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The Tableau Conference starts in less than a week, and we are going with no less than four brand-new products/ideas/improvements.
Whether you come to my session in San Diego, watch it live (or replay) from the comfort of your home, or read it in this newsletter, we can’t wait to show you what we have been working on!
But before we can reveal anything, I want to use this space to share my hopes for the conference and my vision of Tableau's future.
Pulse, Plus, what’s Next?
Tableau Pulse, Tableau Plus, Tableau Semantic, Data Cloud, Agentforce, Tableau Einstein, Tableau Next…
Keeping track of the different Tableau product names has been… challenging recently, even for people as involved with the tool as we are.
This is a shared feeling by many members of the Tableau Community, and we invite you to watch this video of Tableau Tim, who talks about this (among other interesting things):
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times
Five years ago, Salesforce acquired Tableau.
To this day, we still haven’t used Salesforce once (and I’m pretty sure this is the case for many of you reading this today).
If you are not part of the Salesforce ecosystem, the current direction of Tableau may feel underwhelming and confusing,
But at the same time, behind all of this confusion, renaming, and integration with Salesforce, Tableau is also taking another path. It is less visible, less shiny, and less marketing-friendly, but in my opinion, just as (if not more) impactful.
Tableau has never been more open, and from a developer perspective, it has never been better to work with Tableau than it is now.
Today, you can create the craziest D3 interactive visualization without leaving Tableau, right from your worksheet. Today, you can query your published Tableau Data Source in any other environment.
We have only scratched the surface of what these tools can do, and you can check all the ways you can Connect, Extend, Enrich, Embed, and Automate Tableau from the Tableau Developer Program page:
A Tale of Two Tableaux
The way I see this going forward is a split between two Tableaux.
One, more integrated with Salesforce than ever. This version will focus on helping everyone answer questions about their data as fast as possible. It’ll send your Pulse every morning. It’ll use AI and Agents to answer questions, create reports, and send them automatically to your colleagues on Slack. This is the direction of Tableau Next.
One, more open than ever. This version should focus on creating new APIs and improving the existing ones. Since the internal Tableau developers will not be able to focus on both Tableau Next and the current Tableau we know, the best is to let external developers build features that people want and need.
Both of these are already happening. On one hand, Tableau Next is rolling out for Tableau+ users, and it’ll be interesting to see how the vision takes form. On the other hand, the Tableau Extensions API and VizQL Data Service are just a few examples of how the platform gives us, the community, more power than ever.
Even though the current APIs are great, important pieces are still missing to fully realize this vision of an open, extensible Tableau. The fact that Viz Extensions are still not available on Tableau Public and still can’t be exported as image or PDF is just two exemples.
But for all of this to truly work, the most crucial thing Tableau can do right now is clarify its message and direct its energy in the right direction.
The most important Tableau Conference?
I want to see and hear this at the conference: a clear message and direction for both the Salesforce base and the Core base.
Clearer messaging would also help users and organizations understand which “Tableau” they need. Are they looking for a self-service analytics assistant powered by AI? Or a flexible, developer-friendly platform they can shape to their needs?
Maybe the best path forward is to embrace the split and go all in: give each version its name, identity, and mission.
That way, instead of “Tableau” trying to be everything for everyone, it can become two products doing precisely what each user needs.
Finally, we recommend that you all watch this video from Action Analytics:
Jonathan Drummey says this could be one of the most important Tableau Conferences, and I tend to agree. We are at a crossroads and are all waiting to hear about Tableau's future.
Let’s see what happens next week!
Stay tuned!