Editors Note: If it’s bold, it’s a link
If you’ve ever met anyone from the greater Tableau Community, I will bet that they mentioned that you should get involved, plugin, contribute, etc… it’s just how the community is in general; that is, we want as many people as possible to experience the same passion and excitement that we do, and we know the benefits. Truth be told though, for a newbie, it’s overwhelming and intimidating. Hopefully, this will help you navigate, and ultimately get involved. Got questions? Let me know…
What is the Tableau Community?
A collective of Tableau Users and Employees who are passionate about data visualization, analytics, and storytelling who want to teach, learn and explore with each other the world of data. At its very heart, it is about helping others be better.
Where is the Tableau Community?
That’s a bit of a tricky question, but it exists in two forms; physical and virtual.
The physical community exists in your local Tableau User Groups and at Tableau in-person events like Tableau Conference. At last count, there are more than 280 local user groups scattered across 70 countries around the globe. Need to find your local TUG? Click here and you’ll be taken to the hub of User Group activity. Here you will also find Virtual Tableau User Groups based on verticals (healthcare, energy, public sector, etc) or other special interests (Veterans, OEM/SaaS, etc) . TUGs are a great way to network, learn about different topics and honestly make new friends. These events happen at a minimum 4 times a year, but it depends on the TUG… some meet monthly.
The Virtual Community is VAST and can be found in the following locations.
The Tableau Community Forums
This is where you can go and get support from both Tableau Users and Employees for “How-To” questions. This was personally my first introduction to the community, but I didn’t realize it at the time. Search for your question and if you can’t find it, post your question, attach some data or a packaged workbook if possible and you will not only get an answer, you’ll probably end up with multiple ways to do it! It’s pretty incredible how quickly some questions get answered. I highly recommend signing up for a free account the day you install Tableau it’s a priceless resource. To access the forums, click here.
The Social Community AKA Twitter
Looking to be a bit more social, find community projects to build your skills, and get valuable feedback on your work? Give Twitter a try! The #datafam is very active and constantly finding new ways to use, explore and learn Tableau. Some of the community projects you will find include #MakeoverMonday, #WorkoutWednesday, #ProjectHealthViz, #SportsVizSunday, and #IronQuest. All of these are lead by community members, will provide valuable feedback, and are quite frankly a lot of fun and a bit addictive. You’ll also find fun things like #TableauTipTuesday and #TinyTableauTips.
In addition, you can find links being shared for Tableau-centric blogs, data viz articles and some pretty riveting conversations about Tableau and the Tableau Community in general.
Maybe you want to give back and volunteer? You can give back to non-profit organizations through initiatives like #VizForSocialGood.
Other Virtual Pockets of the Community
You’ll find Tableau groups on LinkedIn, like local user groups and the Tableau Software Fans and Friends group and on Reddit at r/tableau
Other Good Stuff
Looking for a Mentor? The community has an avenue for that to, just check out MentoringMeetup.com
Tableau Public
One common theme you will start to see is the mention, use, and sharing of Tableau Public vizzes. Tableau Public is the heart of the Tableau Community for many. Here you can create, share and reverse engineer other people’s work for learning and fun. The best part? It’s free and the only difference between Public and Desktop is the number of database connections types available to you. I don’t have a Teradata cluster, so I don’t mind being limited to flat files and web data connectors.
You will see work that will blow your mind, but please don’t let that intimidate you, even the greatest Tableau Authors published a “1st Viz” and it’s not going to be as good and your next one… with every dashboard you publish, you will learn more. Chris Love recently posted this on Twitter, so when in doubt about whether to publish something to Tableau Public or not, follow the flow chart.
Community Guides
So far, it’s easy to see why it can be a bit overwhelming. Luckily, Tableau helps by recognizing outstanding members in the community through the Tableau Ambassador and Tableau Zen Master programs.
The Tableau Ambassadors can be found in all corners of the community; Social, Tableau Public, User Groups, Forums, and Students. Chances are if you have dipped your toe in the community, you’ve talked to one of these folks. These folks are among the nicest people you will ever meet and are there to help you with questions, guidance, and support.
The Tableau Zen Masters are recognized as both masters of the platform and educators of the community. They are collaborative, supportive and pillars of the community.
Why bother?
Good question. If you ask any member of the community what the one thing is that they wish they would have known about when they got started with Tableau, chances are their answer would be “I wish I’d know about the Tableau Community sooner”. It’s an amazing collection of people, and an amazing resource for you to leverage to learn so much about the software, and data visualization in general. It truly is amazing, and in 20+ years of working in data, I’ve never experienced anything like it. You get out of the community what you put into the community… so start putting something in today, you won’t regret it.
With that said, the intent of the community is not for it to become a “second job” trying to keep up with everything going on in the community is a fool’s errand. The community is there when you need it, so use it that way. Need some professional development, jump into a community project. Have a question, head over to the forums. Want a new perspective, or networking opportunity, head to a TUG Meeting. How ever you choose to engage with the community you will see benefits.
One last thought, and if you have made it this far, please check out this last link. The Tableau Community Code of Conduct. The TL/DR of the Code of Conduct is this:
- Be Kind
- Treat Others with Respect
- Give Credit Where Credit is Due
- Search for Understanding
- Share Your Knowledge and Ask Questions