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Were back!

I'm back from a long break with four big perspectives, a new seasons model, and some honest thoughts about where Tableau is heading.

Tim Ngwena •23 September 2025 •1 min read •7 min watch •867

Watch on YouTube

Four back-to-back perspective videos are coming next week (Tuesday to Friday), followed by the long-promised crash courses on a weekly schedule
The planned themes are cost-per-query and the value of a dashboard, whether Tableau Public actually helps the Tableau brand, waning passion for relearning tools because of the Tableau Next shift, and Tableau Next itself
A LinkedIn Tableau Next course is in production with a target of going live before the end of the year
YouTube becomes the primary home for videos; LinkedIn will only get monthly summaries and AI-assisted written versions of the transcripts
The channel is moving to a seasons model (winter, spring, summer) with strategic breaks roughly aligned to product releases

0:03This is weird.

0:05Haven't done this in a while.

0:07Um yeah.

0:09Next week we're back

0:11I took a break.

0:12A very long break.

0:13I think a deserved break.

0:15But um I took a break and in that time so much has changed.

0:20Um I have to be honest, I've I've I've I've been struggling a little bit with understanding how to cover Tableau going forward.

0:29Uh it's just been a genuine struggle to understand how to cover what I feel like are diverging universes in the Tableau ecosystem, Tableau Next and then Tableau Core, which is the two worlds I talk about.

0:42I think I have a solution for that.

0:44But in the intervening time in the last three months, I've had some really profound thoughts about the Tableau product.

0:53To me anyway

0:55And I think I need to share them and because I've also, I guess, pledged specific videos, um the the

1:04the the four main videos that I were gonna I was gonna do when I came back were going to be the crash courses.

1:10I'm still editing those those are not a hundred percent and I've

1:13I realize I need to reshoot some parts of that and I'm also simultaneously working with LinkedIn to get a Tableau Next course live before the end of the year.

1:22So there's a lot of things going on.

1:25I'm essentially focusing on these big, really helpful pieces of content.

1:30Think of them as courses, think of them as masterclasses as you've seen recently, but they take a ton of time and effort

1:36That said, I also have what I think are just thoughts.

1:40That's all they are really, perspectives.

1:42And I don't write, so my only way to get them out is a video.

1:46The four thoughts are as follows.

1:48The first one is this idea of a cost per query.

1:53And if we extrapolate that further on,

1:58Did we ever answer the question, what is a dashboard worth?

2:02What what it what how do we assign value to dashboards today and also in the past?

2:09Because I think today the narrative is changing.

2:12I think it's pretty clear how vendors want us to assign value.

2:15But I don't think we ever answered the question of how we do it in the past.

2:18So that's sort of the first question.

2:20The the the second thing um is more of a perspective and it's about Tableau Public and Tableau the brand.

2:30Now I'm a big proponent of Tableau Public, but I actually settled on this, I guess, um, conflicting perspective that I don't think Tableau Public actually helps the Tableau brand.

2:40My video lights are

2:41have gone off.

2:42That's how long it's been since I last recorded a video.

2:44I forgot to check how charged they were, but for hell with that, I'm carrying on.

2:49Um

2:50I'm not sure the Tableau Public Brand helps the Tableau Brand.

2:55And that's a very

2:58sort of difficult opinion to get out.

3:01And I do think that needs a video.

3:02I think you need to sort of hear it coming from a mouth and see it coming from her mouth to understand the context and new ones and also to understand that I'm still a big supporter of Tableau Public

3:11So that's the second perspective.

3:14The third perspective is I've been really struggling with my passion for Tableau.

3:22What do I mean by that?

3:24I I simply mean that I've been learning and working with Tableau for so long that I'm not sure I have energy to learn it all over again.

3:32And that's really been actually the biggest struggle in the last three months

3:36The fact that most of what's new is in Tableau Next.

3:38And actually, if I'm honest, if I'm really honest, all the excitement that I used to bring to videos all in the past was because I was learning Tableau the product.

3:48And I think I'm done learning analytics products.

3:51I say that as a consultant who continuously has to learn uh new tools.

3:57I think I'm kind of done with it all.

3:58And I think I want to explain that and specifically pin it to the tableau.

4:02next concept, why I think that sort of disconnect is happening.

4:07And then very last but not least, um Tableau Next itself.

4:12And I think with this one, this is more of a

4:17There's more of like a simmering thought and I think I have to work through these first sort of three videos in order to to to like to get there.

4:24So

4:24Each of these will come out next week, back to back, each one, one per day, starting, let's say, Tuesday.

4:30Um, give myself Monday as grace.

4:32No one watches videos on Mondays, so Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

4:36We'll have one video on each of these perspectives.

4:38Then the week after that, we'll start with the first crash course and we'll go on a weekly schedule from there.

4:43And in that time, you'll also see a couple of things.

4:45Um, this will be the only place I post the videos

4:47I've given up with LinkedIn for a lot of reasons.

4:51Um, I'm not going to be reposting YouTube videos there.

4:54So if you're watching this here and you find it useful.

4:56Um share it because I will not be reposting these on LinkedIn.

5:00The only thing I'll do is a summary of what I've posted once a month at the end of every month

5:04And on LinkedIn, what I'll do instead are written versions of these videos, essentially taking my transcript, using AI to sort of turn them into written content.

5:13editing them and then putting them back out with some slightly different twists given that they're going to be written rather than spoken.

5:20So

5:21That's where I'm at.

5:23Now, the other thing is on a personal note, uh it's I've realized this channel needs

5:29a concept called seasons.

5:31In essence, I need strategic breaks throughout the year in order to be able just to be, you know, a person, a human being.

5:38Um

5:39A lot of people ask you, hey, you know, when do you when do you find time to make content?

5:43Actually I haven't found time in the last three months because I've been busy with life.

5:47I've been busy at work, I've been busy being a father, I've been busy being a husband, a brother, a son, lots of different things.

5:54So those just take priority and I I'm never gonna apologize for putting those things first.

5:59But what it means is that there are just some times in the year where I just can't really pledge anything on the channel.

6:04So

6:05Seasons I think are going to be a good way to solve that.

6:07So what we're about to go into now is what I'll call the winter season, as it were.

6:12I'll think of better names.

6:14Um and then we'll take a break over Christmas and we'll come back maybe mid January to start what I would call um

6:22the spring season and that will go through until basically conference.

6:26I'll take a break during conference and we'll do that, then we'll go into the summer season and then that that that that'll be it for the year.

6:33And then we'll stop

6:34Always have a breakover summer and that will be it.

6:37So those will roughly align with new releases.

6:40It won't be perfect, but that will be how it goes.

6:43So

6:44That is what to come.

6:45Um yeah, I'm really excited to share some perspectives.

6:49Um I'm excited to see how things change.

6:51And yeah, sorry the lights went out, but yeah, that's just how it is.

6:54Thanks for watching.

6:55See you in the next one

Rollup

This is a personal update, not a tutorial: Tim explains why the channel went quiet, what's coming next, and why he's restructuring how and where he posts.

The Breakdown

Coming back after a long break 0:03

Tim took an extended, deliberate break and returns having been genuinely unsure how to keep covering Tableau, given how much the product landscape has shifted in that time.
The core struggle: a diverging Tableau 0:21

He's found it hard to cover what feel like two separate ecosystems now — Tableau Next and Tableau Core — and says he thinks he's found a way through it, which the upcoming videos will unpack.
Crash courses and a LinkedIn course, still in progress 0:55

Longer masterclass-style crash courses are being edited and partly reshot, and a separate Tableau Next course for LinkedIn is in production, targeted to launch before year end.
Four perspective videos landing next week 1:46

One opinion piece per day (Tuesday to Friday): what a dashboard is actually worth and how to assign value via a cost-per-query lens; whether Tableau Public genuinely helps the Tableau brand; his waning personal passion for relearning tools now that most novelty sits in Tableau Next; and, building on those three, a closing take on Tableau Next itself.
Why passion is the hardest one 3:22

He admits the excitement he used to bring to videos came from learning the Tableau product itself, and he's not sure he has the energy to relearn everything from scratch as a new product generation arrives — a candid, unresolved thread rather than a tidy conclusion.
Posting schedule and leaving LinkedIn 4:25

After the four perspective videos, crash courses move to a weekly cadence. YouTube becomes the sole home for full videos; LinkedIn only gets a monthly summary plus AI-assisted written versions of the transcripts, so viewers who want the videos need to follow YouTube directly.
Introducing channel seasons 5:21

To protect time for life and family, the channel will run in seasons (winter, spring, summer) with built-in breaks roughly timed around major product releases and conference season, rather than a constant year-round schedule.

Worth Knowing

The crash courses aren't finished yet — they're being reshot in parts, so the perspective videos come first.
LinkedIn reposting is stopping entirely; if you rely on LinkedIn for these videos, you'll now only see a monthly summary, not the full content.
The seasons schedule means expect deliberate breaks at points like Christmas and conference time, not a guarantee of continuous weekly uploads.

Use It When

Watch this if you follow the channel and want to know why uploads paused, what's coming next, and where to actually find future videos.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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