• Good news, data visualization practitioners: with AI your domain expertise matters more, not less

• Chart Chat 72: Show and Tell (and how we’re using AI in our data work)

With AI, domain expertise matters more, not less

My friend and colleague, Mark Palmer, presented at the Data Visualization Society’s Outlier conference in 2025. His talk was controversial and he took a lot of brickbats from an indignant audience.

It’s a year later and as I reflect on what he was trying to get us to see I think he was 100% right. His examples missed the mark, but his assertion, that if you have domain expertise you can bring better work to light faster, is spot on. My recent forays with AI align with this.

As readers of this newsletter know, I’m very good at Tableau and can get it to do my bidding, but it’s no longer the first tool I reach for. I may end up using Tableau for my final rendering, but when I want to experiment and vet ideas, I use Claude.

If you come to our Chart Chat on July 23, you’ll see what I’ve been up to and why I like it so much.

For more thoughts on AI and data visualization I encourage you to read Northwestern University professor Enrico Bertini’s post where he explicitly states that with AI, domain expertise matters more, not less.

This means that if you have invested time and effort into plying your data visualization and storytelling craft, AI will help you, not hurt you.

Chart Chat 72: Show and Tell

Our “show and tell” Chart Chat on July 23 is going to be a lot of fun.

Andy is going to show the “Add to Playlist” app he’s been refining.

Jeff will demonstrate how to go beyond simple prompting and build a Claude AI skill.

Amanda will share how she uses NotebookLM as part of the discovery process when designing new dashboards.

Steve will show you why Tableau is no longer his “go to” when building data visualizations and why he instead starts with Claude AI.

Reserve your spot

• Into data? Watch this movie!

• Chart Chat 72: Show and Tell

Watch this Movie!

Go see the movie Pressure.

Short summary: In 1944, General Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) has to decide if it is safe to go ahead with the D-Day invasion in early June, but must weigh conflicting advice from a Scottish meteorologist (Andrew Scott) and an American meteorologist (Chris Messina).

The hero of the movie?

Data.

The villain?

The misuse of data.

I can’t tell you more without spoiling a key point, but I will tell you it’s during the “horsesh&t” scene.

Riveting.

And yes, people who don’t love data will love the movie, too.

Chart Chat 72: Show and Tell

I hope you’ll join me, Andy, Jeff, and Amanda for a show-and-tell of data visualization projects we’ve been working on or admiring.

We’ll dive into the weeds of what made each example notable, and you’ll come away with inspiration to integrate into your work.

As always, we’ll host a 15 minute, unrecorded after party from 11:45-Noon EDT, where you can share your thoughts and bring your own vizzes to Show and Tell!

Reserve your spot

And why is CC70 worth revisiting?

Andy and I both “vibe-coded” our makeovers. Using generative AI we rendered some impressive things in a fraction of the time it would have taken using traditional tools.

It was only after the episode that attendees pointed out there were some glaring errors in what we made. Neither of us had thought that we would need to carefully vet the results. It was a big wakeup call on how these seemingly magical tools still produce some big errors, even when you have experts at the helm.

I hope you’ll join me, Andy, Jeff, and Amanda as we debate whether genAI tools are supercharging our capabilities, sabotaging analysts with sneaky errors, or something in between.

As always, after the show attendees can pop into our unrecorded after party for an off-the-record chat, sharing your thoughts on the supercharge vs. sabotage debate.

Reserve your spot

• Chart Chat 70: One chart, four ways (a fan favorite)

• Wow! Look at the price for the book!

• You should pay for this person’s newsletter

Chart Chat 70: One chart, four ways

This month we’re hosting the 70th episode of Chart Chat and to celebrate we’re revisiting a fan favorite: One chart, four ways.

Join us Thursday, April 30 at 11AM EDT to see how each of us redesigns this, er, interesting bar chart / butterfly chart about public pension data. In addition to the makeovers we’ll have some pointed discussions about the underlying data and whether the assertions of the chart creators are missing the mark.

Reserve Your Spot

Wow! Look at the price for the book!

If you haven’t already purchased a copy of Dashboards That Deliver, now would be a great time to get it as I’ve never seen the price this low.

Purchase from Amazon

Purchase from Walmart

You should pay for this person’s newsletter

I continue to be blown away with the graphics and research that Amanda Shendruk puts into her Not-Ship newsletter, so much so that I want to encourage others to not only subscribe but to pay for a subscription.

Check out her most recent newsletter here. If you agree that it’s worthwhile, consider subscribing for $9 a month.

• An excellent infographic

• Chart Chat 70: One chart, four ways (a fan favorite)

An excellent infographic

Just how big is the Hungarian parliament?

My wife and I recently traveled to Budapest. One of the “must-see” attractions is the Hungarian parliament building. It is absolutely stunning, both inside and out, daytime and nighttime.

It’s also massive. I suspect many Hungarians take pride in this as there is a very well-rendered infographic comparing the size of the Hungarian parliament with other nations’ parliament and capitol buildings.

Notice that the placement of the buildings’ outlines are right-aligned and not centered. Yes, I have a minor quibble with right vs. left alignment, but what’s important is that the elements are aligned to a common baseline, so it makes it easy to see that the Budapest parliament (top) is a little more than twice as wide as the Berlin parliament (bottom).

And I can do this without having to look at the numbers!

Let me underscore this by visualizing the data using a bar chart.

and here’s what happens when you center the bars.

Yikes. The comparisons are much harder with the centered bars.

For the record I think showing the outlines of the buildings is way more engaging than showing bars. Whoever created the infographic, I salute you.

A shout out to Claude AI

I wanted a clean and accurate rendering of the infographic but the photo I took is skewed.

I asked Claude to correct the keystone and after a few iterations I had an image with no distortion (the one at the beginning of this newsletter).

Thank you, Anthropic.

Chart Chat 70: One chart, four ways

Join us as Jeff, Andy, Amanda, and I take on this chart from Voronoi and share what each of us would do with the same data.

“One Chart, Four Ways” was the top-rated session at the Tableau conference last year. We won’t be there this year, so join us for the livestream on April 30 at 11 AM EDT.

Reserve Your Spot

• Visualizing the Olympics: what is YOUR favorite viz?

• Chart Chat 69: Visualizing the Olympic Games

• This is so good!

Visualizing the Olympics:
What is YOUR favorite viz?

I’m preparing for our upcoming Chart Chat and looking at different ways to visualize Olympics results over the decades. Have you run across any striking examples that you think warrant calling out? If so, please either comment on my Substack page or send an email to swexler@datarevelations.com.

Speaking of our upcoming Chart Chat…

Chart Chat 69 on March 12:
Visualizing the Olympic Games

Please join me, Amanda, Andy, and Jeff as we explore some of our favorite charts from Olympic games over the decades.

Maybe we’ll show one of yours, too.

Reserve Your Spot

This is so good!

We revealed the winner of the Broadway Maestras contest earlier this week. We received many stellar entries, but the winning entry from Hafida Belayd is something else.

Explore the winning entry

• Join us for a livestream on March 3 when we announce the winner of the Women+ Conductors on Broadway data visualization contest

• Using AI to communicate with data: I didn’t heed my own warnings!

• Chart Chat 69: Visualizing the Olympic Games

• Chart Chat 68 Recap: If you missed it, watch it. It was good!

And the winner is…

Please join me, Serena Roberts, Kevin Flerlage (Moxy Analytics), Lisa Trescott (Iron Viz winner) and Sariva Goetz (Broadway conductor and Head of Musical Theatre at Emerson College) as we review submissions and announce the winner of the Women+ Conductors on Broadway data visualization content.

We are confident you will be inspired, educated, entertained... and dazzled!

Click here to reserve your spot for the 30-minute livestream on March 3 at 11 AM EST.

Reserve your spot

Using AI to communicate with data: I didn’t heed my own warnings!

I had a blast last month bantering with about five data visualization abominations and determining which one was the biggest T.U.R.D (Truly Unfortunate Representation of Data).

I was inspired both by Andy and to show how the visualizations were misleading and how one could render an accurate and honest depiction of the data using AI. As readers of my newsletter know, my overarching advice about AI is that you must know what you are doing and know what good looks like lest you produce crappy stuff.

I thought I had done a pretty good job of this. If you were to look at my dialog with Anthropic’s Claude you will see me correcting the output many, many times and Claude telling me how smart I was… many, many times.

But… here’s a message I received from Jane Logan shortly after the event:

I just attended the TURD presentation - thanks for that! It was a super engaging. I really enjoyed it.

I just wanted to point out a small thing about that Biden White House chart which showed the increase of 14%. In the Claude “what they didn’t show you” graph, the distance between the 500 billion and the 600 billion looked bigger than the distance between 400 and 500 billion, 300 and 400 billion, etc. Was that a misdrawing of the axis or is it actually a different scale between the misleading and the actual?

Busted! She’s 100% correct. I didn’t review what AI produced and shared something that was flawed.

Here’s the original “turd.”

Here’s what I shared in the livestream. I’ve added the “whoops” callout showing the mistake.

The y-axis should be equally spaced. I recently pointed out the flaw to my good friend Claude and asked for a corrected version, shown below.

Lesson learned.

Watch the Recording

Chart Chat 69 on March 12: Visualizing the Olympic Games

Please join me, Amanda, Andy, and Jeff as we explore some of our favorite charts from Olympic games over the decades.

Reserve Your Spot

Chart Chat 68 Recap: If you missed it, watch it. It was good!

We covered two subjects in our last Chart Chat.

First, Jeff shared his take on box plots. He gave a masterclass on how to explain many difficult statistical concepts.

Then I interviewed Jeff, Amanda, and Andy and asked them how they go about prepping for Chart Chat and keynote presentations. What they shared is invaluable.

Watch the Recording

I’ve migrated some previous newsletters and will be posting a new newsletter soon.

Subscribe now

Volume 12 number 4  |  February 17, 2026

What’s in this newsletter

• Who made the biggest T.U.R.D. ?

• Chart Chat 68: Some deep dives into box plots and how to craft a great presentation.

• Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards workshop on February 24 and 26.

• Have you ever watched an episode of Chart Chat? If so, we need your help!

Who made the biggest T.U.R.D. ?

Who made the biggest T.U.R.D., aka, a "truly unfortunate representation of data."

Was it Fox News? Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán? The Biden White House? The Trump White House? NYC mayor Eric Adams?

Join me and Andy Cotgreave as we look into these egregious examples of misleading data visualization and how we both use AI to create pictures that morph between misleading views and honest views.

Reserve your spot

Chart Chat 68: Deep dives into box plots and crafting great presentations

How do box plots work? Will audiences understand them? Do some variations work better than others? Jeff will address these questions.

I will then interview Amanda, Andy, and Jeff and ask them how they go about preparing for Chart Chat and how they go about creating and giving presentations about data.

• How long does it take?

• How much do they practice?

• How many times do you need to present before things just flow?

Find out how these very polished presenters ply their craft.

Reserve your spot

Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards Workshop

Hey, dashboard designers:
 

"Vibe-vizzing" is great, but if you don't know what you are doing you will just make a lot of crappy stuff, faster.

We'll discuss communicating with data in the AI era in my upcoming dashboard design workshop on February 24 and 26, online.

Note: Do you know of anyone who would like to attend the workshop but cannot because of financial constraints? I offer full and partial grants. Have the person contact me.

Learn more

Have you ever watched an episode of Chart Chat?

If so, Jeffrey Shaffer, Andy Cotgreave, Amanda Makulec, and I need your help!

Please take this three-minute survey to let us know what you like and what we can do better.

Take survey

Share this with others

If you find this newsletter useful, please it with others.

And please encourage people to sign up here.

update your preferences or unsubscribe

Volume 12 number 3  |  January 27, 2026

What’s in this newsletter

• Have you ever watched an episode of Chart Chat? If so, we need your help!

• Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards workshop on February 24 and 26.

• Chart Chat 67: How we use data to get better at what we do (and how you can get better, too)

Have you ever watched an episode of Chart Chat?

If so, Jeffrey Shaffer, Andy Cotgreave, Amanda Makulec, and I need your help!

Please take this three-minute survey to let us know what you like and what we can do better.

Take survey

Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards Workshop

Hey, dashboard designers:
 

I think pie charts get a bad rap. They are not always evil. Sometimes they are the best way to present a finding or help with a comparison.

And when you have interactivity between well-implemented pie charts and bar charts, you can produce something insanely useful.

We'll discuss this in depth in my upcoming—and updated—dashboard design workshop that I'm presenting February 24 and 26 online.

Note: Do you know of anyone who would like to attend the workshop but cannot because of financial constraints? I offer full and partial grants. Have the person contact me.

Learn more

Reminder: Chart Chat 67: How we use data to get better at what we do

In Chart Chat 67 we have 3 great topics.

First, how do you analyze a live show such as Chart Chat? One thing you can do is look at share of voice. When we have guests, do they, correctly, dominate the conversation? How long should the intro be?

I dug into our Chart Chat transcriptions and will share what the data tells us and how you can use these techniques to review your own work.

Second, we'll look at a chart from Pew Research. On the face of it, it's just a bar chart with some reference dots. But we think there are many subtleties worthy of conversation.

Finally, Andy looks at wireframing. Oh yes, everyone recommends wireframing your dashboards. Andy will share a tale of caution and tell how he once fell into a Wireframe Trap.

The episode will be 45 minutes followed by an optional 15-minute Zoom meeting where you can ask questions and express your opinions.

Reserve your spot

Share this with others

If you find this newsletter useful, please it with others.

And please encourage people to sign up here.

update your preferences or unsubscribe

Volume 12 number 2  |  January 15, 2026

What’s in this newsletter

• What does “good” look like in data visualization, Part 2?

• Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards workshop on February 24 and 26.

• Women+ Conductors on Broadway Data Viz contest.

• Chart Chat 67: How we use data to get better at what we do

What does “good” look like in data visualization?

I’ve started a series of what I think “good” looks like in data visualization. Part 2 addresses how to visualize Likert scale data.

Watch

Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards Workshop

In case you missed the mention in the last newsletter, I have a workshop coming up February 24 and 26 Online (two half-days).

I’m delighted to offer an updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards workshop that incorporates content from my new book Dashboards That Deliver.

Most dashboards fail. But those that succeed can transform organizations.

In this workshop you’ll learn how to design, develop, and deliver dashboards THAT WORK!

Note: Do you know of anyone who would like to attend the workshop but cannot because of financial constraints? I offer full and partial grants. Have the person contact me.

Learn more

Women+ Conductors on Broadway

As I mentioned previously, I’m teaming up with some amazing people to formally launch the Women+ Conduct on Broadway data visualization contest.

We’ve started to get some great entries. Look at this stellar submission from Kevin Flerlage.

Please participate! By exploring the data and coming up with interpretations you will do much to spread the word about this fascinating and, until now, little-known story.

Learn more

Reminder: Chart Chat 67: How we use data to get better at what we do

In Chart Chat 67 we have 3 great topics.

First, how do you analyze a live show such as Chart Chat? One thing you can do is look at share of voice. When we have guests, do they, correctly, dominate the conversation? How long should the intro be?

Looking at other data, is Andy our group's chatterbox? Steve dug into our Chart Chat history and will share what the data tells us.

Second, we'll look at a chart from Pew Research. On the face of it, it's just a bar chart with some reference dots. But we think there are many subtleties worthy of conversation.

Finally, Andy looks at wireframing. Oh yes, everyone recommends wireframing your dashboards. Andy will share a tale of caution and tell how he once fell into a Wireframe Trap.

The episode will be 45 minutes followed by an optional 15-minute Zoom meeting where you can ask questions and express your opinions.

Reserve your spot

Share this with others

If you find this newsletter useful, please it with others.

And please encourage people to sign up here.

update your preferences or unsubscribe

Volume 12 number 1  |  January 8, 2026

What’s in this newsletter

• What does “good” look like in data visualization?
  If you use AI you better know.

• Price increase coming soon! Get lifetime access to the on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau

• Chart Chat 67: How we use data to get better at what we do

• Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards workshop on February 24 and 26.

• Women+ Conductors on Broadway Data Viz contest.

What does “good” look like in data visualization?

It's not about the tool—it's about knowing what to do with it.

AI makes it easier than ever to create data visualizations that communicate clearly and compellingly.

But it also makes it easy to craft visualizations that are confusing and deceitful, visualizations that will undermine your credibility.

The difference? Knowing what "good" looks like.

I’ve started a series of what I think “good” looks like in data visualization. Part 1 addresses how to show rank and magnitude in survey data and how to use gap charts.

While the focus is survey data, you can apply these techniques to virtually any type of data.

Read

Get LIFETIME access to my Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau On-Demand course

I'm excited to share that I've updated my on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau.

But... the price will increase from $299 to $399 on January 15.

If you are interested, or know anyone that might be interested, purchase your lifetime access before the price goes up.

Click here to learn more.

Learn more

Chart Chat 67: How we use data to get better at what we do

In Chart Chat 67 we have 3 great topics.

First, how do you analyze a live show such as Chart Chat? One thing you can do is look at share of voice. When we have guests, do they, correctly, dominate the conversation? How long should the intro be?

Is Andy our group's chatterbox? Steve dug into our Chart Chat history and will share what the data tells us.

Second, we'll look at a chart from Pew Research. On the face of it, it's just a bar chart with some reference dots. But we think there are many subtleties worthy of conversation.

Finally, Andy looks at wireframing. Oh yes, everyone recommends wireframing your dashboards. Andy will share a tale of caution and tell how he once fell into a Wireframe Trap.

The episode will be 45 minutes followed by an optional 15-minute Zoom meeting where you can ask questions and express your opinions.

Reserve your spot

Updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards Workshop

February 24 and 26 Online (two half-days)

I’m delighted to offer an updated Building World-Class Business Dashboards workshop that incorporates content from my new book Dashboards That Deliver.

Most dashboards fail. But those that succeed can transform organizations.

In this workshop you’ll learn how to design, develop, and deliver dashboards THAT WORK!

Learn more

It's not just men who conduct Broadway shows!

I’m teaming up with some amazing people to formally launch the Women+ Conduct on Broadway data visualization contest.

Broadway has a rich history of music and artistry, but until recently, little attention has been given to the representation of female and nonbinary conductors, music directors, and music supervisors leading in this space. This contest invites the data community to bring that story to life through interactive visualizations that are open, engaging, and thought-provoking.

By exploring the data and coming up with interpretations you will do much to spread the word about this fascinating and, until now, little-known story.

Learn more

Share this with others

If you find this newsletter useful, please it with others.

And please encourage people to sign up here.

update your preferences or unsubscribe

Volume 11 number 14  |  December 23, 2025

What’s in this newsletter

• How to be less exasperated with LinkedIn

• Join the livestream where we discuss a contest on visualizing the data around Women+ conductors on Broadway.

• Cool table from Learned League

• Price increase coming soon! Get lifetime access to the on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau

How to be less exasperated with LinkedIn

about my exasperation with LinkedIn. It turns out there are some easy things you can do to reduce the frustration and make sure you see the posts you want to see.

If you want to make sure you don't miss a post from someone, go to the person's profile, click the bell, then indicate you want to see *all* posts. The bell icon will become a double bell icon.

Here’s an example: Now I’ll never miss a post from Jeffrey Shaffer.

Thank you, David Johnston for showing me this.

Also, you can change how LinkedIn presents you with information and hopefully avoid hearing about events three weeks after they’ve taken place.

1. Click the Me icon (your profile picture) at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.

2. Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown menu.

3. Click on Account preferences (this might be the default page).

4. Select General preferences.

5. Click on Preferred Feed View.

6. Choose Most recent posts; the change saves automatically.

It's not just men who conduct Broadway shows!

Join us for a livestream where we discuss how you can help visualize this amazing data set (and maybe win a prize)

I’ll be hosting the kickoff of an exciting visualization content on January 6 at 11 AM EST.

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I’m teaming up with some amazing people to formally launch the Women+ Conduct on Broadway data visualization contest.

Broadway has a rich history of music and artistry, but until recently, little attention has been given to the representation of female and nonbinary conductors, music directors, and music supervisors leading in this space. This contest invites the data community to bring that story to life through interactive visualizations that are open, engaging, and thought-provoking.

By exploring the data and coming up with interpretations you will do much to spread the word about this fascinating and, until now, little-known story.

Learn more about the contest and how you can participate.

Reserve a spot

How cool is this table?!

I am one of around 31,000 people world-wide who plays in an online trivia competition called Learned League. The table on the left shows my results for the first three tournaments I've played.

Check out the green highlighting. The green part shows a silhouette of bars that in turn show the percentage of questions I got right across various categories. On the right I drew the bars in case the ones on the left weren't clear.

What a great way to augment a table!

Get LIFETIME access to my Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau On-Demand course

I'm excited to share that I've updated my on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau.

But... the price will increase from $299 to $399 on January 15.

If you are interested, or know anyone that might be interested, purchase your lifetime access before the price goes up.

Click here to learn more.

View

Share this with others

If you find this newsletter useful, please it with others.

And please encourage people to sign up here.

update your preferences or unsubscribe

Volume 11 number 13  |  December 17, 2025

What’s in this newsletter

• I’m exasperated with LinkedIn. How about you?

• It’s “Long Form” dashboard season… I mean Tableau Iron Viz season

• Someone you should follow

• It isn’t just men who conduct Broadway shows!
  Help visualize this amazing data set

• Price increase coming soon! Get lifetime access to the on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau

I’m exasperated with LinkedIn. How about you?

I wrote about why I quit Twitter / X a while back. At the time, I decided to put my energy into posting and participating in worthwhile discussions on LinkedIn.

It was great… for a while.

I’m now exasperated that some of my posts reach tens of thousands of people while others only reach dozens. At the same time, I’m missing posts I’d like to see, or I get notified about some wonderful event… three weeks after the event took place.

I’m not sure what to do. Should I soldier on? Try to convince a critical mass of people to pledge to post to Bluesky Social for a month? Throw my hands up in disgust?

Where do you go to have good discussions around communicating with data?

Let me know what you think.

As a result of this problem, I’ve decided to provide more content on a regular cadence to my 5,000 or so newsletter subscribers.  

It’s “Long Form” dashboard season… I mean Iron Viz season

I

’m seeing a rash of posts proffering long-form Tableau dashboards.

It can only mean one thing: It’s Iron Viz Qualifier season!

And just why are these dashboards so long? Because one of the scoring metrics is storytelling.

As I’ve stated on myriad occasions (including this blog post), I think a dashboard is a terrible place to tell a story, but it’s a great place to find a story worth telling. I

That said, there are some terrific submissions this year, and I encourage you to check them out.

Fun fact: the thumbnail shown here is from Kevin Wee’s stellar submission. It’s 8,418 pixels long!

Fun fact and confession: I was the first Iron Viz champion in 2011. I don’t think I’d come close to qualifying now, let alone winning.

View

You should follow this person

I

got to work with Amanda Shendruk indirectly last year on an opinion piece I wrote for The Washington Post.

I recently discovered her newsletter and her writing and analysis is stellar. See this example. Yikes, she’s right. The images posted on The US Department of Labor’s website are downright creepy, and her assessment is spot on.

It's not just men who conduct Broadway shows!

Help visualize this amazing data set

Speaking of data visualization contests, check out the Women+ Conduct on Broadway Data Visualization Contest.

I've been working for the past few months with some great collaborators to bring this contest into fruition.

Broadway has a rich history of music and artistry, but until recently, little attention has been given to the representation of female and nonbinary conductors, music directors, and music supervisors leading in this space. This contest invites the data community to bring that story to life through interactive visualizations that are open, engaging, and thought-provoking.

By exploring the data and coming up with interpretations you will do much to spread the word about this fascinating and, until now, little-known story.

View

Get LIFETIME access to my Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau On-Demand course

I'm excited to share that I've updated my on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau.

But... the price will increase from $299 to $399 on January 15.

If you are interested, or know anyone that might be interested, purchase your lifetime access before the price goes up.

Click here to learn more.

View

Share this with others

If you find this newsletter useful, please it with others.

And please encourage people to sign up here.

update your preferences or unsubscribe

You can now get LIFETIME access to my Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau On-Demand course  

I'm excited to share that I've updated my on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau. Here are the details:

• The course has been updated to reflect changes in Tableau

• 111-page attendee guide with clear step-by-step instructions and illustrations

• Over three hours of video recordings

• Free access to my monthly "what's on your mind" sessions

• LIFETIME access to the course

But... the price will increase from $299 to $399 on January 15.

If you are interested, or know anyone that might be interested, purchase your lifetime access before the price goes up.

Chart Chat Wrapped coming up on December 10  

Come join me, Amanda, Andy, and Jeff as we explore some of the highlights (and lowlights) of data visualization in 2025. 

Like the BBC News, our goal is to inform, educate, and entertain.

(But without any scandals).

Come Follow, Follow, Follow

I try to post something of value several times a week. Here's where you can find me on LinkedIn.

ABOUT DATA REVELATIONS

Data Revelations is a training, consulting, and development practice devoted to helping organizations understand, analyze, and share their data.

Yikes! I had the wrong link for Chart Chat!

If you want to register for the December 10 episode of Chart Chat, click here.

In this newsletter:

• Get LIFETIME access to the on-demand course
  Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau

• Chart Chat 66: A Year in Review on December 10 (with correct link)

You can now get LIFETIME access to my Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau On-Demand course  

I'm excited to share that I've updated my on-demand course Visualizing Survey Data Using Tableau. Here are the details:

• The course has been updated to reflect changes in Tableau

• 111-page attendee guide with clear step-by-step instructions and illustrations

• Over three hours of video recordings

• Free access to my monthly "what's on your mind" sessions

• LIFETIME access to the course

But... the price will increase from $299 to $399 on January 15.

If you are interested, or know anyone that might be interested, purchase your lifetime access before the price goes up.

Chart Chat Wrapped coming up on December 10  

Come join me, Amanda, Andy, and Jeff as we explore some of the highlights (and lowlights) of data visualization in 2025. 

Like the BBC News, our goal is to inform, educate, and entertain.

(But without any scandals).

Come Follow, Follow, Follow

I try to post something of value several times a week. Here's where you can find me on LinkedIn.

ABOUT DATA REVELATIONS

Data Revelations is a training, consulting, and development practice devoted to helping organizations understand, analyze, and share their data.

Attention Music and Data Nerds! This Chart Chat is for YOU!  

If you are into music and data (or music and history, or music and anthropology, or music and politics) this edition of Chart Chat is for you.

We'll be talking with musician, author, and fellow data nerd Chris Dalla Riva about his new book, Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves.

After spending years listening to every number one hit from 1958 to the present, Chris wrote a data-driven history of popular music. During that journey, he unearthed many unexpected insights:

• Hit songs in the 1950s were regularly about gruesome death

• It takes twice as many people to write a hit today as it did in the 1960s

• The pop charts were rigged in the 1970s

• TikTok has made artists more anonymous than ever before

We'll also explore graphic designer Caileigh Nerney's enlightening and entertaining data visualizations that are featured throughout the book.

Come Follow, Follow, Follow

I try to post something of value several times a week. Here's where you can find me on LinkedIn.

ABOUT DATA REVELATIONS

Data Revelations is a training, consulting, and development practice devoted to helping organizations understand, analyze, and share their data.

In This Newsletter

• AI and Data Visualization: I Need Your Help!

• Chart Chat on October 30: Before and After Makeovers

AI and Data Visualization: I Need Your Help!

Have you used generative AI to create data visualizations? I’d love to hear about successes and failures.

If you succeeded, I want to know when you needed to intercede to make sure you got good results. That is, where did you apply your knowledge to properly guide AI to create something that communicated data compellingly and with integrity.

Send me a note or direct message on LinkedIn.

Chart Chat on October 30: Before and After Makeovers

We're joining forces with the storytelling with data team for a mega-challenge: redesign a dashboard. Participants will choose one of their own dashboards (or one from The Big Book of Dashboards website), define their audience and their needs, and share the original alongside the refreshed version. Submissions can be quick mockups or fully interactive dashboards.

This challenge is about more than aesthetics—it’s about creating dashboards with purpose, a clear spark, a defined audience, and set of analytical goals.

Come Follow, Follow, Follow

I try to post something of value several times a week. Here's where you can find me on LinkedIn.

ABOUT DATA REVELATIONS

Data Revelations is a training, consulting, and development practice devoted to helping organizations understand, analyze, and share their data.

In This Newsletter

• My new book, Dashboards That Deliver, is out!

• Chart Chat on September 30: Ask Us Anything

• Dashboards That Deliver Workshop In Washington DC on October 7 and 8

• GREAT price on these dashboarding and data viz books

Dashboards That Deliver is here!

After more than two years in the making, Andy Cotgreave, Amanda Makulec, Jeffrey Shaffer and I are delighted to announce that our new book is out!

We wrote our first book, The Big Book of Dashboards, to answer this question:

Given this business predicament, what kind of dashboard should I create?

We tackled this question by presenting 28 different scenarios, each with an accompanying dashboard that addressed the challenges of each scenario.

In Dashboards That Deliver we offer 15 new scenarios and address another critical question:

How do I make sure people use the dashboards I create and get value from them?

For that question, we delve into the process of building dashboards.

Learn more about the book (and download several chapters for free) from the Dashboards That Deliver website.

Chart Chat on September 30: Ask Us ANYTHING

What would YOU like to know about the book and how it can benefit you? You can ask us any question you like. When you fill out the registration form let us know what you would like to know!

And as always, stay for the after party where you can share your thoughts.

Designing Dashboards That Deliver Workshop

October 7 and 8 in Washington DC

My fellow author and Chart Chat host, Amanda Makulec, will be leading a workshop based on Dashboards That Deliver. I saw a preview of what she'll be doing and I thought it was spectacular.

Great Prices on These Books

I don't know which is more difficult to understand, quantum mechanics or Amazon's pricing algorithm.

As of this writing, the prices for my three books are close to the lowest they've ever been on Amazon. I don't know how long this will last, but if you want to pick up a copy, now is a good time to do it.

Dashboards That Deliver
The Big Picture
The Big Book of Dashboards

Come Follow, Follow, Follow

I try to post something of value several times a week. Here's where you can find me on LinkedIn.

ABOUT DATA REVELATIONS

Data Revelations is a training, consulting, and development practice devoted to helping organizations understand, analyze, and share their data.

In This Newsletter

• Dashboards That Deliver is *almost* here!

• Presentation: What "good" looks like in visualizing survey data (and lots of other types of data, too)

Dashboards That Deliver is *almost* here!

  After more than two years in the making, our new book, Dashboards That Deliver, comes out on September 23!

Here are several things to explore as we countdown to the book release:

1. Join me, Andy, Amanda, and Jeff for a special "Ask Us Anything" Chart Chat on September 25 at 11 AM ET.
    

2. Learn more about the book at the Dashboards That Deliver website.
    

3. Pre-order a copy of the book from Amazon (pre-orders help a LOT with book rankings).

What “good” looks like in visualizing survey data

And lots of other types of data

I'll be presenting to the Analytics Tableau User Group on August 28. I'll share my approach to visualizing single-punch, multi-punch, Likert scale, Net Promoter Score, and benchmarking questions. 

BTW, many of these techniques, including connected dot plots, work great for other types of data, too.

Come Follow, Follow, Follow

I try to post something of value several times a week. Here's where you can find me on LinkedIn.

ABOUT DATA REVELATIONS

Data Revelations is a training, consulting, and development practice devoted to helping organizations understand, analyze, and share their data.