# Tableau explained in under 10 mins!

> 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:** 2020-04-18
- **Format:** Video · 10 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data visualisation, Analytics, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau (cloud, extensions, prep, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-explained-in-under-10-mins
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/7Jl-RwkzqQ4

I walk you through the entire Tableau platform in under 10 minutes, starting with its 2003 origins and the idea of visual analysis. I map out the typical business analytics cycle and show where each of Tableau's six key products fits, from Prep Builder through Desktop, Public, Server, Online, mobile and Reader.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau was founded in 2003 as an academic spin-off, with its core innovation being visual analysis rather than just charting like Excel
- Tableau stores and processes data in its own file format, the Tableau Data Extract (TDE), more recently called Hyper
- Tableau Prep Builder handles data cleaning and ETL (extract, transform, load) through a visual interface for pivoting, merging and replacing fields
- Tableau Desktop connects to almost any data source to build reports and dashboards, while Tableau Public does the same for free but only publishes to the public community space
- Tableau Server (self-hosted) and Tableau Online (Tableau-hosted) handle secure, scalable sharing, with Reader for quick interactive viewing without governance controls
- New features ship roughly quarterly, patches monthly, and older versions are supported for about three years

## Chapters

- 0:55 What is Tableau and why it exists
- 1:31 The business analytics cycle
- 3:27 Data storage and the Hyper format
- 4:23 Data prep with Tableau Prep Builder
- 5:26 Analysis with Desktop and Public
- 6:35 Sharing with Server and Online
- 7:50 Mobile, APIs and Reader
- 9:01 Release cadence and support
- 9:40 Wrap up and next steps

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-explained-in-under-10-mins

---
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