Datadoodle

Home » Elissa Fink

Elissa Fink

Take data from ethereal to grounded

by

A few days ago, I told former Tableau CMO Elissa Fink why I found “smart cities” more interesting than the data industry’s tired old slogan “data driven.” Cities are complex and layered. Analytics has results, good or bad. Data becomes tangible, satisfying.

She got it. “‘Data driven’ is ethereal,” she said. “Smart cities are grounded.”

If you to talk about the data industry’s mythical “data driven” for very long, your conversation probably has an eery resemblance to those you had 10 years ago. Today we have more volume, more complexity, and nice things like artificial intelligence. But the old themes repeat over and over.… Read the rest “Take data from ethereal to grounded”

Tableau’s first conference / What a little tool proved

by

Ten years ago this month, Tableau made me want data. One magical demo of the almost unknown Tableau desktop tool was like a trapeze act. It looked so easy, so fluid, and so much fun as director of visual analysis Jock Mackinlay showed off daring leaps in rapid succession. I had no data, but that made me want to get some so I could play like that.

At the first Tableau Customer Conference (“customer” was dropped later), July 20, 2008. fewer than 200 people showed up, including staff. I was the one journalist or industry analyst. We stood in crammed corridors and meeting rooms at the 223-room Edgewater Inn on the Seattle waterfront.… Read the rest “Tableau’s first conference / What a little tool proved”

Looking for Kool-Aid at the Tableau conference

by

It’s no secret that some people hear about Tableau’s passionate users and wonder what all the fuss is about. Back in June, in fact, one skeptical industry analyst tweeted to a Tableau fan, “Pal, you seem to have had a bit too much Tableau Kool-Aid.”

Tableau users I know just shrug. People who say things like that find passion for data suspicious, and there’s nothing you can do for them.

Then Tableau itself invited a delegation of industry analysts, most of them from the traditional end of BI, to its annual conference at the Encore hotel in Las Vegas. The company hopes for their blessing to make that leap across the chasm from early adoption to early majority.… Read the rest “Looking for Kool-Aid at the Tableau conference”