Some Tableau dashboards have performance issues. Commonly people will assume it’s because they have too many rows or columns of data, but that’s not always the primary issue. Your dashboards might be hindered by memory, data source type, computer memory, or a number of other factors. Check out the video below to learn about some of the common issues plaguing Tableau dashboard performance and how you can rectify them!

A couple weeks ago I was teaching a course and received a question from a student. Her question was “How can I use Tableau to only show the most recent 3 transactions per customer?” I thought I’d have an answer for her quickly, but I was wrong.

My first thought was, let’s just use the “RANK” function to accomplish this. We’ll use it as a Table Calculation to determine the most recent transactions by customer. I was feeling confident until I saw this:

Most data isn’t stored in a manner that is optimal for analysis. It’s frustrating when Tableau doesn’t like your data structure. If you are new to Tableau or working with a new data source, you might run into issues getting columns and rows to display the way you want.

Tree maps are a data visualization used to communicate hierarchical values in a systematic way with nested rectangles. A lot of the tree maps I see look something like this:

I don’t know about you, but I don’t find this to be particularly informative or compelling. I prefer to use tree maps as a way to highlight a few relevant data points. Notice in the dashboard below how I use a tree map to highlight the top 10 items sold.

Every dashboard you create is designed to do more than just communicate numbers. It’s a tool with a purpose. That purpose might be to increase revenue, decrease costs, or add value to your product. When creating dashboards, I like to keep that purpose forefront in my mind.

A powerful addition you can apply to your dashboards right now is to lead with questions. When you change the title of your dashboard into a question, you turn your audience from passive viewers to active viewers. They aren’t just reviewing numbers, they are now trying to answer a question.

It’s easy to be more complex than necessary. It’s hard to be simple and succinct. As Mark Twain said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” The same is true in the world of data analysis.

Most people just want to know: “based on what’s happened (data), what should I do next?”

One of the things I found most confusing when I first started using Tableau was trying to figure out what all the different files types do. It’s not exaggerating to say that I lost sleep over it. I want to provide you with a brief overview of the primary file types you’ll encounter and their primary uses.