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The blockchain technology is gradually making its way among enterprise application developers. One of main barriers that hinder the pervasive adoption of blockchain technology is the lack of enough human capacity like system administrators and engineers to build and manage the blockchain applications. Indeed, to be fully qualified as a blockchain specialist, you need an interdisciplinary knowledge of information technology and information management. Relative to other well-established technologies like Data Science, blockchain has more terminologies and complex design architectures. Thus, once you learn how blockchain works, you may pick a platform and start building your applications.  Currently, the most popular platform for building private Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is Hyperledger Fabric. Under Hyperledger family, there are several DLTs, tools and libraries that assist developers and system administrators in building and managing enterprise blockchain applications.  Hyperledger Fabric is an enterprise-grade, distributed ledger platform that offers modularity and versatility for a broad set of industry use cases. The modular architecture for Hyperledger Fabric accommodates the diversity of enterprise use cases through plug and play components, such as consensus, privacy and membership services.  Why Hyperledger Fabric?  One of major highlights of Hyperledger Fabric that sets it apart from other public and private DLTs is its architecture. Specifically, it comes with different components that are meant for blockchain implementations at the enterprise level. A common use case is sharing private data with a subset of members while sharing common transaction data with all members simultaneously. The flexibility in data sharing is made possible via the “channels” feature in Hyperledger Fabric if you need total transaction isolation, and the “private data” feature if you’d like to keep data private while sharing hashes as transaction evidence on the ledger (private data can be shared among “collection” members, or with a specific organization on a need-to-know basis). Here is a good article for an in-depth review of Hyperledger Fabric components.  Currently, there are few resources available that cover Hyperledger Fabric holistically from design stage to development to deployment and finally to maintenance. One of highly recommended resources is “Blockchain with Hyperledger Fabric” a book by Nitin Gaur and others published for Packt Publication Company. Its second edition (get here) is now available at Amazon. For the remainder of this article, I briefly review some of its highlights.  Blockchain with Hyperledger Fabric Book Highlights  Compared with other available blockchain books in the market, the book by Nitin Gaur and others has more pages which means it covers more practical topics. As a senior Fabric developer, I find the following 5 major topics of the book very useful and can be used by all Fabric developers on a daily basis. Here is a good article for those who are new to blockchain development in Hyperledger.  1- Focus on enterprise  I personally have read a few books on Hyperledger from Packt written by Brian Wu, yet I think this book covers more practical enterprise topics than them. Also, unlike other Packt books on blockchain that are written mostly for educational audiences, this book, in my opinion, is more geared toward readers interested in putting Fabric concepts into practice. Here is a good article for a comprehensive review of blockchain use cases in many industries.  2- Coverage of Fabric network  Most books on Hyperledger focus usually draw a line between network administration and smart contract development by covering one in more depth (see this article for details). Indeed, in the previous Fabric books from Packt, I saw more emphasis on Fabric smart contract development than the network. However, this book does a good job of covering the Fabric network in more detail.  3- Integration and design patterns  For all I know, other books on Fabric have not covered design patterns for integrating Fabric into current or legacy systems. Thus, this book does a great job in covering it. Specifically, regarding Fabric integrations, this book discusses the following practical topics:  Integrating with an existing system of record  Integrating with an operational data store for blockchain analytics  Microservice and event-driven architecture  Resiliency and fault tolerance  Reliability and availability  Serviceability  4- DevOps and CI/CD  Almost every enterprise developer is familiar with DevOps and how to implement Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) on containerized applications using Kubernetes or Docker. However, in the previous books I read, there was no discussion on best practices for achieving agility in the Fabric network using DevOps best practices as covered in this book.  5- Hyperledger Fabric Security  As the cybersecurity landscape changes very fast, being the latest book in the market on Hyperledger Fabric, it offers good insights on the latest development and practices in securing Fabric networks and applications.  Other notable book topics that caught my attention were a- Developing service-layer applications, b-Modifying or upgrading a Hyperledger Fabric application, and c-System monitoring and performance.  Overall, I highly recommend this book to those who are serious about mastering Hyperledger Fabric. Indeed, if you learn and put most of the topics and concepts covered in this book into practice, you will earn a badge of Hyperledger Fabric specialist. 

Kevin Mason Senior Product Manager, Tableau Kristin Adderson December 29, 2020 - 8:23pm December 29, 2020 We are wrapping up 2020 with some well-timed holiday goodies. Tableau 2020.4 marks a very special milestone on our web authoring journey with the completion of the most requested web feature requests from the last two years, as well as the exciting release of Tableau Prep Builder on the web!  Our dev teams have been hard at work building Tableau into a true SaaS solution. With the majority of people working from home, web authoring has been particularly important to quickly give analysts access to the right data from anywhere without requiring a top-of-the-line computer to run analyses—a simple browser and reliable internet connection will do.  Tableau 2020.4 DemoWith the year coming to an end, we thought it would be fun to reflect and celebrate how far we’ve come on this journey to the web.  Humble beginnings During the early 2010s, the benefits of SaaS began to bear fruit. Tableau Desktop was our bread and butter, but required IT to install the software directly onto folks’ computers and maintain each individual license. This is where Tableau began to invest in Tableau Server, Tableau Online, and web authoring, though it was pretty limited in the early days. Can you believe web authoring didn’t even have dashboards until 2016?! Oh how time flies.  Old Tableau DemoMuch to our excitement, customers like Oldcastle saw the potential web authoring could bring to its organization. Oldcastle shared how it was encouraging employees to ask more data-driven questions and dig deeper using web authoring at TC15. As a pioneer for effectively using web authoring (even before dashboard editing!), Oldcastle’s TC talk is still relevant today. Oldcastle TC15 DemoAs part of Tableau Server and Tableau Online, web authoring offers a lot of benefits. It can be centrally managed, which simplifies deployment, license management, and version control. This means: Everyone in the organization gets the latest version during a Server or Online update, no individual Desktop updates needed.   Since all workbooks are stored on the Server, IT professionals have more visibility into what people are creating which helps with data governance and resource management.  IT teams don’t have to worry about managing multiple individual licenses—with web authoring, they can maintain licenses, upgrades, and content all on Tableau Server or Tableau Online. Analysts don’t have to context switch back to Desktop to make small changes. It can all be done in the same, single place.  An end-to-end experience in the browser Since then, we have been hard at work bringing much-loved Desktop features into the browser—we’re talking full home remodeling, down to the studs (basically Extreme Makeover: Tableau Edition). Our 2018.1 release saw the biggest change, with the ability to connect to data from the web, plus our new role-based pricing model. Parameters (2019.1), tooltips (2020.1), and filters (2020.3) were soon to follow. Finally, Tableau 2020.4 was extra-special, bringing the last of the most requested features you have patiently been waiting for to the web: actions, sets, and extracts. We heard the cries, demands, and pleas for the last three years, and I’m thrilled to say that web authoring has achieved parity with the Tableau Desktop you know and love! 2020.4 also includes Apply Filters to Selected Worksheets!During this journey, early adopters continued to share their success stories. At TC18, DISH Network illustrated how a few teams rolled out web authoring broadly in the organization and set up specific training sessions for new users. By setting up Web Authoring for analysts across the organization, DISH dramatically reduced the number of ad hoc requests its primary analytics teams would receive. As a result, the primary teams can focus on the larger, org-wide projects while everyday analysts are able to self-serve their own ad hoc requests for query and visualization changes. DISH still serves as an excellent example of how to create a data-driven culture.  Try it out yourself this new year Oldcastle and DISH are just two examples of the many customers finding success with web authoring. Even our sales team uses web authoring to build dashboards for the majority of their demos! Over the last 18 months, more customers are asking how to use web authoring to help expand their use of data throughout their business.  If you are curious to learn more, including some best practices, check out my Tableau Community post. I collected all the various resources with real customer examples and numerous videos from Tableau Conferences.  Or jump right in! Create a new workbook from scratch right on the web by clicking “New” > “Workbook” on the Explore page.  If you have the right permissions, you can edit existing workbooks by clicking the “Edit” button on the toolbar.  We’ve certainly come a long way, together As we close 2020, we would like to thank you. We really appreciate your patience as we rebuilt much-loved Desktop features and we cannot thank you enough for helping us identify which ones were most important to you.  Thank you to the 20,000+ that have participated in beta programs, posted on the Community Forums, and shared candid feedback while our PMs and user researchers pestered you with questions. It’s a little corny, but it’s true: you are what makes this #DataFam as special as it is. With your help, we were able to prioritize these web features among new analytics capabilities like viz in tooltip, nested sorting, spatial joins, and set actions!  We are excited to see what you build on the web using Tableau 2020.4. And I’m even more excited to show you what’s coming in 2021. In the coming releases, you will see more web-first features. After all, web applications are, well, web applications—so we expect them to behave a little differently, and certainly faster, than ye ol’ Desktop. I can’t share exact details, but you can expect investments that will make Tableau an exceptional web experience. And don’t worry—we are still delivering the very few remaining Desktop-loved features to the browser. We are just adding some special web-first considerations to them! Happy Holidays from all of us, to you. Here’s to 2021!  

Neal Myrick Global Head of the Tableau Foundation Kristin Adderson December 28, 2020 - 9:59pm December 27, 2020 Addressing a global pandemic and economic crisis while also driving for change in other areas—from racial inequity to equitable education to hunger—is a monumental challenge. We are lucky to have amazing nonprofit partners tackling these issues. We took a moment to check-in with some to hear how the year has shaped—and reshaped—their approach to solving some of the world’s most pressing issues.  Driving for racial equity and justice amid the pandemic: PolicyLink “2020 was tragic and heart-opening for racial equity,” says Josh Kirschenbaum, Chief Operating Officer of the racial equity research and action institute PolicyLink. COVID-19 exposed racial disparities in health and access to care, and the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed showed how far the country has to go to address them. “We have to step into this opening and move into an era of reckoning and acceleration around equity and justice that we’ve never seen before,” he says. Over the past year, PolicyLink helped drive the conversation around the need for equity-based solutions to COVID-19 with a comprehensive plan and set of policy priorities for pandemic response. They also released a weekly publication called COVID, Race, and the Revolution. “It’s critical to connect our data and policy proposals with narrative and communications,” Kirschenbaum says.  PolicyLink has also worked to draw attention to the broader racial inequity crisis in the U.S. This summer, they released their Racial Equity Index, a data tool to measure the state of equity in the largest 100 metros across the U.S. They also released a report outlining racial disparities in the workforce during the pandemic and were a founding partner in WeMustCount.org, an effort to push for COVID-19 data disaggregated by race. In 2021, PolicyLink wants to transform the energy and data around racial disparities in the U.S. into structural change. “We are no longer at the level of just doing project-based work,” Kirschenbaum says. “This is the time to lead with transformative solidary, focus on equity, and really redesign the nation.” Combatting increasing hunger: Feeding America and World Food Programme Image credit: Feeding AmericaCOVID-19 is a multi-level crisis. Our partners at Feeding America and the World Food Programme have seen firsthand how the pandemic has affected hunger in the U.S. and the world—and they’re working to respond to it.  “There’s been a perfect storm of increased demand, declines in donations of food, and disruptions to the charitable food assistance system’s operating model,” says Christine Feiner, Feeding America’s director of corporate partnerships. The organization estimates that progress made against food insecurity in the U.S.—which before was at the lowest it had been in 20 years—will be wiped out due to COVID-19. Over the last year, Feeding America saw demand increase 60% across its network of 200 food banks. Feeding America has relied on data to guide the organization through the pandemic. They launched a survey to understand demand and challenges across their member food banks. “That allowed us to have a real-time view into what food banks were seeing on the ground so we could property support them and connect them to additional resources,” Feiner says. Feeding America has also used this data to push for policy change at the federal level to help people at risk of hunger—work they plan to continue next year.  The United Nations World Food Programme—which became a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate this year—has been contending with increased need globally. “Roughly a quarter of a billion people—especially the already poor—are expected to have experienced food insecurity this year, largely driven by the loss of jobs, remittances, and purchasing power. Already poor and food insecure populations are disproportionately affected,” says Pierre Guillaume Wielezynski, the digital transformation services chief at WFP.  With the pandemic limiting WFP’s ability to work directly in communities and deliver aid, they’ve been able to use data and technology to reach people in need. In Tableau, they built a shipping and logistics platform for the entire humanitarian sector to manage and track aid deliveries in real-time. And they’ve been able to analyze data from technologies like text messaging and chatbots to get a picture of needs on the ground and ensure they’re responding most helpfully and efficiently.  Next year, WFP will continue to focus on delivering aid in communities while pushing for policy change, Wielezynski says. “Our presence in over 80 countries gives us a unique position to help advise our government partners on solutions to hunger and food insecurity,” he says.  Keeping the spotlight on homelessness: Community Solutions Image credit: Community SolutionsSince the beginning of the pandemic, the spotlight has been on frontline workers: healthcare professionals, post office workers, grocery store clerks. “What a lot of people didn’t really recognize initially was that homeless service providers are also on the frontline of protecting a population that is especially vulnerable to COVID-19,” says Anna Kim, communications lead for Community Solutions.  Communities and agencies that work with Community Solutions through their Built for Zero initiative—a data-driven program to bring about a functional end to homelessness—had to expand from the already-steep task of doing homeless response work to emergency pandemic response. “They needed to figure out how to get masks and PPE, and how to make shelters safe,” Kim says. But communities that have already been collecting detailed, person-specific data on their homeless population through Built for Zero found that same data to be critical in responding to COVID-19. Communities like Jacksonville, Florida, were able to use their by-name list of people experiencing homelessness to conduct wide-spread testing and keep people safe.  Throughout the pandemic, Community Solutions has elevated the importance of addressing homelessness as both a public health and racial equity imperative. “The raised public consciousness around racial equity after the murder of George Floyd has also heightened the importance of understanding how homelessness has always disproportionately impacted Black and Native populations,” Kim says. “We’ve been able to raise awareness of the need to invest even further in addressing these disparities and ending homelessness.” Community Solutions was recently named a finalist in the prestigious MacArthur Foundation 100&Change competition for their exceptional work. Next year, they hope to expand partnerships with cities across the U.S. to continue driving for an end to homelessness—even in the face of enormous health and economic challenges. Addressing growing education equity gaps: Equal Opportunity Schools As COVID-19 has forced schools to close and learning to go remote, equity divides among students have grown even more pronounced. “We talk about how COVID-19 is exacerbating inequities and pre-existing conditions in health, but it’s also true in education,” says Sasha Rabkin, chief strategy officer for Equal Opportunity Schools, an organization focused on closing equity gaps in education. “And inequity is a pre-existing condition.” EOS has built data tools for schools and districts to understand inequities and how they play out along racial lines. Through the surveys they conducted twice in 2020, EOS found that over 75% of students say that they are struggling with motivation–particularly with balancing coursework with the desire to have deep conversations about what’s happening globally with COVID, racial injustice, and political movements. “For educators to be able to hear that is invaluable,” Rabkin says. What’s on the mind of EOS and the educators they work with is how they can more genuinely meet students where they are and construct learning environments that respond to the current moment and bring students along. “Can we start to think about measuring and understanding and engaging with what matters, instead of continuing with the status quo? Schools look a lot like they did 20 years ago. Can we make this a moment to think critically about what we could be doing differently?” Supporting access to sanitation and hand-washing infrastructure: Splash A Splash handwashing station (Image credit: Make Beautiful)As a nonprofit, Splash focuses on providing handwashing, hygiene, and sanitation infrastructure to kids in schools and orphanages in cities throughout the Global South. During the pandemic, says Laura Mapp, Director of Business Development at Splash, their work has become even more essential and complicated. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we engaged in direct COVID relief with our government partners in Ethiopia,” Mapp says. In Addis Ababa, three of the schools where Splash had previously installed hand-washing stations and sanitation infrastructure became quarantine centers, where people who suspected they had the virus could safely quarantine away from their families. Splash also partnered with the Bureau of Health in Addis Ababa to bring their handwashing stations to six hospitals across the city. They’ve been able to install sanitation infrastructure in schools while children are learning remotely. Students learning from home, Mapp says, spurred Splash to innovate on ways to reach them virtually with messaging about the importance of handwashing and information about menstrual health, especially for girls. “This is helping us forge some new partnerships to enable the delivery of these tools, particularly in India, where mobile and computer usage is more accessible,” Mapp says. For instance, they’re partnering with a platform called Oky, designed by Unicef, that young girls can use to get answers about menstrual health questions. While the pandemic continues to pose significant challenges in the communities where Splash works, Mapp is hopeful that the increased attention on the need for good sanitation infrastructure and communication around hygiene best practices will help keep people safe through and beyond the pandemic. Pivoting a successful social enterprise to meet community needs: FareStart Image Credit: FareStartAs soon as COVID-19 began forcing lockdowns in cities across the U.S., FareStart knew it would have to pivot its operations. The social enterprise manages a handful of restaurants and cafes across Seattle, where people facing barriers to employment—from homelessness to drug-use history—gain training and experience in the workforce. With restaurants shuttering and in-person work discouraged, FareStart’s programs could not continue as normal.  Almost immediately, FareStart started using its restaurants and kitchens to prepare individual meals to deliver to the most vulnerable. FareStart now is serving over 50,000 individual meals per week, distributed across over 100 sites, says Erika Van Merr, FareStart’s Associate Director of Philanthropy.  Managing this broad distribution operation and network, Van Merr says, has required more data than FareStart ever used before. They’ve been using external data to understand the COVID-19 situation in their community while inputting data daily to track meals: preparation location, for what organization, and where they were distributed. “We really had to up our data savviness to make decisions about how to operate daily,” Van Merr says. They plan to continue using data to expand their community meals program even after the pandemic is over. While the organization has launched virtual training programs, it looks forward to bringing back the students in person and reopening its restaurant and cafes. “When people ask what our plans look like for next year, I tell them that we will continue to provide hunger relief for our community’s most vulnerable neighbors,” says Van Merr.  To learn more about Tableau Foundation and its partners, visit tableau.com/foundation.

Sarah Hinrichsen Services Delivery Enablement Manager, Tableau Kristin Adderson December 28, 2020 - 6:13pm December 28, 2020 Okay, so maybe you aren’t completely sold on virtual instructor-led training yet. I am here to reassure you. There’s a place for it in your Tableau education plan. If you haven’t taken virtual training before, the unknown might make you question whether it’s right for you. Or, if you have taken virtual training, you may wonder what Tableau’s has to offer. Let’s ease your concerns and get you excited about attending a Tableau virtual training. Convenient and Flexible Who doesn’t love working from home in their pajamas? Tableau virtual instructor-led training allows you to grab your first cup of coffee (or fifth, we’re not counting) and leisurely get to your computer before class starts. No worrying about getting out the door and commuting—you can join right from home. You can even attend from the beach, lake, coffee shop, or pub down the street. As long as you have internet access, you can join a virtual training class. *Screenshot above is a subset of options. Times are shown in the user's local time. We offer classes in time zones worldwide, so there will be options in or close to your time zone. This allows you the convenience of taking a course during the workday or in a different time zone, so it doesn’t interfere with your daily work. We also offer virtual classes of varying lengths. Some are full days (9 am-5 pm), and some are partial days (2 - 3 hours/day). This gives you the flexibility to complete the course in a couple of days or spread it out over a week. Either way, you are getting the same proven Tableau curriculum delivered by an expert certified instructor. The only downside is that you don’t get a catered lunch. But it also means you can have potato chips and chocolate for lunch—no judgment here. Interactive and Engaging I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s hard to focus when a presenter doesn’t engage with the audience. In a virtual environment, this becomes even more important; no one wants to be talked at for multiple hours in a day. Tableau’s virtual training instructors utilize many different tools to engage with you throughout the class—in the form of a verbal question, a multiple-choice poll, or a hands-on discovery task. You have the opportunity to use the chat or anonymous poll to answer questions. Having multiple outlets for interactivity and switching between the lecture, interactivity, and hands-on activity will allow you to interact more comfortably and keep the class moving.  Not only do our instructors use interactivity to keep you engaged, but they also throw in fun ways to learn the concepts. For example, to make complex topics more relatable—they may use ice cream sales to help you understand Scatter plots or superheroes to discuss Sets and combined Sets or even cookie recipes to get you more familiar with Relationships. Once you understand the concepts at a fundamental level, the instructor relates them to industry-specific examples so you will know how to apply them to your work. In a perfect world, I would want instructors to ask me questions to keep me engaged, and somewhere I can get my questions answered in real-time. Guess what?!  Our virtual training instructors don’t follow a script and answer any questions you might have throughout the course. You can ask questions about the content the instructor is demonstrating. Most importantly, if you ever get stuck during a hands-on activity, the instructor will be able to clarify steps, so that you can move ahead seamlessly. And remember, if you don’t want to come off mute to ask a question, the virtual training environment has a chat feature to chat directly with the instructor. Support Technology doesn’t come without its pitfalls, and many times it can be daunting to have to use new systems and technologies. Our Global Services team is here to help. A week before your training session, you will receive all of the information to download the course materials and log in. You can download the materials ahead of time and test your connection to the virtual environment before the training starts. This not only allows you to stroll into class a few minutes early with peace of mind but if you have any issues before class begins, you can get help from Global Services. They can assist with troubleshooting or even use other resources and technologies to make sure you have the content and information you need.  Not only do you have Global Services to help with technical issues as your first line of defense, but you also have the certified instructor to help. The instructor knows the technologies’ ins and outs and can point you in the right direction if something happens during class. Many of our instructors are seasoned experts and have likely dealt with all the technical issues you throw at them.  Now that you know a little more about virtual instructor led-training at Tableau, you are ready to take your learning experience to the next level! Once you get into the virtual classroom, you will quickly understand how fun and engaging our virtual classes and instructors are. Convinced and ready to sign up? Go to the Live Virtual Training Classes page to see courses and a full schedule. You can register for a class directly from there! Still not convinced? Check out the video at the bottom of the Instructor-Led Training page that gives you a window into our virtual instructor-led training with snippets of live classroom experiences.

Team Tableau Public Kristin Adderson December 23, 2020 - 9:01pm December 24, 2020 Let’s be real, 2020 has been one incredibly wild ride that no one expected. Despite it all, one thing remained steadfast: the Tableau Public global community of data enthusiasts’ commitment to bringing impactful (and often mindblowing) data insights to life. To mark the end of 2020, we’re taking a look back at some of the most amazing visualizations created by the #DataFam this year.  We looked back at highlights from this year’s featured visualizations. Our “Viz of the Day” gallery represents the many ways our community uses Tableau Public to visualize the data topics they’re most passionate about. Each day, the Tableau Public team selects and features a “Viz of the Day” (VOTD) based on a variety of criteria. A viz might tell a clear and compelling story. Perhaps it is visually stunning or includes an innovative chart type. Or, the viz might result from one of the community’s social data projects or competitions. Whatever the reason, each featured viz shares a common trait—demonstrating the realm of possibility when using data to express oneself.  There were over 200 visualizations featured as “Viz of the Day” in 2020. The Tableau Public team reviewed each one and hand-picked our favorite from each month. We’ve strived to highlight a diversity of visualizations with different chart-types on a wide range of topics from authors across the globe. Read about each one, then click on the thumbnail to see each creation in its full glory. See a viz that you love? Don’t forget to let that author know by logging in and “favoriting” it.    JANUARY  The 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index by Lali Jularbal The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) takes an in-depth look at how people experience three dimensions of poverty—Health, Education, and Living Standards—in 101 developing countries. Lali Jularbal visualizes the developing country’s rankings by MPI, Intensity, Headcount, and poverty dimensions. Favorite this viz   FEBRUARY Racial Integration in U.S. Schools by Candra McCrae Desegregation orders were implemented by the Supreme Court to help eliminate segregation in schools across the United States. However, according to a recent Gallup Poll, 57% of U.S. adults believe school segregation is still a moderate or severe problem. In this visualization, Candra McRae looks at the history of racial integration in U.S. schools and explores ideas that could help reduce segregation. Favorite this viz   MARCH Popular Pizza Toppings by Amy Tran Whether or not pineapple belongs on a pizza was arguably one of the most controversial debate topics in 2020. Dig into this #MakeoverMonday visualization by Amy Tran to learn about the most popular pizza toppings in Britain. Did your favorite topping make the list? Favorite this viz   APRIL The World's Dependence on the Travel Industry by Chantilly Jaggernauth The travel and tourism industry accounted for more than 10% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019. Explore this visualization by Chantilly Jaggernauth to see the amount of GDP generated by travel and tourism, including hotels, airlines, travel agencies, and more, in various countries across the globe. Favorite this viz   MAY Teladoc Health, Inc. by Praveen P Jose  Many countries around the world are still struggling to control the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). As a result, telemedicine has become more popular than ever before. In this visualization, Praveen P Jose looks at the stock price of leading telemedicine provider Teladoc over the last five years. Favorite this viz   JUNE Exonerations in America by JR Copreros Over 2,500 wrongful convictions have been reversed in the U.S. since 1989. Using data from the National Registry of Exonerations, JR Copreros visualizes exonerations by race, state, type of crime, and more, revealing systemic flaws in the criminal justice system. Favorite this viz   JULY Economic Empowerment of Women by Yobanny Samano According to the World Bank, the Women, Business and the Law (WBL) Index, composed of eight indicators, "tracks how the law affects women at various stages in their lives, from the basics of transportation to the challenges of starting a job and getting a pension." In this #MakeoverMonday visualization, Yobanny Samano looks at the WBL index scores for 190 countries. Favorite this viz   AUGUST Constellations Born of Mythology by Satoshi Ganeko How did constellations get their names? Many of them are named after figures in Greek and Roman mythology. Brush up on your stargazing skills and explore this #IronQuest visualization by Satoshi Ganeko to learn about each one. Favorite this viz   SEPTEMBER The Day Lebanon Changed by Soha Elghany and Fred Najjar On August 4, 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the port city of Beirut exploded, killing over 200 people and causing billions of dollars in damage. Soha Elghany and Fred Najjar collaborated to create this visualization, which shows the impact of one of the most powerful non-nuclear explosions in history. Favorite this viz   OCTOBER The Air We Breathe by Christian Felix According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), 97% of cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines. In this visualization, #IronViz Champion Christian Felix explores the correlation between breathing air inequality and wealth inequality. Favorite this viz   NOVEMBER The Most Popular Dog Breeds by Anjushree B V In 2019, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi made it onto the Top 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds list for the first time. Check out this visualization by Anjushree B V to learn how each dog breed's popularity has changed over time. Favorite this viz   DECEMBER Giant Pandas Overseas by Wendy Shijia  Did you know that China rents out its pandas? Today, over 60 giant pandas, native to south-central China, can be found worldwide. Dive into this visualization by Wendy Shijia to learn when each panda living abroad will be returned to its home country. Favorite this viz   And that’s a wrap! Cheers to an incredible year, made possible by Tableau Public users like you. Be sure to subscribe to “Viz of the Day” to get more visualizations like these—another year’s worth of awe-inspiring community-created data inspiration awaits.  Craving more viz-spiration? Check out these resources commemorating Tableau Public’s 10th anniversary: Ten most-favorited vizzes to celebrate ten viz-tastic years of Tableau Public Ten years later—What Tableau Public means to our community and the world If Data Could Talk: A walk down memory lane with Tableau Public

Brian Matsubara RVP of Global Technology Alliances Kristin Adderson December 22, 2020 - 9:46pm December 23, 2020 We recently wrapped up participation in the all-virtual AWS re:Invent 2020 where we shared our experiences from scaling Tableau Public ten-fold this year. What an informative few weeks! It wasn’t surprising that the theme of scalability was mentioned throughout many sessions; as IT leaders and professionals, you’re working hard to support remote workforces and evolving business needs in our current situation. This includes offering broader access to data and analytics and embracing the cloud to better adapt, innovate, and grow more resilient while facing the unexpected. As you welcome more individuals to the promising world of modern BI, you must ensure systems and processes are equipped to support higher demand, and empower everyone in the organization to make the most of your data and analytics investments. Let’s take a closer look at what’s top of mind for IT to best enable the business while scaling your analytics program.  Supporting your data infrastructure Many organizations say remote work is here to stay, while new data and analytics use cases are constantly emerging to address the massive amounts of data that organizations collect. IT must enable an elastic environment where it's easier, faster, more reliable, and more secure to ingest, store, analyze, and share data among a dispersed workforce.  1. Deploying flexible infrastructure With benefits including greater flexibility and more predictable operating expenses, cloud-based infrastructure can help you get analytics pipelines up and running fast. And attractive, on-demand pricing makes it easier to scale resources up and down, supporting growing needs. If you're considering moving your organization’s on-premises analytics to the cloud, you can accelerate your migration and time to value by leveraging the resources and expertise of a strategic partner. Hear from Experian who is deploying and scaling its analytics in the cloud and recently benefited from this infrastructure.  Experian turned to Tableau and AWS for support powering its new Experian Safeguard dashboard, a free analytics tool that helps public organizations use data to pinpoint and protect vulnerable communities. Accessibility and scalability of the dashboard resulted in faster time to market and adoption by nearly 70 local authorities, emergency services, and charities now using “data for good.”  2. Optimizing costs According to IDC research, analytics spend in the cloud is growing eight times faster than other deployment types. You’ve probably purchased a data warehouse to meet the highest demand timeframes of the organization, but don’t need the 24/7 support that can result in unused capacity and wasted dollars. Monitor cloud costs and use patterns to make better operating, governance, and risk management decisions around your cloud deployment as it grows, and to protect your investment —especially when leadership is looking for every chance to maximize resources and keep spending streamlined. Supporting your people Since IT’s responsibilities are more and more aligned with business objectives—like revenue growth, customer retention, and even developing new business models—it’s critical to measure success beyond deploying modern BI technology. It’s equally important to empower the business to adopt and use analytics to discover opportunities, create efficiencies, and drive change. 3. Onboarding and license management As your analytics deployment grows, it's not scalable to have individuals submit one-off requests for software licenses that you then have to manually assign, configure, and track. You can take advantage of the groups you’ve already established in your identity and access management solution to automate the licensing process for your analytics program. This can also reduce unused licenses, helping lines of business to save a little extra budget.  4. Ensuring responsible use Another big concern as analytics programs grow is maintaining data security and governance in a self-service model. Fortunately, you can address this while streamlining user onboarding even further by automatically configuring user permissions based on their group memberships. Coupled with well-structured analytics content, you’ll not only reduce IT administrative work, but you’ll help people get faster, secure access to trusted data that matters most to their jobs. 5. Enabling access from anywhere When your organization is increasingly relying on data to make decisions, 24/7 support and access to customized analytics is business-critical. With secure, mobile access to analytics and an at-a-glance view of important KPIs, your users can keep a pulse on their business no matter where they are. 6. Growing data literacy When everyone in the organization is equipped and encouraged to explore, understand, and communicate with data, you’ll see amazing impact from more informed decision-making. But foundational data skills are necessary to get people engaged and using data and analytics properly. Customers have shown us creative and fun ways that IT helps build data literacy, from formal training to community-building activities. For example, St. Mary’s Bank holds regular Tableau office hours, is investing more time and energy in trainings, and has games that test employees on their Tableau knowledge.  Want to learn more?  If you missed AWS re:Invent 2020, you’re not out of luck! You can still register and watch on-demand content, including our own discussion of scaling Tableau Public tenfold to support customers and their growing needs for sharing COVID-19 data (featuring SVP of Product Development, Ellie Fields, and Director of Software Engineering, Jared Scott). You’ll learn about how we reacted to customer demands—especially from governments reporting localized data to keep constituents safe and informed during the pandemic—including shifts from on-premises to the cloud, hosting vizzes that could handle thousands, even millions, of daily hits. Data-driven transformation is an ongoing journey. Today, the organizations that are successfully navigating uncertainty are those leaning into data and analytics to solve challenges and innovate together. No matter where you are—evaluating, deploying, or scaling—the benefits of the cloud and modern BI are available to you. You can start by learning more about how we partner with AWS.

Ashwin Kumar Senior Product Manager Kristin Adderson December 22, 2020 - 8:04pm December 22, 2020 The Tableau 2020.4 release comes fully-loaded with tons of great features, including several key updates to boost your geospatial analysis. In particular, the new multiple marks layers feature lets you add an unlimited number of layers to the map. This means you can visualize multiple sets of location data in context of one another, and there’s no need for external tools to build custom background maps.  Drag and drop map layers—yes, it’s just that easy Spend less time preparing spatial datasets and more time analyzing your data with drag-and-drop map layers across Tableau Online, Server, and Desktop in Tableau 2020.4. Getting started is easy! Once you’ve connected to a datasource that contains location data and created a map, simply drag any geographic field onto the Add a Marks Layers drop target, and Tableau will instantly draw the new layer of marks on the map. For each layer that you create, Tableau provides a new marks card, so you can encode each layer’s data by size, shape, and color. What’s more, you can even control the formatting of each layer independently, giving you maximum flexibility in controlling the appearance of your map.  But that’s not all. While allowing you to draw an unlimited number of customized map layers is a powerful capability in its own right, the multiple map layers feature in Tableau gives you even more tools that you can use to supercharge your analytics. First up: the ability to toggle the visibility of each layer. With this feature, you can decide to show or hide each layer at will, allowing you to visualize only the relevant layers for the question at hand. You can use this feature by hovering over each layer’s name in the marks card, revealing the interactive eye icon. Sometimes, you may want only some of your layers to be interactive, and the remaining layers to simply be part of the background. And luckily, the multiple map layers feature allows you to have exactly this type of control. Hovering over each layer’s name in the marks card reveals a dropdown arrow. Clicking on this arrow, you can select the first option in the context menu: Disable Selection. With this option, you can customize the end-user experience, ensuring that background contextual layers do not produce tooltips or other interactive elements when not required.  Finally, you also have fine-grained control over the drawing order, or z-order, of layers on your map. With this capability, you can ensure that background layers that may obscure other map features are drawn on the bottom. To adjust the z-order of layers on the map, you can either drag to reorder your layers in the marks card, or you can use the Move Up and Move Down options in each layer’s dropdown context menu.  Drawing an unlimited number of map layers is critical to helping you build authoritative, context-appropriate maps for your organization. This is helpful for a wide variety of use cases across industries and businesses. Check out some more examples below: A national coffee chain might want to visualize stores, competitor locations, and win/loss metrics by sales area to understand competitive pressures. In the oil and gas industry, visualizing drilling rigs, block leases, and nautical boundaries could help devise exploration and investment strategies.A disaster relief NGO may decide to map out hurricane paths, at-risk hospitals, and first-responder bases to deploy rescue teams to those in need.Essentially, you can use this feature to build rich context into your maps and support easy analysis and exploration for any scenario! Plus, spatial updates across the stack: Tableau Prep, Amazon Redshift, and offline maps The 2020.4 release will also include other maps feature to help you take location intelligence to the next level. In this release, we’re including support for spatial data in Tableau Prep, so you can clean and transform your location data without having to use a third party tool. We’re also including support for spatial data from Amazon Redshift databases, and offline maps for Tableau Server, so you can use Tableau maps in any environment and connect to your location data directly from more data sources.  Want to know what else we released with Tableau 2020.4? Learn about Tableau Prep in the browser, web authoring and predictive modeling enhancements, and more in our launch announcement. We’d love your feedback Can you think of additional features you need to take your mapping in Tableau to greater heights? We would love to hear from you! Submit your request on the Tableau Ideas Forum today. Every idea is considered by our Product Management team and we value your input in making decisions about what to build next.  Want to get a sneak peek at the latest and greatest in Tableau? Visit our Coming Soon page to learn more about what we’re working on next. Happy mapping! 

Geraldine Zanolli Developer Evangelist Kristin Adderson December 18, 2020 - 3:42am December 18, 2020 Every month is like Christmas for Developer Program members because we strive to delight our members as we showcase the latest projects from our internal developer platform and tools engineers. For the last Sprint Demos, we featured some exciting updates: Personal Access Token impersonation, auto-disabling Webhooks, new Webhooks payload for Slack, and JupyterLab integration for the Hyper API. Check out the gifts of increased communication, time, and security that these updates will bring. Personal Access Token (PAT) impersonation One of the use cases for the REST API is to query available content (e.g. projects, workbooks, data sources) for certain users. For embedding scenarios specifically, we often want to load up end-user-specific content within the application. The way to do this today is via impersonation, by which a server admin can impersonate a user, query as that user, and retrieve content that user has access to based on permissions within Tableau. Today, server admins can already impersonate users by sending over the user’s unique userID as part of the sign-in request, however, in order to do this, they need to hardcode their username and password in any scripts requiring impersonation.  Over a year ago, we released Personal Access Tokens (PATs), which are long-lived authentication tokens that allow users to run automation with the Tableau REST API without hard-coding credentials or requiring an interactive login. In the 2021.1 release, we are going to introduce user impersonation support for PATs, the last piece of functionality previously supported only by hard-coded credentials in REST API scripts. So, why not update all your scripts to use PATs today? Auto-disable Webhooks Webhooks is a notification service that allows you to integrate Tableau with any external server. Anytime that an event is happening on Tableau, Tableau is sending an HTTP POST request to the external server. Once the external server is receiving the request, it can respond to the event. But what is happening when the Webhook fails? You might have created multiple Webhooks on your site for testing that are no longer set properly, which means you’ll want to manually disable them or delete them. Today, the way that a Webhook works is that every time a Webhook is triggered, it is going to attempt to connect to the external server up to four times. After four times, it is going to count as a failed delivery attempt.  In our upcoming product releases, after four failed delivery attempts, the Webook will be automatically disabled and an email will be sent to the Webhook owner. But don't worry: If you have a successful delivery attempt before reaching a fourth failed attempt, the counter will be reset to zero. As always, you can configure these options on Tableau Server. Slack: New payload for Webhooks Since the release of Webhooks, we noticed that one of the most popular use cases is Slack. Tableau users want to be notified on Slack when an event is happening on Tableau. Today, this use case doesn’t work out of the box. You need to set up middleware in order to send Webhooks from Tableau to Slack—so yes, the payload that we’re sending from Tableau has a different format than the payload that Slack is asking for. (It's like speaking French to someone who only speaks German: you need a translator in the middle.)  In the upcoming 2021.1 release, you’ll be able to create new Webhooks to Slack with no need for middleware! We’re going to add an additional field to the payload.  Hyper API: JupyterLab integration Hyper API is a powerful tool, but with the new command-line interface around Hyper API, will it be even more powerful?  It will indeed! We added the command-line interface around HyperAPI to our hyper-api-samples in our open-source repository, so you can directly run SQL queries against Hyper. We integrated with an existing command-line interface infrastructure—the Jupyter infrastructure—giving you the ability to use HyperAPI directly within JupyterLab. If you’re not familiar with JupyterLab, it’s a web-based IDE mostly used by data scientists.  With the JupyterLab integration, it has never been easier for you to prototype new functionalities:  You can run your SQL queries and check the results without having to write a complete program around Hyper API.  Debugging is also becoming easier: You can isolate your queries to find the root cause of your issue.  Don’t forget about all the ad hoc, analytical queries that you can now run on data directly from your console. Get started using JupyterLab in a few minutes. Updates from the #DataDev Community The #DataDev community continues to share their knowledge with others and drive innovation: Robert Crocker (twitter @robcrock) published two tutorials on the JavaScript API Elliott Stam (twitter @elliottstam) launched a YouTube Channel and published multiple videos on the Tableau REST APIs Andre de Vries (twitter @andre347_) also shared on YouTube a video explaining Trusted Authentication Anya Prosvetova (twitter @Anyalitica) inspired from the Brain Dates at TC-ish launched a monthly DataDev Happy Hours to chat about APIs and Developer Tools Join the #DataDev community to get your invitation to our exclusive Sprint Demos and be the first to know about the Developer Platform updates—directly from the engineering team. See you next year!

Jeff Huckaby Market Segment Director, Retail and Consumer Goods, Tableau Kristin Adderson December 14, 2020 - 8:37pm December 22, 2020 Retail already changed from being product to more customer-centric influenced by increasing omni-channel initiatives that encourage digital transformation. Then Covid-19 hit. What retailers learned is that they must be willing and able to adapt quickly to internal and external forces. The silver lining is at the heart of digital transformation and adaptability is data.   According to McKinsey & Company, due to Covid-19, companies accelerated digital transformation by seven years. Tableau observed this with our retail customers as most staff were forced to work remotely, curb-side service became a required option for customers, and innovative solutions were needed to protect the safety of employees and customers. And it is no surprise that digital commerce exploded with an increased desire to shop online and limit face-to-face interactions. According to Salesforce, a new global record was hit on Black Friday for digital revenue with over $60B in online spend, a growth of 30 percent over last year.   As our retail and consumer goods customers focus on wrapping up the holiday shopping season and a tumultuous year, we wanted to give them an early preview of an upcoming whitepaper, releasing in January 2021. The visualized data will address common but nagging issues like in-stock position and product availability, online customer journey, competitive pricing, supply chain optimization, and loyalty program analysis, among others. Let’s explore visual analyses that reveal critical inventory and customer location insights, which lead to better site location and marketing opportunities.     On-Shelf Availability Dashboards Photo by Jeff Huckaby at a grocery store on March 11, 2020.Empty shelves were a typical scene in March, posing problems for stores and customers. Need toilet paper or baby formula? There was none. They flew off the shelves as quickly as they were stocked. These dashboards connect inventory and availability to grocers, suppliers, stores, and warehouses, so the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry can act to eliminate out-of-stocks. Here’s to more availability of toilet paper in 2021! “Stock in Trade” Dashboard This visual analysis created by Tableau partner, Atheon Analytics, helps retailers and their suppliers quickly and easily see where inventory is under- or over-stocked by grocer and store location. As a supplier, further examine product availability in warehouses (depots in the UK) to know where stock must be allocated, ensuring availability at certain stores. Unifying retailers, suppliers, and manufacturers around this near real-time data is essential going forward to support constantly changing customer demands.   In the next example, see the product data, category, or sub-category rolled up to the individual grocer. Visualized on the right is current demand compared with stock levels, so you know when you are approaching dangerously low or no inventory to support customers.  Atheon Analytics brings together this critical information from suppliers and retailers in Snowflake to effectively work from one operational canvas and act in unison.  Customer Location and Site Selection Dashboards With lockdowns and work from home mandates leading to a reduction in commuting, many retailers observed a dramatic change in customer flows. They should take a fresh, on-going look at current customer location data and competitors to quickly and confidently know the changing dynamics of their local markets and how customer composition changes throughout the day.  Leading that charge is Tableau partner, Lovelytics, which created a “Customer Location and Site Selection” dashboard, powered by global location provider, Foursquare. It analyzes the Foursquare Visits data feed using geospatial analysis, offers an option to add your own customer demographics and traffic data, and enables businesses to pinpoint an optimal site for opening or where to use an existing location, helping inform customer marketing and targeting.  Evaluate via spatial analysis the number of visitors, the amount of foot traffic, and how the flow of customers changes. This information could easily be combined with real-time sales and loyalty data, and allow for restaurants, in this example, to use Salesforce Einstein for creating a churn analysis, predicting customers they may lose, and knowing when to activate a new retention campaign within Salesforce Marketing Cloud.    This location view specifically analyzes more than 1.3 million site visits to various restaurant chains in the Denver, Colorado area with the option to look closely by store location, day, and hour. In Tableau, it is easy to “playback” how local areas are changing and how that impacts existing stores.  It is also an incredible way to ensure new site selection won’t cannibalize existing locations and that you allocate the correct labor to offer a safe, high-quality experience for customers. Benefits of inventory and customer clarity for retail Demystifying inventory availability and ensuring grocers, suppliers, and warehouses (or depots) are aligned ensures that the right inventory gets to the right stores as customer demands and traffic change on a dime. This same data can help remove the guesswork with new store construction builds or help prioritize remodels.   We look forward to sharing the remaining dashboards next month—and all interactive examples will be free to access on Tableau Public. Have a very safe and enjoyable holiday season!     Join the discussion  Join over 3,500 retail and consumer goods customers to discuss and talk about retail analytics, ask questions, and provide help.     About the Partners We want to thank Atheon Analytics and Lovelytics for their participation. To learn more about these incredible examples highlighted, please connect with them.

Andy Cotgreave Technical Evangelist Director, Tableau Kristin Adderson December 11, 2020 - 11:09pm December 12, 2020 Hello everyone and welcome to the latest round up of the Tableau community highlights. I was reminded this month of how important “success” in analytics is about much more than one’s skills in the platform. This month, as always, the community has shared many super tips and tricks to improve your ability to master Tableau, but there has been a great set of posts on all the other career development “stuff” that you mustn’t ignore if you want to succeed.  Judit Bekker’s latest post describes how she found a job in analytics. Her story contains great advice for anyone setting out on this wonderful career journey.  Ruth Amarteifio from The Information Lab describes how to ask the right questions before embarking on a data project. Believe me, these are great questions that I wish I had known before I started my career in analytics. Helping grow a community is a great means to develop your network and open yourself to new opportunities. What better way than starting a Tableau User Group? Interworks has a great list of ideas to inspire you and help you get started on the right path.  If those aren’t enough, then you must head to Adam Mico’s blog where he curated reflections from 129 different people (!) from the Tableau community. There are so many great stories here. Read them all or dip into a few, and you’ll find ideas to help you build your own career in analytics, regardless of which tool or platform you end up using.   As always, enjoy the list! Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn as I try and share many of these throughout the month. Also, you can check out which blogs I am following here. If you don’t see yours on the list, you can add it here. Tips and tricks Andy Kriebel #TableauTipTuesday: How to Sort a Chart with a Parameter Action Luke Stanke Beyond Dual Axis: Using Multiple Map Layers to create next-level visualizations in Tableau    Marc Reid Tableau Map Layers Inspiration Adam Mico The #DataFam: 128 Authors From 21 Countries Spanning Six Continents Share Their 2020 Tableau… Bridget Cogley Data Viz Philosophy: Better than Bar Charts Adam McCann Layering Multiple Charts in Tableau 2020.4 Mark Bradbourne Real World Fake Data – Human Resources Recap Lindsay Betzendahl Visualizing COVID-19: March’s #ProjectHealthViz and the Impact of Pushing Boundaries Formatting, Design, Storytelling Evelina Judeikyte  Three Design Principles for More Effective Dashboards Ken Flerlage Creating a Basic Beeswarm Plot in Tableau Adam McCann Animated Buttons and Animated Night/Day Toggle Prep Tom Prowse Tableau Prep vs Einstein Analytics – Combining and Outputs Server Mark Wu Difference between ‘suspend extract refresh task’ vs ‘tag stale content’ feature Set and Parameter Actions Kevin Flerlage Dynamically Show & Hide Parameters & Filters based on another Parameter Selection Ethan Lang  3 Essential Ways to Use Dynamic Parameters in Tableau

Jarrett O’Brien Nonprofit Cloud Product Marketing Director, Salesforce Kristin Adderson December 10, 2020 - 4:00pm December 10, 2020 2020 has delivered so many unknowns in terms of how nonprofits operate, convene supporters, and plan for the future. All these unknowns have come with financial uncertainty—which forces leadership to make tough decisions and challenging pivots to keep their organizations thriving. These decisions are best made with strong conviction and a foundation of rock-solid data.  Eric Dayton, Director of Data at buildOn, faced many unknowns when he came home from Malawi on March 3rd, a week before the COVID shutdown. Fortunately, buildOn’s ongoing investment in their digital transformation helped the organization shift gears smoothly and chart a course of action during the early days of the pandemic.  Dayton shared how their investment in digital helped: “Data and transparency are leading tenets for buildOn and the communities we serve. If we hadn't dug deep and done all the work to digitize our mission over the last few years, we wouldn't be so well set up to succeed.” Dayton was able to help his organization quickly pivot their fundraising and programs to continue to achieve their goals. For many organizations, the right technology, data, and strategy can make all the difference. A misplaced metric can erode trust in a board or funder meeting, but the right one can get your program funded. Using robust data to inform your decisions can help your nonprofit become more agile—while lack of data can hold nonprofits back from making decisions at all. “We grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s. We were spreadsheet-based, with simple, digestible KPIs presented to main stakeholders in a basic Excel file,” shared Dayton. “That spreadsheet grew into a system teams relied on, but it didn’t function or scale well. Nonprofits think these manual systems are helping their business, but they’re actually the source of 90% of the organization’s problems, especially when it comes to analyzing large amounts of data.”  Digital-first thinking from buildOn supports a data-driven culture that empowers staff to lead with confidence and navigate uncertain times. And they’re not alone in finding success in a digital-forward approach: In our 3rd edition of the Nonprofit Trends Report, we saw 27% of organizations with high digital maturity exceed their fundraising goals during the pandemic, compared to organizations with low digital maturity exceeding only 7% of their goals.   Tableau Dashboard 3rd Edition of Nonprofit Trends Report showing nonprofit organizations that exceeded goals by digital maturity. In an environment that’s shifting and evolving constantly, nonprofit fundraising leaders are seeking answers to these urgent questions:  What is our revenue health, and how is it trending? Which effective fundraising strategies should we pursue? How are campaigns performing, based on actual dollars raised? To help fundraising professionals get answers to these questions, we are excited to share with you our new Tableau Dashboards for Nonprofit Fundraising, which leverage the power of Tableau and the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). Product Manager Mike Best had clear directives for this initiative. “Our customers told us they wanted a holistic picture of their fundraising effectiveness that was not only easy to understand, but—just as important—easy to implement.”  Best worked with colleagues who previously worked in development operations, our customers, and analytics experts to help fundraising professionals get the information they needed deployed more quickly in their work.   For Eric Dayton at buildOn, that meant being able to move full speed ahead with Tableau for Fundraising to unlock their donor data. “We were able to quickly deploy Tableau Starter Dashboards for Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud to unlock our donor data, forecast more effectively, and visualize revenue performance. Analytics allow us to make data-driven decisions across teams, which will allow us to navigate 2021 with greater impact.” Here are three ways the Tableau Dashboards for Nonprofit Fundraising can help you unlock your data and make decisions for the future of your organization, with confidence.  1. Understand & visualize revenue health Are you fielding questions like, “How’s the forecast?” or “Are our average donor contributions going up or down?” Being able to easily visualize and share this information builds toward a more data-driven culture. Clean data that’s easy to see and interpret helps to streamline the decision-making process in times of uncertainty, and navigate that uncertainty with more ease.  The fundraising overview dashboard helps you quickly scan revenue from a benchmark of last year or your revenue goals for the end of this year, uncovering both risks and opportunities. You can then dive into monthly performance, based on the number of donors, location, average gift amount, and the value of each donor or type of campaign.   Tableau Dashboards for Nonprofit Fundraising Revenue overview. 2. Create effective fundraising strategies For example, once you know that revenue is going down in July, or you’re off course to hit an important goal, the next step is to figure out where you might be able to shift strategies and get back on track.  The next tab helps you compare key statistics around new, retained, reactivated, recurring, and lapsed donors. This worksheet gives you a quick snapshot of donors, revenue, average gift amount, and more. Fundraising leaders can even zone in on a type of donation—say mid-level—to scan where that money is coming from. Tableau Dashboards for Nonprofit Fundraising donor acquisition, retention, and churn. 3. Drive campaign performance Once you have a strategy to reach those donors, it’s incredibly valuable to have the capacity to see how those campaigns or changes to channel tactics are performing.  With the campaign efficacy dashboard, you can understand which campaigns drive the most revenue, benchmark against campaigns with similar strategies or launched in close proximity to each other, and glean campaign trends over time. Tableau Dashboards for Nonprofit Fundraising campaign efficacy. With Tableau Dashboards for Nonprofit Fundraising, you can democratize data and drive decisions that help your mission thrive in the new normal. Tableau helps you take the next step to give your people the power of data, whether they’re a fundraising leader reading a report on their phone or a funder visiting your website.  To learn more about Tableau and ways to integrate and scale your analytics, check out the Tableau Basics for Nonprofits trail on Trailhead.

Kristin Adderson December 9, 2020 - 7:54pm December 9, 2020 When Tableau joined the Salesforce family, we were excited to accelerate and extend our mission to help people see and understand data. That’s what building a Data Culture is all about! We started that work last year by bringing the Tableau Data Fam to Dreamforce. We got to know the vibrant Trailblazer community and introduced people to the innovative analytics platform that helps us deliver on the promise of our mission—through demos, mini-sessions, and a rockstar keynote. YTableau Data Fam joins the 2019 DreamforceWhile we can't get together in person this year, we're making the most of the annual conference and transforming Dreamforce into a virtual format called Dreamforce To You. We kicked off the event with a keynote on December 2, and now we want to invite you to join us for a special four-day event: DreamTX. Open to all Trailblazers, including the Tableau Data Fam, DreamTX takes place December 14-17, and is free for anyone to join. We’ll be bringing together people from all around the world to learn, connect, and share—directly from our homes. If you’re new to Salesforce, you might be wondering what DreamTX is all about and whether you should take part. So, here’s our guide to help you get the most from DreamTX. What is DreamTX? DreamTX—Dreamforce Trailblazer Experience—is a four-day virtual event jam-packed with demos, luminary sessions, customer success stories, and conversations with leadership with times friendly for Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. With something for every line of business and every industry, you’ll have tons of opportunities to learn from customers and peers who have built resilience through 2020—all right from your couch. You’ll learn how the Customer 360 transforms businesses, hear amazing stories of leadership during a pandemic, hang out and connect with other Trailblazers, and even welcome some surprise guests for entertainment. Best of all, it’s free to everyone, making it the most inclusive Dreamforce ever. What will I learn? You can be sure that Tableau is rolling into DreamTX energized and ready to share how critical a Data Culture is to empower everyone. We’ll feature several sessions all about analytics, integration, and digital transformation, as well as a vision and roadmap session for the Tableau platform and Tableau CRM (formerly Einstein Analytics). Be sure to bookmark the “Unleash the Power of Data: Mulesoft and Tableau” session to learn how business and IT leaders can unlock data from disconnected applications to get actionable insights in one place—in Tableau of course! And check out “AI Predictions with Einstein Discovery” to learn about our newest AI integration. This session will teach you how to build and deploy trusted ML-powered predictions in Tableau with no code required, enabling more teams to benefit from the power of AI.  Ready to register and start planning your schedule? How do I get ready for DreamTX? Whether it’s your first Salesforce event or you’re a seasoned veteran, follow these tips to make the most of your DreamTX experience. 1. Register at Dreamforce.com Head over to Dreamforce.com and reserve your spot by clicking the “Sign Me Up” button in the top right corner.  If you’ve already created your Trailblazer Profile (say, from Dreamforce 2019), you can log in right away with your existing information. Otherwise, sign up in just a few steps to get in on all the learning and networking benefits that DreamTX and the Trailblazer Community provide! 2. Build your schedule Each DreamTX session will be 20–25 minutes long, spanning different themed channels. You can use Trail Maps as guides to which sessions are most relevant to you—for example, select “Analytics” from the drop-down menu to see the recommended sessions for our data rockstars. Then simply click on a session title and select “Bookmark” to save it to your personal DreamTX agenda, or “Add to Calendar” to save to your personal calendar. You can also view all sessions available and add sessions to your calendar using the Agenda Builder. (There’s a short video featured on that webpage to explain how.)  And don’t forget to check out the demos and workshops available on day four of Dream TX! They’re great learning opportunities on topics like the Tableau Viz Lightning Web Component, building advanced reports, and the Tableau CRM developer experience.  3. Enjoy DreamTX! When it’s time, throw on your most comfortable clothes, grab a snack, and head over to your favorite spot on the couch to get watching. That’s the beauty of DreamTX being virtual—everyone’s invited to participate and learn! We look forward to seeing our Data Fam there. Get started by registering now, and joining in the conversation on social at #DreamTX.

Amanda Boyle Tanna Solberg December 8, 2020 - 12:25am December 8, 2020 In their mastery of the Tableau platform, their desire to collaborate and help invent the Tableau solutions of tomorrow, and their dedication to helping our global community, Tableau Zen Masters stand out in a community of greatness. They are also our biggest advocates as well as our harshest critics, but by listening to and engaging with the Tableau Community, we build better software and, ultimately, a better company. The spirit of Tableau is our customers. And as one way to better support our customers, we are growing the Zen Master program this year. We are looking to add more diverse leaders and to grow representation throughout the world. We are excited to announce that it’s time to nominate a new cohort of Zen Masters. This means we need your help! To ensure a diverse pool of nominees representative of our global community, we need the collective force of all of you to help us spread the news to your colleagues and your friends. We need you to champion your peers, showcase, and shine a light on those doing incredible work that elevates others in a public space. By nominating a fellow community member to become a Tableau Zen Master, you are not only recognizing your data heroes, but you are also giving your input about who you want to lead the Tableau Community for the upcoming year. As we shared in the 2020 Ambassador nomination process, we are listening to the calls for action and change from the community—and from our own team. We ask you to elevate diverse voices by nominating Black, Indigenous, and people of color to lead our community. We know that by amplifying diverse leaders in our community, we can help create better outcomes for all, and better reflect the communities in which we live and work. To establish greater equity, we need to bring diversity into this community proactively. The Tableau Community Equity Task Force will be advising our team on recruitment opportunities, but it will take a collective effort to be successful. Thank you for your support and engagement. We avoid selecting individuals whose work is internal and private to their organization. We respect that as our communities have grown, internal communities have flourished. Undoubtedly, we want to celebrate these efforts, but continue to only select members whose work meets our criteria of working and elevating others in public spaces—and not fee-gated. What makes someone a Tableau Zen Master? The Zen Master nomination period begins now, and will be open from Tuesday, December 8, 2020, through Friday, January 8, 2021. During the nomination period, we invite you to highlight the people who inspire and instruct you—those with exceptional dedication to exploring Tableau and improving it. The “humble-smart” leaders who make the community so remarkable. Zen Master selections are made from nominations and applications from you, members of the Tableau Community! When submitting a nomination, you will be asked to share examples of how you or your nominee has demonstrated the three pillars of the Tableau Zen Master program: teacher, master, and collaborator. As you prepare, consider the following questions: How has this person served as a teacher in the last year? Does the person dedicate their time to helping others be better at using Tableau? Are they a Tableau evangelist who shares our mission of helping people see and understand data? Does the person add to the Tableau Community by offering help to people of all levels? How do you or your nominee demonstrate mastery on the Tableau platform? Has the person shown a deep understanding of how Tableau works? They might create beautiful dashboards on Tableau Public, maintain Tableau Server, build mind-blowing extensions, or more. How does your nominee collaborate? Does the person work with others to bring Tableau and its mission to new communities and geographies? Have they worked with other community members to build thought leadership or training resources? Do they contribute useful, popular ideas on our Ideas Forum? If all of these attributes can be found in someone you know, nominate them to be a Tableau Zen Master. Please be brief and focused in your response, including links to blogs, Tableau Public profiles, vizzes, virtual event links, and other sources. Tableau and Salesforce employees, partners, and community members are all welcome to submit nominations. Ready, set, nominate! Please complete one submission for each person you want to nominate. Nominations close at 10:00 pm PST on Friday, January 8, 2021. All nominations will be reviewed by a selection committee made up of Tableau employees with input from the Hall of Fame Zen Masters. We do not select Zen Masters based on the number of nominations received. While we do read and track all nominations, we also use internal metrics, employee nominations, and the needs of our global community to determine the new cohort. Further details can be found on the Tableau Zen Master page. Getting together looked different this year: Tableau Community members including Zen Masters, Ambassadors & friends coming together for TC’ish Supporting our Community through 2020 and beyond In February 2020, we invited 34 individuals, representing 11 countries, and 4 global regions to serve as Tableau Zen Masters for a one-year term.  This year’s Zen Masters helped design and pivot events to virtual platforms—welcoming thousands to the #DataFamCommunityJams. They supported new mentorship initiatives to help people feel more connected in isolation and build new opportunities for collaboration. They worked countless hours standing up the first iteration of what would become the Tableau COVID-19 Data Hub. These leaders jumped in without hesitation when requests came in from global public-health leaders desperate for assistance with organizing and analyzing data. The 2020 Zen Masters brought their passion and expertise to a new generation, creating content for our Data Literacy for All eLearning program that provides data skills fundamentals, regardless of skill level. And just last month, two Hall of Fame Zen Masters gave their time to work with SurveyMonkey and Axios to make sure we put out the best possible and best-performing visualizations in our US Election Polling partnership for the presidential election.  Zen Masters Jeffrey Shaffer, Sarah Bartlett, and Kevin Flerlage joined by Ambassador Adam Mico, Dinushki De Livera, and Mark Bradbourne at the Cincinnati TUG in January, 2020 We are inviting all 2020 Tableau Zen Masters to join us for another year. 2020 didn't quite work out the way anyone predicted. The pressures of COVID-19, combined with so many other factors have had an impact on everyone personally and professionally—and have also impacted the Zen Master experience. We encouraged all of our community leaders to prioritize their health and wellness, and that of their families. We supported members disengaging to take care of more pressing priorities, and we greatly appreciate that they did. Through it all, the 2020 class exceeded all expectations as teachers, masters, and collaborators in brilliant, meaningful ways that truly embodied the pay-it-forward spirit of the Tableau Community.  We have offered the 2020 Zen Masters an early invitation to join the 2021 group. There are a few reasons why we have made this decision. First, this year’s group has had unique, pandemic-related challenges in terms of access to Tableau teams, speaking opportunities, and time to connect with one another, as well as a lack of support from our team. Second, we just think it’s the right thing to do. We know this year has been challenging. We are learning as we go, and we want all the current Zen Masters to have a meaningful experience—one we believe we have not provided this year. This will not be an extension of the current year and will add to the 5-year minimum to be considered for the Zen Master Hall of Fame. Current Zen Masters are being asked to provide a recap of their experience, sharing what is or is not working for them, and any feedback to help strengthen the program through the next year.  Left: Zen Master Ann Jackson sharing her knowledge and passion for teaching and problem solving as a volunteer Tableau Doctor at TC’ish 2020, Right: Zen Master Yukari Nagata supporting the APAC CommunityAll Zen Masters completing their 5th term will be eligible for 2021 Hall of Fame consideration. Current Zen Masters who will be eligible after completing their 5th term include Adam McCann, Chris Love, Jeffrey Shaffer, Rob Radburn, and Tamas Foldi. Each member will go through a similar evaluation process that we have used with previous groups. Thank you, #datafam, for being a part of the Tableau Community! We look forward to hearing from you.

JY Pook Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Tableau Kristin Adderson December 7, 2020 - 3:59pm December 7, 2020 Especially after the long bumpy ride we have all been on since the start of 2020, and that we continue to live through the pandemic, can businesses really be optimistic about their future health? It can be particularly tough for businesses in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) who have been weathering this storm the longest. The chain of events triggered by the public health pandemic that dealt shockwaves like we’ve never seen are still reverberating today. But as we approach the end of the year, APJ is finally on a slow path of recovery, even though progress is uneven across markets. Business leaders can now apply learnings from the first phase of the pandemic to get a better grip on their business, but the predominant sentiment remains one of caution. With reports of new waves of infections disrupting economic recovery, the future remains uncertain. Still, there are business leaders who are feeling optimistic about the next six months - those from data-driven organisations. Many of whom have been encouraged by the critical advantages that data has brought about for their organisation during the pandemic, empowering them to come out of the crisis better than others.  Being data-driven fuels optimism for the future More data-driven companies (63%) are optimistic about the future health of their business in the next six months than non data-driven companies (37%). This is the most notable finding we uncovered in a recent study conducted in conjunction with YouGov, which surveyed more than 2,500 medium level managers or higher and IT decision makers across four markets in Asia Pacific (Singapore, Australia, India and Japan).  Business leaders across various industries were questioned about their use of data during the pandemic, lessons learnt and confidence in the future health of their organisation. Overwhelmingly, we found that data-driven organisations are more resilient and confident during the pandemic, and this is what fuels the optimism for the future health of their business. 82 percent of data-driven companies in APJ have reported critical business advantages during the pandemic. The findings show multiple and vast benefits when organisations tap on data:  ●    being able to make strategic business decisions faster (54%) ●    more effective communication with stakeholders (54%) ●    increased cross-team collaboration (51%) and  ●    making their business more agile (46%) Bank Mandiri, one of the leading financial institutions in Indonesia, is a great example of such data-driven organisations. Data enabled the bank to quickly gain visibility on the evolving situation, and respond in accordance to ensure business continuity for its customers.  At the height of the pandemic when many of its customers began facing cash flow problems, the bank tapped into data sources, built data squads and created key dashboards focused on real-time liquidity monitoring and a law restructuring programme, all within a matter of 48 hours. The Tableau solution allowed Bank Mandiri to increase flexibility in their operations, and customers’ suitability for their new loan restructuring program. In doing so, they could ensure that customers still carry out their financial transactions and receive support on their financial and loan repayment needs. What is troubling is that across the region, there remains a disconnect in how businesses value and use data. In contrast to organisations like Bank Mandiri, only 39% of non data-driven companies recognise data as a critical advantage. This is in spite of how the pandemic has further asserted the role of data in society today, and as we enter the era of analytics ubiquity.  In the coming year, the use of data will set companies even further apart. A strong data culture is no longer a nice-to-have, but rather a must-have for organisations. There needs to be a mindset shift in non data-driven organisations, where they need to get all hands on data. Explore the full dashboard here. Investment in data skills key to gaining competitive advantage One of the fundamental areas of focus for organisations during the pandemic is retaining and investing in its people. On this front, data-driven companies are again leading the charge - 82 percent of them eager to increase or continue their existing level of data skills investment in employees over the next six months.  Worryingly, 32 percent of non-data driven organisations have opted to either reduce or not invest in data skills at all. These non data-driven companies are at high risk of being at a disadvantage. At this critical time when it is a necessity for organisations to remain agile and adaptable, employees must have the requisite data skills to make both strategic and tactical decisions backed by insights, to future-proof their organisation for the challenges that lie ahead.  Take Zuellig Pharma, for instance. As one of the largest healthcare service providers in the region, Zuellig is deeply committed to investing in data skills training for its employees - through various programmes such as Tableau and automation training, as well as self-directed learning on its online Academy. These efforts have paid off well during the pandemic - exemplified by a critical mass of people within the organisation who embeds data practices and assets into everyday business processes. Instead of relying on the analytics team, even ground level staff such as warehouse operators have the competency to review and analyse data through Tableau and understand how warehouse processes map against business goals. An empowered workforce gives the organisation more confidence in planning, preparing and overcoming new operational challenges brought about by the pandemic.  Aside from investing in data skills, business leaders must also look into developing a more holistic data strategy as they increasingly incorporate data in their business processes. The survey found that the other top lessons learnt from the pandemic include the need for better data quality (46%), data transparency (43%), followed by the need for agility (41%). Organisations must take these into consideration as they plan for the year ahead.  Building business resilience with data analytics, starting now With uneven recovery and prevailing uncertainty across the region, it is more important than ever for business leaders to build operational resilience and business agility with data insights. For leaders who worry that they have yet to establish a data-driven organisation, it is never too late to embark on the data journey - and the best time to act is now.  The truth is, becoming a data-driven organisation does not require dramatic changes right off the bat. Business leaders can start by taking action with data that already sits within the organisation, and empower its workforce with the necessary data skills and tools. Over time, these steps can set off a chain reaction and culminate in communities centered around making data-first decisions, which can contribute to the larger cultural shift and better business outcomes.  Looking externally, other data-driven organisations like ZALORA can also offer inspiration and lessons on how to drive organisational transformation with data. Even amidst a difficult time like a global pandemic, data has provided the means for the company to diversify its product offerings and unlock new revenue streams. Earlier this year, it introduced TRENDER, an embedded analytics solution, to provide brand partners on its platform with real-time insights and trends on sales performance. Data has helped ZALORA to provide value-added solutions for its brand partners, and stay relevant and competitive in the retail scene.  Find out more about our YouGov research and how to get started on your data journey here.

Forbes BrandVoice Kristin Adderson December 4, 2020 - 7:01pm December 5, 2020 Editor's note: This article originally appeared in Forbes. Data is inseparable from the future of work as more organizations embrace data to make decisions, track progress against goals and innovate their products and offerings. But to generate data insights that are truly valuable, people need to become fluent in data—to understand the data they see and participate in conversations where data is the lingua franca. Just as a professional who takes a job abroad needs to immerse herself in the native tongue, businesses who value data literacy need ways to immerse their people in the language of data.  “The best way to learn Spanish is to go to Spain for three weeks,” said Stephanie Richardson, vice president of Tableau Community. “It is similar when you’re learning the language of data. In a data community, beginners can work alongside people who know data and know how to analyze it. You’re going to have people around you that are excited. You’re going to see the language being used at its best. You’re going to see the potential.” Data communities—networks of engaged data users within an organization—represent a way for businesses to create conditions where people can immerse themselves in the language of data, encouraging data literacy and fueling excitement around data and analytics.   The best data communities provide access to data and support its use with training sessions and technical assistance, but they also build enthusiasm through programs like internal competitions, user group meetings and lunch-and-learns. Community brings people together from across the organization to share learnings, ideas and successes. These exchanges build confidence and camaraderie, lifting morale and creating them around a shared mission for improving the business with data. Those who have already invested in data communities are reaping the benefits, even during a global pandemic. People have the data training they need to act quickly in crisis and know where to go when they have questions about data sources or visualizations, speeding up communications cycles. If building a new data community seems daunting during this time, there are small steps you can take to set a foundation for larger initiatives in the future.   Data communities in a work-from-home world Before Covid-19, organizations knew collaboration was important. But now, when many work remotely, people are disconnected and further removed from business priorities. Data and analytics communities can be a unifying force that focuses people on the same goals and gives them a dedicated space to connect. For businesses wanting to keep their people active, engaged and innovating with their colleagues, data communities are a sound investment.   “Community doesn’t have to be face-to-face activities and big events,” said Audrey Strohm, enterprise communities specialist at Tableau. “You participate in a community when you post a question to your organization’s internal discussion forum—whenever you take an action to be in the loop.”  Data communities are well suited for remote collaboration and virtual connection. Some traits of a thriving data community—fresh content, frequent recognition and small, attainable incentives for participation—apply no matter where its members reside. Data communities can also spark participation by providing a virtual venue, such as an internal chat channel or forum, where members can discuss challenges or share advice. Instead of spending hours spinning in circles, employees can log on and ask a question, access resources or find the right point of contact—all in a protected setting. Inside a data community at JP Morgan Chase JPMorgan Chase developed a data community to support data activities and to nurture a data culture. It emphasized immersion, rapid feedback and a gamified structure with skill belts—a concept similar to how students of the martial arts advance through the ranks. Its story shows that, sometimes, a focus on skills is not enough—oftentimes, you need community support. Speaking at Tableau Conference 2019, Heather Gough, a software engineer at the financial services company, shared three tips based on the data community at JPMorgan Chase: 1. Encourage learners to develop skills with any kind of data. Training approaches that center on projects challenge learners to show off their skills with a data set that reflects their personal interests. This gives learners a chance to inject their own passion and keeps the projects interesting for the trainers who evaluate their skills. 2. Not everyone will reach the mountain top, and that’s okay. Most participants don’t reach the top skill tier. Even those who only advance partway through a skill belt or other data literacy program still learn valuable new skills they can talk about and share with others. That’s the real goal, not the accumulation of credentials. 3. Sharing must be included in the design. Part of the progression through the ranks includes spending time sharing newly learned data skills with others. This practice scales as learners become more sophisticated, from fielding just a few questions at low levels to exchanging knowledge with other learners at the top tiers.  How to foster data communities and literacy While you may not be able to completely shift your priorities to fully invest in a data community right now, you can lay the groundwork for a community by taking a few steps, starting with these: 1. Focus on business needs The most effective way to stir excitement and adoption of data collaboration is to connect analytics training and community-related activities to relevant business needs. Teach people how to access the most critical data sources, and showcase dashboards from across the company to show how other teams are using data.  Struggling to adapt to new challenges? Bring people together from across business units to innovate and share expertise. Are your data resources going unused? Imagine if people in your organization were excited about using data to inform their decision making. They would seek those resources rather than begrudgingly look once or twice. Are people still not finding useful insights in their data after being trained? Your people might need to see a more direct connection to their work.  “Foundational data skills create a competitive advantage for individuals and organizations,” said Courtney Totten, director of academic programs at Tableau.  When these efforts are supported by community initiatives, you can address business needs faster because you’re all trained to look at the same metrics and work together to solve business challenges. 2. Empower Your Existing Data Leaders The future leaders of your data community shouldn’t be hard to find. Chances are, they are already in your organization, advocating for more opportunities to explore, understand and communicate with data. Leaders responsible for building a data community do not have to be the organization’s top data experts, but they should provide empathic guidance and inject enthusiasm. These people may have already set up informal structures to promote data internally, such as a peer-driven messaging channel. Natural enthusiasm and energy are extremely valuable to create an authentic and thriving community. Find the people who have already volunteered to help others on their data journeys and give them a stake in the development and management of the community. A reliable leader will need to maintain the community platform and ensure that it keeps its momentum over time. 3. Treat Community Like a Strategic Investment Data communities can foster more engagement with data assets—data sources, dashboards and workbooks. But they can only make a significant impact when they’re properly supported. “People often neglect some of the infrastructure that helps maximize the impact of engagement activities,” Strohm said. “Community needs to be thought of as a strategic investment.”  Data communities need a centralized resource hub that makes it easy to connect from anywhere, share a wide variety of resources and participate in learning modules. Other investments include freeing up a small amount of people’s time to engage in the community and assigning a dedicated community leader. Some communities fail when people don’t feel as though they can take time away from the immediate task at hand to really connect and collaborate. Also, communities aren’t sustainable when they’re entirely run by volunteers. If you can’t invest in a fully dedicated community leader at this time, consider opening up a small portion of someone’s role so they can help build or run community programs. 4. Promote Participation at Every Level Executive leadership needs to do more than just sponsor data communities and mandate data literacy. They need to be visible, model members. That doesn’t mean fighting to the top of every skill tree. Executives should, however, engage in discussions about being accountable for data-driven decisions and be open to fielding tough questions about their own use of data. “If you’re expecting your people to be vulnerable, to reach out with questions, to see data as approachable, you can help in this by also being vulnerable and asking questions when you have them,” said Strohm. 5. Adopt a Data Literacy Framework Decide what your contributors need to know for them to be considered data literate. The criteria may include learning database fundamentals and understanding the mathematical and statistical underpinnings of correlation and causation. Ready-made programs such as Tableau’s Data Literacy for All provide foundational training across all skill levels. Data communities give everyone in your organization a venue to collaborate on complex business challenges and reduce uncertainty. Ask your passionate data advocates what they need to communicate more effectively with their colleagues. Recruit participants who are eager to learn and share. And don’t be afraid to pose difficult questions about business recovery and growth, especially as everyone continues to grapple with the pandemic. Communities rally around a common cause. Visit Tableau.com to learn how to develop data communities and explore stories of data-driven collaboration.