This week was hectic, but it was something I genuinely enjoyed. Between discussions in pairs, individual challenges, and getting hands-on with Preppin’ Data, Week 1 was a fast-paced introduction to Tableau Prep and the importance of KYD and data preparation.
Tableau Prep is a data preparation tool that helps clean, reshape, and standardize data before analysis or visualization. In simple terms, it’s the place where messy, real-world data gets organized so it’s actually usable. I like to think Tableau Prep as my kitchen, where I clean, measure, and organize my data so that by the time I start "cooking" the dashboard, all the ingredients are prepped and ready to be turned into a masterpiece of a dish 🍳....or dashboard🤔.
One of the biggest learning moments for me was understanding how the practices we were learning would actually be used in real-world scenarios. Even when working with something familiar like sales data, we planned out exactly what we wanted to do, but translating that plan into Tableau Prep was more challenging than expected in the beginning for me. Wrapping my head around the tool and then executing what I had said I was going to do took some trial and error and that’s totally fine!
Once I started putting my flows into real-world scenarios and intentionally trying to break them, everything clicked. I finally saw exactly where and why things were falling apart. It stopped being about just 'fixing errors' and became more about the bigger picture: making sure that when I finally sit down to build a dashboard, the data is actually ready to work for me. That shift changed everything, I wasn't just dragging and dropping steps anymore for Tableau, I was finally building with a purpose.
Week 1 reinforced that strong analysis starts long before visualizations are built.
Another thing I really appreciated about the first week was being reminded that we have a strong support system around us. No matter the situation, whether something feels unfamiliar or you need help working through a problem, there is always support available. Mel was especially helpful in reinforcing this, making sure that even though we all come from different backgrounds, everyone feels supported and encouraged to learn at their own pace.
As our course progresses, I’m looking forward to applying these techniques to more complex datasets and building more efficient, repeatable data preparation workflows. I’m looking forward to Friday's presentation, where I’ll be putting my skills to the test and presenting to my class and other Information Lab consultants.
See ya next week! 😁