0:00Come on.
0:04Gonna do a vlog with Dad.
0:06Come on. Yeah?
0:08Yeah? Come on then.
0:10I'll carry you.
0:12Oh my god.
0:14Let's do this.
0:16Yeah?
0:18How are we gonna do this?
0:20Huh?
0:22How should we do this?
0:24Oh, not like that.
0:28So, I'm all packed.
0:30Pretty much good to go.
0:32I've got my stuff
0:34just over there
0:36all ready to go.
0:38It's kind of sad.
0:40I don't wanna go.
0:42I've done a scour of the room.
0:44Everything is packed.
0:48This is an Airbnb place actually.
0:50I chose an Airbnb place over a hotel.
0:53It was slightly cheaper and
0:55I just prefer staying in a place
0:58rather than in a hotel.
1:00Hotels are right next to the convention
1:01centre
1:02but I like to get away a bit from the town.
1:04So, yeah. I think it worked out pretty well
1:06.
1:07They announced yesterday
1:09that the next conference is gonna be in
1:10Vegas
1:11so I'm actually looking forward to that.
1:13It was in Vegas last year.
1:15I preferred the layout of Vegas to this
1:17year.
1:17Everything was in one place.
1:19Because of that there's a critical mass of
1:20people
1:21and you really feel the scale of the event
1:24which is what I sort of lost this year.
1:26I felt there were lots more people here
1:28this year
1:29but it felt like it was half the number.
1:32So, yeah.
1:34But now starts the long journey home.
1:36I'm flying to Dallas
1:38then I'm flying to London Heathrow
1:40then when I get to London
1:42I've got a train journey home.
1:44And then we're gonna have Toby
1:46at the end of this vlog.
1:48He's gonna make a return.
1:50[Music]
1:52Hiya. How you doing?
2:00How are you?
2:02Absolutely.
2:04Yeah, absolutely.
2:06Cheers.
2:18So this long queue is because
2:20essentially the American Airlines system
2:24has soon to have gone down
2:26so you can only check your bags in at the
2:28desk.
2:28So everyone's here.
2:30We've all got boarding passes
2:32but we have to check our bags in
2:34so no candy.
2:36[Music]
2:46[Music]
2:52Our flying time today is over 8 hours and 4
2:54minutes.
2:54We take a plan through altitude of 29,000
2:57feet.
2:58[Music]
3:02Okay. I'm gonna try and do this in one take
3:29. Okay?
3:29If you behave with me,
3:31this will be good. I promise.
3:33Okay? I'll give you a nice big fat bone.
3:36He's bored already.
3:38Jesus.
3:40Okay? This bodes well.
3:42So I'm back in Colchester.
3:44I promised I'd do a vlog with Toby
3:46and here he is.
3:48Now it's roughly a week and a half
3:51since I came back from conference.
3:53It's been really really interesting.
3:58So when you come back from conference,
4:00one of the things you have to do is sort of
4:02reflect.
4:03And there's been a ton of people doing
4:05reflections.
4:06It's been really good to read the different
4:08perspectives.
4:09I think different people had different
4:10experiences
4:11so it's absolutely worth reading all of
4:13them
4:13because people will see things that maybe
4:15you don't
4:16and it also increases your perspective of
4:19how the event works.
4:21Toby.
4:28You don't want to do the vlog anymore?
4:30Okay. Fine.
4:33So the main event wasn't feeling it
4:37so I've been demoted to doing the vlog
4:39upstairs.
4:41So where was I?
4:43There are lots of different perspectives
4:45from conference
4:46and it's really important to read all of
4:47them.
4:48You'll notice things that you didn't notice
4:49whilst you were there
4:51and it's also good to just talk to people
4:52after the conference
4:54because when you're there you can get
4:55caught up in the moment
4:57and it's often better just to step back,
4:59let people think about it
5:00and then have the same discussion again
5:03because different things come out.
5:05I think the other thing that's been really
5:06valuable
5:07that I've spent the last week and a half
5:08doing
5:09is going through some of the stuff I didn't
5:11see.
5:12So if you go to tclive.tablo.com
5:16you can see all the sessions that were
5:18recorded there
5:19as well as the hands-on content in the form
5:23of downloadable folders
5:25that you can go through, work through and
5:27have a look at.
5:28So I've enjoyed watching a couple of the
5:29sessions I didn't go to
5:30that were in my plan
5:32and it's been really interesting because I
5:34felt like
5:34I've got the experience of conference
5:36but I haven't missed out on the information
5:38that I wanted to see.
5:39In terms of what I'd like to see more of
5:41I think this year was interesting
5:44because Tableau obviously gave their three-
5:45year vision
5:46and that's sort of good and bad in certain
5:49ways.
5:50So firstly it's good because you see the
5:52long-term plan
5:53and some of that was really rewarding,
5:55really exciting
5:56but not so good stuff is not seeing the
5:58things you want to see.
6:00Okay, so what didn't I see that I wanted to
6:02see more of?
6:04The first thing is an onboarding experience
6:06.
6:07An onboarding experience is the kind of
6:09experience you get
6:10when you open an app for the first time
6:12and it sort of shows you how to use the
6:14tool
6:15how to make something and it makes you do
6:16it
6:17before you can even go to the rest of the
6:19software.
6:20And I think this is something that Tableau
6:21is missing
6:22because for users who are already using
6:24Tableau
6:25it's just intuitive, you just open it and
6:26you start doing stuff straight away.
6:28For people who are using it the first time
6:30it's really difficult to actually
6:31understand the philosophy
6:33that Tableau has in the way it's sort of
6:35built the product
6:36especially if you're coming from something
6:38like Excel.
6:39A lot of the time you hear people talk
6:41about
6:41as Tableau is being excelled on drugs
6:43and that's really not the case at all, it's
6:45a completely different paradigm.
6:46And so you need to sort of onboard users
6:49onto that new philosophy
6:50and new way of thinking.
6:51And I think an onboarding experience for
6:53Tableau would be a really useful thing.
6:55And I think it will help the kind of users
6:58that Tableau needs to get onboard
7:00for the next few years onto the tool
7:04because I think Tableau is on that sort of
7:06verge
7:07where it needs to become more of a
7:08mainstream product
7:09and the kind of users they have now, well
7:11we're the low hanging fruit
7:12we're the ones who wanted this stuff in the
7:14first place.
7:15Now you've got the hard task of convincing
7:17people who love other tools
7:18to start using it.
7:19So I think an onboarding experience would
7:21be a really useful thing.
7:23The second one is a bit of a strange one
7:24and bear with me on this.
7:27I'd actually like Tableau to break down its
7:29product into lots of smaller chunks.
7:32By that I don't mean start selling me seven
7:34things instead of just one.
7:36I'm talking about making a bunch of
7:38software development kits.
7:40Basically that's an SDK for developers.
7:43And that allows you to use different parts
7:46of Tableau when you need to use them
7:48but still have the core product unchanged
7:50and untouched.
7:52Let me give you an example.
7:54In Tableau Server you have various
7:56different processes.
7:58One of them is visQL. This is Geek Talk so
8:00bear with me.
8:01One of them is visQL and it renders visual
8:03izations.
8:04Another one for example renders the web
8:07interface and creates it.
8:09Another one manages users, another one
8:11manages data and so on and so forth.
8:13What if I only want to use parts of that?
8:16So you can already do this in some way or
8:18form.
8:19For example in the most recent update to
8:21the JavaScript API
8:23they allowed you to do something which
8:25means you can call data from a data
8:27visualization
8:28and have it load up in something else like
8:30D3.
8:31That's great.
8:33In the web data connectors they allowed you
8:35to connect Tableau to different data
8:37sources
8:38on the fly. That's great.
8:40But what if for example I wanted to use the
8:43visQL part of Tableau Server
8:45to render me a visualization but I fed it
8:48the data and I told it where on the web
8:50page I wanted it.
8:51That's the kind of functionality I'd like.
8:55And the reason that's really useful is
8:56because often you get instances
8:59where you only want to use a certain part
9:01of Tableau because you know it does it
9:03really really well
9:04and you want to have it integrate with
9:05something else for interoperability
9:08or maybe you're in an enterprise context
9:10where you have to use a certain system for
9:12doing certain things.
9:13And I think this would really help
9:15especially in advanced use cases and
9:17developers.
9:18Now this isn't a mainstream feature so it's
9:20probably not high up the priority list
9:22but this is something I'd love to see more
9:23of because I think it will allow creativity
9:26to happen
9:27in lots of places it hasn't happened before
9:29especially the web, especially on mobile
9:31devices
9:32and I think as we move forward Tableau's
9:35got to give the community more power
9:38to take the product in different directions
9:40that maybe Tableau's not going to focus on
9:42and I think software development kits would
9:43be a great way of doing that.
9:45The last thing I'd love to see Tableau
9:47focus on is the finish.
9:49The finish that they put on some of the
9:50features they're all at.
9:53Let me give you an example. When I first
9:54heard the ability to format text
9:58or format everything across a workbook I
10:01was so excited, I was so pumped
10:04and then when I started using it I was like
10:06wait a minute this isn't what I was
10:08expecting at all.
10:09It was like the start of the journey. So
10:11what I expected with the workbook
10:14formatting
10:14was exactly that. The ability to format the
10:16entire workbook in one place
10:19to maybe set something called a style sheet
10:20. A style sheet is a term that's used in
10:23design
10:24where basically you prescribe a font, some
10:27colours, some rules for every single bit of
10:30content
10:30and then Tableau just looks at that every
10:31time you start to create a visualisation.
10:34So maybe you have a colour palette, maybe
10:35you have a preferred font, maybe you have a
10:38preferred
10:38set of settings that you use for certain
10:40chart types. I'd love that too.
10:43It will be preserved in the form of a style
10:44sheet. This isn't a new idea, this isn't
10:47something that
10:48I've just created now or thought of. This
10:49is something that's already out there in
10:51the community.
10:52So Tableau chose to obviously just release
10:54the text formatting capabilities and I know
10:57that they're going to be releasing
10:58more formatting capabilities in the future.
11:01Why not just focus on it and really go
11:03through it,
11:03really be ambitious and just double down on
11:05that one feature and just do the whole
11:08thing.
11:08That's my opinion. If you'd rather see
11:11features come out in bits rather than
11:14having to wait for them
11:15then fair enough because on the same hand
11:17there are other features that we have seen
11:20that haven't come out
11:21that look pretty complete. I'm going to
11:23refer to it again. Charts and tooltips,
11:26dashboards and tooltips,
11:28that was amazing and they showed that
11:30almost a year and a half ago now. But it's
11:33still not turned up
11:34and they're not releasing that in bits. So
11:37yeah, I don't know what's going on.
11:39Obviously maybe these things
11:41are hard to phase in, maybe these features
11:42are there but they're timing them to come
11:44inside with other features.
11:46Who knows? But yeah, I'd just love to see
11:48some of that actually come through as more
11:51finished products.
11:53Okay, last but not least, this vlog. I've
11:57really enjoyed making this vlog for the
12:00last three weeks now.
12:02I'm recording this quite late on. So three
12:04weeks I've been really devoted to this vlog
12:06. I've done about eight
12:08or nine videos. I have tons of footage. I
12:10filled up about 120 gigs worth of space on
12:13my phone
12:14just recording videos and taking photos and
12:17it's been really, really enjoyable. Now
12:20earlier on I said
12:21that I would think about what I'd do at the
12:24end of the vlog, with the vlog in total.
12:29And I sort of didn't know
12:31what content I'd be talking about in the v
12:33log. But I've had a little bit of a thought
12:36about it and in a way
12:38I think there is an avenue for a vlog in
12:40the Tableau space. Largely because the
12:44whole Tableau community is exactly that.
12:48And the community is made of people and I
12:50think it's been really valuable, at least
12:53for me, to do this vlog
12:55and have to go and meet those people. So
12:57purely from a selfish perspective it's been
12:59really valuable for me
13:01because it's made me really reflect and
13:03look at what's going on and talk about
13:06those things. In other terms
13:08I've had lots of great feedback during
13:09conference and after conference from people
13:12watching and enjoying the content
13:14and that's always welcoming and I really
13:16appreciate that because it means I'm not
13:18just wasting my time.
13:20But also I think there's a bit of a story
13:22to tell around Tableau. I think, you know,
13:26compared to other software tools
13:27I really do get the sense that Tableau is a
13:29really lively product and in a way I think
13:33a vlog is a nice way to show that
13:35liveliness because often written form doesn
13:39't do it justice and you really need to see
13:43some of this stuff.
13:43Tableau is all about seeing and
13:44understanding your data so wouldn't it be
13:46great if you could see and understand
13:49the experiences for yourself. And that's
13:51what I really want to do with the vlog. So
13:53I'm not making any commitment
13:55to how often or when or when the next one
13:57will be but I have been thinking about
14:00things that I'm going to vlog about
14:04and I've already got a couple of people on
14:05the case with a couple of topics which is
14:07great, I love that.
14:09If you've got some ideas drop them in the
14:10comments, get in touch, I'd love to talk to
14:12you or collaborate on an episode
14:16and more to the point I'm really excited to
14:20see what we can make.
14:22That doesn't mean I'm going to stop on
14:23tutorials, I'm still going to try and do as
14:25much of that.
14:26I've had great feedback on that too so I
14:28want to try and do more of that as well and
14:31I want to try and do stuff that's useful
14:33not just doing a tutorial for tutorial sake
14:35but stuff that's useful and valuable to
14:37people.
14:38So yeah, let's see where this goes.
14:45[Music]
14:55I hope so.
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