Do you ever find yourself working on a data-related project and wonder "What are we doing here?". While data-related endeavors can drive massive values, many of them are fairly directionless. Maybe there's a top-down mandate to "become more data-driven" without much thought about what that actually means.

We believe that the highest purpose of data analysis is to support informed experimentation. Creating dashboards with facts and figures is helpful, but it's really only the first step in the process.

Ready to learn about those additional steps and how you can drive value in your organization? Check out this video on the purpose of data analysis!

Feb 15
Feb 15 Top 10 Things I Wish Tableau Would Change

Eric Parker

Tableau General Knowledge, Thought Leadership

Tableau is a wonderful data visualization tool, but like any software, it has limitations and idiosyncrasies which make it difficult to work with at times. Thankfully, Tableau is aware of this and even created an ideas forum to crowdsource feature requests from users. In this video I talk about 10 ideas I would love to see Tableau incorporate into their products.

Jul 22
Jul 22 Bringing the Olympics to Tableau!

Eric Parker

Design, Thought Leadership

I was recently reading the book Principles by Ray Dalio (who founded one of the largest hedge funds in the world). He has an interesting mind and displayed a chart for visualizing data over time series, ranking values against each other. He mentioned that good thinkers are generally able to identify and visualize trends well. His chart looked something like this.

Mar 18
Mar 18 Compound Interest, The Eighth Wonder of the World

Eric Parker

Design, Thought Leadership

According to a number of questionable sources, Albert Einstein once said “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.”

Jan 14
Jan 14 Seven Elements of Sketching a Successful Tableau Whiteboard

Eric Parker

Design, Thought Leadership

After doing an initial Design Sprint, we dig into most of our projects by hosting a whiteboard session. For more details about how to create a great environment for a successful whiteboard session, check out Kirk’s blog post from last week here.

Jan 7
Jan 7 Five Keys to Successful Tableau Whiteboarding Workshops

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership, Design

“Just make a typical sales dashboard!”

I’m sure you have heard something similar to that. We sure have!

Or…”We have hundreds of great unused vizzes! What is wrong with these, why don’t they use them?”

Nov 19
Nov 19 The Problem of Small Sample Size in Data Analysis

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

Small sample sizes can make fools of us all. You see them hinder analysis all over the place.

For example…

A small sample size of votes leads to prematurely declaring the winner of a political race.

Aug 13
Aug 13 Thoughts on Accessing and Visualizing Public Data

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

One of the exercises I’ve been facilitating in my Tableau classes lately is asking students, “What is something of personal interest you’d like to visualize?”. That open-ended question leads to interesting ideas around entertainment, sports and finances to name a few common themes.

Jul 16
Jul 16 What is the best college in the United States?

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

Depends who you ask! According to US News the top national university in 2020 is Princeton. That’s a bit simplistic though. What if you want to be an aeronautical engineer, filmographer or social worker? What if you want to stay close to home or are on a tight budget? Is Princeton the “best university” in that case?

Jul 9
Jul 9 Are you measuring the right data? - Webinar Recording

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

If you've ever wondered, "Are we measuring the right data?", check out our webinar recording as we discuss how to ensure you are measuring the right things and how you can initiate an open discussion on the topic in your workplace.

Jun 18
Jun 18 The Dunning-Kruger Effect and Data Visualization

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

My wife and I recently purchased an older house. We are doing some remodeling ourselves and our first big project was removing the popcorn ceiling and replacing it with more modern looking texture. Multiple weeks later we are (maybe) half-finished with the project. My initial estimate is that the project would take us 3 days. How was I so off? How did I anticipate it might take 3-6 days of manpower (depending on number of people working) and it’s looking more likely to take 20+?

Apr 2
Apr 2 Animating the Failures of the 2018 Seattle Mariners

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership, Tableau How-Tos

I miss baseball. I’m a hopeless Mariners fan. I was blessed/cursed to grow up in the 1990s and early 2000s when the Mariners were putting together exciting teams with players like Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martinez.

Mar 26
Mar 26 Business Data Analysis in the Time of the COVID-19 Crisis

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

The world is changing around us and it is changing quickly. In my lifetime I can only remember two events which had anywhere near the same level of impact as the current COVID-19 Crisis; 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis.

Nov 15
Nov 15 Where does a Seattleite's income go?

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

For a while, I’ve been speculating about what percent of an “average” person’s income goes toward taxes and government programs. I’ve also been wondering how people can make a great income and still have little money left for savings and retirement.

Sep 5
Sep 5 How to Use Your Personal Values (and Data) to Make Better Decisions

Kirk Olson

Thought Leadership

We all have to make decisions in life. Some of those decisions are small and have minimal impact (e.g. What should I wear to work?), but some of those decisions have significant, long-term impact.

Jun 7
Jun 7 What we can learn about data collection from the Houston Astros

Eric Parker

Thought Leadership

I recently finished a book called, Astroball written by Ben Reiter. It tells the unlikely story of how the Astros went from the worst team in baseball to winning a World Series a few seasons later. As much as I wish I could say I didn’t like the book (I’m a Mariners fan after all) it was a compelling read and gave me great insight into their organization and methodology.

Oct 18
Oct 18 What is the Purpose of Data Analysis?

Feb 15
Feb 15 Top 10 Things I Wish Tableau Would Change

Jul 22
Jul 22 Bringing the Olympics to Tableau!

Mar 18
Mar 18 Compound Interest, The Eighth Wonder of the World

Jan 14
Jan 14 Seven Elements of Sketching a Successful Tableau Whiteboard

Jan 7
Jan 7 Five Keys to Successful Tableau Whiteboarding Workshops

Nov 19
Nov 19 The Problem of Small Sample Size in Data Analysis

Aug 13
Aug 13 Thoughts on Accessing and Visualizing Public Data

Jul 16
Jul 16 What is the best college in the United States?

Jul 9
Jul 9 Are you measuring the right data? - Webinar Recording

Jun 18
Jun 18 The Dunning-Kruger Effect and Data Visualization

Apr 2
Apr 2 Animating the Failures of the 2018 Seattle Mariners

Mar 26
Mar 26 Business Data Analysis in the Time of the COVID-19 Crisis

Nov 15
Nov 15 Where does a Seattleite's income go?

Sep 5
Sep 5 How to Use Your Personal Values (and Data) to Make Better Decisions

Jun 7
Jun 7 What we can learn about data collection from the Houston Astros

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