Introduction

Years of work, practice, and studying. Technological advancements. Software development. When it all comes together, it is like fireworks exploding in your brain. I’ve been seeing fireworks over the past couple of months.

I feel the same way when I watch magicians perform. Their abilities are remarkable and my brain gets electrified by their performances. In other words, I love magic, and Alteryx and Tableau allow me to perform my own style of magic with data.

Background

I’m pretty sure that the developers of Tableau couldn’t have anticipated the types of things I’ve been learning by visualizing massive volumes of data. Even though the brilliant architect of Alteryx, Ned Harding, knew that he needed to write fast, efficient software, I bet that he would even be surprised by what I’ve been doing with his creation.

In fact, I felt so bad about hammering Alteryx the way that I have been doing, I had to tell Ned that I felt like I was beating-up my best friend. Ned reassured me that it was OK and to continue the work! Billions and billions of calculations were performed without complaint. Alteryx simply did what I told it to do.

It was nearly three years ago when I decided to go to work for a really big car company. I knew at the time that something special was going on in that company. I learned about the development of four IT innovation centers. I learned about how over 10,000 IT professionals were going to be hired to reinvent the company. At that time, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Little did I realize how much excitement and fun I would be having when the parts came together.

Living Through The Revolution

Almost 10 years ago, I knew Tableau was something very special. Over 4 years ago, Alteryx exploded within my brain. Hundreds of data sets later, the vision of how to use these two products together in complete harmony has crystallized. During this time, I’ve been writing about this vision by authoring the articles in this blog.

Now I’ve had a few things happen during the past two months that have proved the vision I wrote about three years ago. By working on the cutting edge of software and technology, where data is being created faster than we can even comprehend, I have been able to experience the euphoria of success. The work isn’t finished but the foundation has been built. The concepts have been proven.

Not only am I using these tools to uncover human behaviors and mechanical efficiencies, I am exploring the future of transportation. I’m sorry that I can’t be more specific than this, but you will have to trust me when I tell you that the work that is happening is really special.

The Alteryx + Tableau Magic

Not only will this work continue to expand into areas I cannot predict, I will get to experience the best of a working career. When you are in the groove, when everything is basically easy, there are no limits. There are no boundaries. This is especially true when you happen to be in the right place at the right time, with leaders that allow innovation to flourish.

I can push deep into the data to make discoveries that will have an impact on our collective futures. All I can say is thanks to Alteryx and Tableau for creating the tools that allow me to do work like this without even breaking a sweat.

I feel like I have my own magic Genie (or Jeannie, as the case may be). If I can dream it, the Genie can deliver. In this case, the Genie is Alteryx + Tableau.

Hopefully, in the next several months, some of the techniques I’ve developed will anonymously creep into the pages of this blog. If you like learning how to do great things with data, consider subscribing to this blog to see what I mean by writing these words.

If you like this article and would like to see more of what I write, please subscribe to my blog by taking 5 seconds to enter your email address below. It is free and it motivates me to continue writing, so thanks!

Additional Thoughts

Here is a nice article that describes what is happening at the big auto company that I work for.