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Practical Analytics for Better Decisions

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Quick and dirty analysis with Tableau 6 (in thirteen lucky steps)

6_Manual_Rearrange_Items_Freakalytics_1_TableauLet’s face it: in the daily world of work, you often are asked to provide an answer to a new problem in less than a day. Of course, your boss tends to forget about the other three project deadlines you are currently facing, so you really have only 10 or 20 minutes to squeeze in a quick and dirty analysis. 

If this sounds familiar to you, this cheat sheet includes thirteen flexible steps that can take you from being clueless to looking smart in just a few minutes, with a little help from Tableau. Hopefully you’ll be able to obtain enough information to come up with ideas for an e-mail update or talking points for the unexpected meeting that is looming large over your day, showing your boss and colleagues that you can deliver great results in time to be useful. 

So, if you’re already a user of Tableau, this cheat sheet will guide you to do the analysis. Even if you are totally new to Tableau, you can see the possibilities of what you can accomplish in a short amount of time, once you get started.


Download a printer-friendly version of this article here.


1 What question will you examine?

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Okay, in reality this step might take hours or even days! But let’s assume you have your question, and if it is complex, break it down into several, simpler questions.




2 Grab the closest, readily available dataset that is relevant

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iPad & tablet competitors profit estimates through 2015 – building on Gartner unit estimates

GigaOM’s recent article on the growth of the iPad and overall tablet-related OS market inspired me to take their forecasts one step further- actual profit estimates through 2015 per major player in the article.
 
My forecasts are indeed rough, but attribute higher and lower profits to the various vendors based on the nature of their product, likely price point and direct or indirect control they will have over the actual distribution of their platform. For example, Android is expected to be heavily partnered for their distribution (the upcoming Kindle is just one example), this implies lower profit per unit. Meanwhile, Apple with their early market lead and total control over the tablet sales implies higher profit per unit sold. Regardless, these are rough estimates, but fascinating to consider. Most incredible

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Helping a social media expert- just 30 minutes with Tableau

While working hard on a busy weekend, I decided to take a “break” from our upcoming book and client work to spend 30 minutes to help and surprise a newer user of Tableau- social media expert Justin Flitter of New Zealand. He is new to Tableau Public and had started off with a look at some social media metrics by country. Here is a snapshot of his initial work:
 

 
 
 
After reviewing his initial workbook

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MIT Sloan Review, don’t allow pies to obscure the “New Intelligence” you hope to share

MIT Sloan Review, don't allow pies to obscure the New Intelligence you hope to share

I was very interested to read the survey results from MIT about data access challenges facing business analysts. The article states that "The New Intelligent Enterprise... will allow you to do some immediate benchmarking — and see how your organization is doing in relation to your peers." While I am certain the data from this survey can indeed be useful in meeting their objective, I am also certain that their initial chart selection makes this difficult to easily see and understand.

 

In an effort to demonstrate how they can make their upcoming report much more informative

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Why attend in-person Complete Tableau training by Freakalytics?

Everyone is busy and overloaded. People find it hard to add new techniques and tools into their daily work due to extensive demands in almost every level of every company. People are trying to do more with less, faster and better!

Why should you take off four valuable days to attend Tableau training by Freakalytics?

We were fortunate to have a distinguished attendee recently write-up her four-day training experience. Susan Kistler is Executive Director of the American Evaluation Association, an organization dedicated to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEA has approximately 5500 members representing all 50 states in the US as well as over 60 foreign countries.

Here is part of her review:

“There is no substitute for learning at the feet of a master. And I’m not just saying this because I coordinate training for AEA. I’d been using Tableau Software for months.

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Quick reference for graph and dashboard design- print, Android and iPhone

Freakalytics has published to Amazon, Android and iPhone a new quick reference for building better graphs and dashboards. This app is complimentary on the Android and iPhone thanks to our sponsor, Tableau Software. Note that the iPhone and Android apps are now released: search for "Rapid Dashboards" on the iPhone (click here to open it in App Store web site) and "Rapid Graphs and Dashboards" on the Android application stores (click here to go to it in the Android Market web site.)

The Amazon version, “Rapid Dashboards Reference Card”, has all 64 tips readily available on four full-color, laminated pages. The card serves as a handy reference for yourself, your team and even your business audience during design meetings.

iPhone preview, also on Android
Page 1 Excerpt, buy it at Amazon
Page 3 Excerpt, buy it at Amazon

Over the coming year, we will post a sampling of the tips from the reference card on our site. Freakalytics, helping you take your graphs and dashboards from good to great!

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Groupon madness, estimate your short and long-term profit or loss

It seems that you can’t avoid Groupon in the news lately. Consumers are mad about using Groupon since they can find great deals at often unheard of discounts. Even for customers, there is a often a down-side with reports of customers mobbing unprepared businesses and leaving frustrated or unhappy with the experience.

My review of multiple profit estimates shows that without a high rate of repeat business, your Groupon gains will likely end up as a big loss! However, if you can handle the volume of business and are considering offering Groupon at your business, you should download my spreadsheet to estimate the short and long term profitability of your participation.

1) The example used in the spreadsheet is based on a local restaurant. Their standard entree cost is $32.55 with the Groupon deal offered at $14.79. The fee to Groupon is half of the $14.79, leaving the business with $7.40 to cover $8.90 in marginal food and staff costs.

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A response to the TDWI article, “An Imperative to Build, Not Buy, Agile BI”

As TDWI and vendors catch on to the success of “Agile BI” being created with products like Tableau, I find the need to reply to the idea that the same old technology will work in this new world.  This article from TDWI energized me to write a response to this frequently cited idea.  In case you aren’t familiar with the acronmym “BI”, it simply means business intelligence, typically referring to traditional tools like Cognos, Business Objects, Excel, Microstrategy, SAS and many other products. 

What is Agile BI? 
“Agile BI” is new-found jargon that describes what

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