Driving Insights with Tableau

Driving Insights With Tableau
Blast Analytics & Marketing
Sacramento Tableau User Group
João Correia 
 
@joaocorreia

Visual Insights
Change The Brain
2
• Many complex problems requires them
• Learning: Insights are more memorable than linear solutions
• Engagement: Insights activate deep engagement
• Systemic change: Insights change the brain
BlastAM | Driving Insights With Tableau

3BlastAM | Driving Insights With Tableau

Visual Insights
Haha Moments
5
“Holy crap. This is the motherlode. This is going to be extraordinarily valuable in lots of
ways.

But after 5 minutes I can see that people who come to the 1-page guide want information
about and . People on our income/household page need information on
deductions.

This is a real breakthrough for us. Thanks so much for doing this, Joao!

I will share this with the rest of the content team.”

6
Executive ≠ Operational

Driving Tableau Adoption
Data Analysis
7
EXECUTIVE

Executive
Driving Strategy
8
70,000 ft
• Broader Questions
• Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly resolution (drive strategy)
• Longer Range (identify medium/long term trends)
• Lower Granularity (high level metrics, less detail)
Observation & Strategic Role

Data Analysis
9
OPERATIONAL

Operational
Driving Action
10
15,000 ft
Operational Role
• More Speciﬁc Questions
• Weekly and Daily time resolution (drive action through hypothesis)
• Shorter Range (identify what works and what doesn’t)
• Higher Granularity (more detail)
0 ft

Executive ≠ Operational
Driving Action with Tableau
11
Information should only be shared to whoever is
relevant and can take action.
Identify homogeneous groups, their questions and their goals. Where can they take action? 
• Understand the company business and high-level goals
• Current reporting structure
• Company organizational chart
• Stakeholder interviews or informal conversations

The foundation: Questions
12
• The most important thing in Data Science is the question
• Often data will limit or enable questions
• Having data can’t save you if you don’t have a question
"The data may not contain the answer. The combination of some data
and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable
answer can be extracted from a given body of data."
John Tukey

13
How are we doing on {metric}?
How fast is {metric} growing?
Is {metric} growing equally across regions?
Which regions most contributed to {metric}?
Which product categories most contributed to {metric}?
Which channels drive more/less {metric}?
Which campaigns drive less {metric}?
Which emails drive most {metric}?
70,000 ft
15,000 ft
0 ft

14
Do more of what works
and less of what doesn’t

16
Design Principles

Edward Tufte 6 Principles
Facilitate Insights
17
• Principle 1: Show Comparison 
Show comparisons. Ask compared to what? Relativize. e.g. to WNV to Population, etc  
• Principle 2: Show Causality 
Use causal logic to reason a probable cause for what you are observing. 
• Principle 3: Show Multivariate Data 
Explore data across the multiple variables and dimensions. This helps you get a better picture and
uncover relationships between variables. e.g. Measuring heart rate, Co2 level and blood pressure over
time. 

Edward Tufte 6 Principles
Facilitate Insights
18
• Principle 4: Integrate the Evidence 
Integrate words, numbers, images. Data graphics should make use of many modes of data
presentation. e.g. The patient monitor provides not only a snapshot, in the form of summary data but
also trend over time. Other medical exams may help a correct diagnostic. 
• Principle 5: Documentation 
Document the process, observations, relevant facts and data. e.g. Doctors keep a registry of their
patients exams results and other meaningful information. This provides context needed to understand
the patient. 
• Principle 6: Content Count Most of All 
"Analytical presentations ultimately stand or fall depending on the quality, relevance, and integrity of their
content" (1). The most effective way to create a compelling presentation is through content, design and
pretty graphs can only take you so far.

Document & Educate
BlastAM | Tableau & Data Analysis DTA

Takeaways
20
1. Get an executive sponsor
2. Identify executive and operational stakeholders
3. Identify goals and questions for each stakeholder
4. Relate questions to main goals
5. Get data
6. Create dashboards
7. Present insights as opportunities
8. Simplify Simplify Simplify
9. Document your visualizations

Phone (888) 252-7866 Email sales@blastam.comWeb www.blastam.com
Rocklin Office
6020 West Oaks Blvd., Ste. 260
Rocklin, CA 95765
San Francisco Office
625 Second Street, Suite 280
San Francisco, CA 94107
New York Office
261 Madison Ave, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Seattle Office
500 Yale Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
Los Angeles Office
7083 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028
@joaocorreia

Driving Insights with Tableau

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