With the way this past Wednesday started, I couldn’t have imagined it would turn into such a special day for me. Only after several snooze buttons did I finally drag myself out of bed to begin the day…my wife and daughter both still sound asleep after a late night run to the ER, which saw us return home at 1:30am, after finding out our daughter had double ear infections and pneumonia. Poor little girl. So, as my wife stayed home with her for the day, off to work I went. It was just a typical Wednesday until sometime after lunch when I decided to find out what was happening on Twitter and…HOLY SHIT!! To my absolute delight, I had been selected as a Tableau Public Featured Author!! The feeling was amazing…I was thrilled!!
So, now nearly a week has passed and I’ve had some time to process this first big Tableau/Data Viz achievement. Since deciding, nearly eight months ago that it was time to join the Tableau community and begin leveraging Tableau Public to build an online portfolio, I’ve been inspired by countless people, vizzes, tweets, blog posts, videos, etc. At this point, I feel it’s necessary to share some of these inspirations with those who may have begun their journey a little later than me. So, the following post is a recap of my last seven and a half months, pointing out key moments along the way. It is quite aggressive with the links, but that is intentional, so that every important piece of inspiration is just a click away.
Springtime – Getting Started
On April 26th, 2017 the Twitter account @JtothaVizzo was created. This would serve as the main way in which I would stay connected to the community. My first goal after creating the account was to find and follow the most influential people in the community, so I could begin learning from the best. Tableau Zen Masters and Tableau Ambassadors were top priority. A day later, this tweet by Andy Cotgreave led me to the mentioned blog post by Mark Edwards, where he discussed the importance of building a Tableau Public portfolio in order to develop your skills and become involved in the community. After reading Mark’s post I came across one from Eva Murray. So you want a job as a Tableau Developer? Umm, yes please!! Eva is wonderful and her post is loaded with great advice for anyone interested in landing that first job…or next job for that matter, using Tableau.
My next stop would be #MakeoverMonday led by Eva and Andy Kriebel and on May 1st, I submitted my first #MakeoverMonday viz. Today, I consider #MakeoverMonday the single biggest factor contributing to my growth. And if you’ve regularly read my blog, you know I haven’t participated every week since joining. Even in the weeks when I’ve failed to participate, I’ve learned through studying the work of others and reading feedback via Twitter. Including #MMVizReview in your Twitter submission also offers a fantastic opportunity to get feedback directly from Andy and Eva, via their weekly webinar. Also on May 1st, having heard a lot about the book in recent months, I ordered The Big Book of Dashboards. If you haven’t, ORDER IT NOW, as it is worth every penny!!
Summer Months – Text, Hurdles and Football
On July 5th, I read a great blog post from Pooja Gandi called Let’s talk about text! In the post, Pooja shared a handful of neat text box tricks that she uses in almost all of her vizzes. I had always admired the beauty of Pooja’s work, so needless to say, when she shared this post, I was thrilled!! After failing to find a data set I felt comfortable with for the second 2017 #IronViz feeder contest, on August 6th, I entered my first #IronViz submission, as part of the third feeder contest. For me, entering the contest meant clearing a big mental hurdle and you can read more about that here. I was feeling very confident following my #IronViz submission and the positive feedback I received, so when Sean Miller tweeted out on August 14th, that he wanted to start a Tableau Community Fantasy Football league, I was all in. I felt it could be a great opportunity to make some connections and have a little fun all at the same time. THE data LEAGUE features some pretty amazing people!! But, we won’t get into how my team has performed…
Fall is Here – Blogging, Goals and TCTUG
After at least a month or two of kicking around the idea of starting a blog, unsure whether or not the timing was right, on September 19th I decided to just do it. That night, I chose my platform, purchased my domain, picked the theme, design and all that good stuff, and also published my very first Data Viz blog post. Jeff’s DataViz Journey was born and I had officially cleared another major hurdle!!
Having goals is very important. Writing them down is even more important. Until October 23rd, I had been terrible at getting my goals out of my head and onto paper. On the Subject of #VizGoals by Mark Edwards helped me turn the corner, get them written down and start focusing on them. The very next day, I went out and bought a notebook, where my goals and many other viz related things (blog post ideas, viz ideas, viz sketches, etc.) now reside. On October 25th, I read Learning Tableau by Jeffrey Shaffer. Please read this as well!! Jeffrey’s post has a ton of information for those looking to get started in the Tableau Community. Blogs, Social Media, Tableau User Groups, Videos, Books, Trainings…you name it, it is likely in here!!
In November, somewhere around a two-year hiatus, I once again attended a Twin Cities Tableau User Group Meeting. If you have a TUG in your area, I highly recommend attending, if you can work it into your schedule. I happened to be off the day of the November TCTUG meeting and things fell nicely into place, so I attended. My goal is to attend future meetings as frequently as possible. Yours should be too.
It was very rewarding to see Paul McHale’s November 16th blog post Learning from the Tableau Community in which he thanked me for providing him with the inspiration to share his work. In his post, Paul said he related very strongly to my blog post, ‘Overcoming the Fear to Share.’ It was great to see my blog have a positive impact on someone else in the community. That’s what it’s all about!! On November 24th, the day after Thanksgiving, I felt extra thankful, as Simon Beaumont mentioned me in a #TableauFF tweet. Simon, thank you again for the mention, it is greatly appreciated!! For quite awhile, I had been seeing #TableauFF on Friday’s, but never really understood what it meant until recently. For those who are unaware, it stands for Tableau Follow Friday and is a hashtag used (on Friday’s) as an opportunity to find and welcome new members of the community.
Winter – A Great Start
Alicia Bembenek’s December 3rd blog post, Who Else Wants to Up Their Blog Game? really hit home with me. My blog was closing in on being three-months old and although I did have six posts and counting, there was something I didn’t have…ANY SORT OF SET PLAN!! With a list of potential topics, a plan on when to write will be essential if I’m to be successful.
And on December 6th, Tableau Public recognized me as one of ten new Featured Authors and for that I am extremely thankful!! Congratulations to the nine other Tableau Public Featured Authors as well, I am honored to be a part of this great group!!
Thank you for taking the time to read, my hope is that you’re able to take some information and inspiration out of this post and apply it to your own Data Viz Journey!!
Jeff's DataViz Journey 