Talk about being thrown into the deep end!
The first 3 days of data school have flown by, after an introduction by Tom Brown, Andy Kriebel and Craig Bloodworth on the first day, we were all taken by the enthusiasm of James Ellioart VP EMEA from Tableau on the second one.
By the third day I was volunteered by Andy to talk about the Makeover Monday; it took me by surprise at first, but I loved the challenge especially because it was about something I really enjoy doing every week, so much so that I now take for granted that every Sunday I’ll have a very tidy dataset to work with.
If you are reading this blog you are probably aware of Makeover Monday (MM) already, but for those who don’t know, MM started back in 2009 when Andy Kriebel would find a visualisation or chart in a news article and try and create a more engaging visualisation. Fast forward 7 years and in January this year Andy Cotgreave, Senior Evangelist at Tableau joined Andy K, and they’ve extended the invitation to the community. So far more than 400 Makeovers have been made, sometimes more than 20 a week. It’s a project that has captivated the community and one that everyone looks forward to.
So I was quite happy to be talking about this great initiative. After a brief introduction about MM I share some of my previous entries, focusing on my takeaways for each week, things I’ve learned while taking part. For instance, I learned recently that using a bubble chart for year on year growth is a really bad idea as the chart won’t be able to show negative growth accurately.
After the speedy introduction, we all got on with creating our own makeovers and it was so great seeing everyone’s enthusiasm and process for creating their work. By the afternoon we had all finished and uploaded our makeovers to Tableau Public. Once again, MM made us work as a team and learn from each other – such a great way to learn!
So far data school has been fast paced and challenging but above all really enjoyable and I look forward to the next 4 months of training.
