Andy Kriebel, YouTube’s Top Influencer on Dataviz and Tableau

Andy Kriebel is my favorite go-to person on all matters related to Tableau and Dataviz. Andy was the first to create a YouTube channel on Tableau. His subscriber base has surpassed 61,000, and his 750+ videos have 7.5 million views and counting. Andy and Eva Murray are the co-authors of the book #Makeover Monday. In this conversation, our topics range from writing to his five daily habits and why asking for a dashboard can be problematic.

Interview Highlights

• The writing origin story and meeting Stephen Few
• Why Andy believes his first dashboards were terrible
• Writing was all about remembering what he was learning and doing
• Tips for new data analysts start with mastering the fundamentals
• Tableau or Power BI?
• The reasons Mark is a fan of Andy’s teaching on YouTube
• Why aren’t high school students learning data visualization in the classroom?
• CEOs who want a dashboard are asking the wrong questions
• Businesses that are still driven by Excel
• Using free tools to store and manage data
• The reason every business person should flip through Chapter 10 of #Makeover Monday multiple times
• The pie chart is still alive
• The role of context in visuals
• A picture of lifelong learning for dataviz professionals
• Practicing deliberate practice
• Andy’s tips on LinkedIn are outstanding

Books Mentioned on the Show

1. Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martel
2. Exactly What to Say by Phil Jones
3. Dog is Love by Clive Wynne
4. One Dog at a Time by Pen Farthing

What Did You Learn?

When our shows are produced, I listen to each episode to capture notes on some of my favorite points. In this case, Andy delivered a handful of nuggets I was not expecting. Accordingly, I’d like to leave you with a few questions:

1. Why did Andy start writing? Whether you run a company or manage a small or large team, have you considered a writing routine for the reasons Andy did?
2. I wrote down Andy’s five daily habits and will incorporate a few into my daily routine. Will you?
3. If you were invited to your high school to teach a business class on any data visualization topic, what would it be and why?
4. What did you think about Andy’s comments on dashboards? Is he right? What additional questions would you like to ask him if you could discuss this topic?
5. I asked Andy to consider an outline of a boot camp for small business owners and CEOs. What topics would you want Andy to include?

Episode Pairings