35It has a concept of sort of design going
14:37through it.
14:38It's not like, you know, it's not an
14:39amazing dashboard, but it's a good
14:41dashboard.
14:41It's had a bit of thought applied to it.
14:44So look on Tableau Public.
14:46Look at good examples of this stuff.
14:47If you're not sure, use the Twitter, #DataF
14:49am, announce to DataFam, "Hey, are there any
14:52good examples of dashboards about X?"
14:54And normally, someone will find something
14:56or get you on a call where they can show
14:58you
14:58that.
14:59Okay, that's it.
15:00Rant over.
15:01I've stopped.
15:02That's pretty much me from this video and
15:04Tableau Extensions and Tableau Accelerator
15:06and the Tableau Exchange actually.
15:09So really take Accelerators with a pinch of
15:13salt, please.
15:14I'm not impressed with the sort of first
15:16instance that we've seen here.
15:18But nonetheless, let's see what happens in
15:20the future.
15:21Let's hope that these will get better in
15:23the future as well.
15:25Thanks for watching and I'll catch you in
15:26the next video.
15:27here.
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