Why Next Level Tableau worked for me
Disclaimer: These are my own personal thoughts and experiences with NLT. I've not been asked to write this, but NLT has been an important part of my Tableau journey and I wanted to share a bit about it.
I've been using Tableau for 6 years - sort of
I first logged on to Tableau and started to drag and drop in 2020.
I learned a bunch of stuff really fast in the first 6 months - then coasted for the next 3 years. I wasn't on Tableau Public and my growth had totally stalled.
It's not that I didn't want to grow, I just didn't know how.
False start
Early 2024, I tried to get energized and started a Tableau Public profile with a Makeover Monday challenge - a really wonderful way to learn - with this dashboard. I thought it was pretty good. Dark mode, cool buttons courtesy of The Noun Project and a broad-appeal subject. It got about 10 views.
I liked the challenge and resolved to do it again the following Monday. Then work got busy, or life got busy and I never followed through.
Getting by
I had built plenty of business dashboards - but those were repetitive and generally followed the same pattern. They weren't pushing me to grow, but more importantly, I wasn't pushing them to be better - which didn't sit right with me.
I set about trying to improve some of my dashboards. I added Dynamic Zone Visibility to a table and was immediately hooked on Tableau from that point onwards. I needed to learn more.
An Andy Kriebel workshop
Like many of you, I had watched Andy's YouTube channel. I would get stuck on a topic and hope that he had covered it.
This was great for gaps I knew I had. But what about things I didn't know that I didn't know?
Around November 2024, Andy put on a $100 workshop that came with a free month of Next Level Tableau. What a deal! It was an Andy Kriebel Workshop - who I knew from YouTube and access to this new training program - whatever that was.
Next Level Tableau
Next Level Tableau (or NLT from here on out) was primarily a live-training program. 3 classes a week. 1 x Beginner, 1 x Intermediate and 1 x Advanced.
You join Andy and the class on Zoom and build a dashboard in an hour, focusing in on one particular topic, technique or skill. Most classes ended with a complete dashboard and part of the accountability was to post that dashboard to Tableau Public.
Moreover, every single class was recorded - going back to the earliest classes where Ojo was amongst the attendees (and he is still part of NLT today). I was able to go back and watch the back catalogue. I loved this. Importantly though, they were recordings of live classes, so they felt different to stand-alone, recorded training sessions.
Hi younger Andy, Sarah, Blake and Ojo. All still active today.
I went back and watched everything. There were also curated lists of recordings to bring you up to speed faster than I did.
Investing in yourself
I won't lie - despite loving my first month - I hesitated before signing up. I don't really spend money on myself. So why am I paying for something that work should probably be paying for? It took a moment to reconcile that this is a skill I can bring with me wherever I go. Moreover, I was enjoying it.
Two things happened after signing up for my subscription:
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First, I was already more engaged. I was paying for it - I'm going to use it.
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Second - and more importantly - I felt like I was taking control. I wasn't waiting to be handed training.
The NLT Community
Training from Andy Kriebel, a structured training program across all topics you need to know and accountability with publishing and sharing your dashboards. These are things you know you are getting for the price of admission.
What wasn't obvious at sign-up, but turns out to be a huge part of the NLT offering is the NLT Community. The other students in the program - all at different stages of their learning journey and careers. I wasn't expecting this. There was an inbuilt network of like-minded people all willing to help, support and give their time. I didn't see this coming.
This paid off for me in a big way at both TC25 and TC26. I had attended Tableau Conference before, but never as part of a community. I always attended the sessions, head down, learned what I could and went home. TC25 was the first time I was able to network and be part of the Tableau community, backed up by our own NLT community - returning again at TC26 knowing that I had the NLT crew for support.
Accountability and visibility
Andy will never promote this bit.
If you post a Tableau Public viz to LinkedIn and Andy comments on or likes it, it reaches a much, much wider audience. Your work gets noticed. People look at your stuff. My earlier viz with 10 views got a lot more after that. And since you are publishing dashboards after every class, you build a portfolio of projects and people see it.
Viz of the Day
One of my most exciting days in Tableau was my first Viz of the Day. I got nothing done that day after it was announced.
Whilst you are publishing the dashboard at the end of class, you are encouraged to make it your own before you do. This Viz was just NLT homework.
Coaching
I got some career coaching with Andy. Just one session - and I took that session and turned it into a role change at work that had me doing more of what I loved doing - Tableau and Training.
Your mileage may vary. Part of that was also having a great leadership team invested in my growth and development - so I was very fortunate on that front.
This meant that initial investment in myself and NLT came back to me pretty quickly.
Flexibility
Schedules, work commitments, timezones etc. all change.
Early on, I was in most classes because the Tues-Thurs 8am PT I could prioritize into my schedule. Then I could no longer make Thursdays, so I switched to recordings. Today, the 6:30am & 8am Weds-Thurs sometimes work, sometimes don't.
Over the course of 2 years, I have switched between attending live, recordings only and a hybrid of the two. NLT is so flexible that I don't feel I lose out no matter how I approach it. I love being able to ask questions in live classes, but I also love being able to pause and rewind recordings.
Opportunities
From time to time, there are great opportunities inside NLT. This year, Andy had several of his students come on and present at a mini-conference called NLT Live. There I got to talk about how I'd taken NLT learnings and applied them to real-world work examples.
Speakers included Tim Ngwena, Celia Fryar, Blake Feiza, Ojo Basu, Morgan Erickson, Charlotte Shearsby, Ruben Martinez, Billy Caughy, me, Eva Murray and Andy of course.
Then a few of us even got to host classes too - an opportunity we all loved doing.
What's your NLT?
I have been using Tableau for 6 years. Although, really I think of it as starting in earnest when I signed up for NLT 2 years ago. That is when I invested in myself, took ownership of my growth, engaged with the Tableau community (with the help and support of the NLT community) and gained the confidence to share my work and achieve my goal of helping others learn Tableau.
Of course, I highly recommend NLT to anyone who is looking to invest in themselves, grow their skills and continue to grow and develop.
I've had this conversation with a few people now. Some join (and don't regret it) and for others the fit isn't quite right.
Nowadays, there is lots of training out there. Different formats; different audiences.
For me, I needed structure and accountability. NLT gave me that and a lot more. I'd recommend asking yourself what you need to grow. It might be that NLT will give you that. It might be you are better suited to something else. Either way, don't shy away from investing in yourself, showing up and putting in the work.
Not a review
This is far from an in-depth review of NLT. Head over to the Next Level Tableau website or join one of Andy's free workshops that he runs about once a month for more of a deep dive on the program.
NLT is, however, an important part of my Tableau journey that I am more than happy to share or talk to anyone about. Reach out using the contact me page or on my LinkedIn if you'd like to learn more.