out of Tableau.

I have an MBA and a master’s in sport business management, as well

as undergraduate degrees in marketing and psychology. Before I began my career, I
had not taken a single class about data or analytics. This made it even more challeng‐
ing to get started with Tableau, and despite all of my previous accomplishments, I
would say that my learning curve looked like this:

The long, flat line before I started to figure things out represents about two years of
self-teaching and growing pains. In many ways, this experience makes me uniquely
qualified to help you reduce your own learning curve. I wrote this book because it’s the
one I wish I had when I started using Tableau. My hope is that this selection of topics,
combined with my firsthand knowledge of potential pitfalls, and the practical style of
communication, will make your learning curve look like this:

This Book’s Audience

This book is best for a “201-level” Tableau user. Most Tableau users have some foun‐
dational “101-level” knowledge, but do not have the need for extremely technical
“601-level” skills. After all, Tableau’s mission is to help you see and understand your
data as easily as possible. This book is targeted specifically at helping you build on the
foundational knowledge and take your applications of Tableau to the next level. That
being said, I have two big caveats:

xviii | Preface