Tableau Culture Flashcards
Value 1 – We are on a mission.
Our mission is to help people see and understand data. It represents one of the great opportunities for human advancement this century. This mission profoundly impacts health care, energy efficiency, political outcomes, industrial performance, international cooperation and scientific advancement. An advantage of taking on an opportunity of this scale is that we never worry about there being enough people to help. But a concomitant challenge is that we must play the role of Disruptor. Fomenter. Agitator. Developing a culture of passionate people who genuinely believe in our mission is more than a nice-to-have. As one person put it, “We achieve more than others think possible, because we believe we can.” It’s a key part of Tableau.
Having a missionary culture also creates a great work environment. When a job is more than just a job, when you work every day like you are on a mission, something important overtakes you: Ownership. As one person writes, “Working on our products is not just something you do for a day job. It feels like a privilege. Now you might ask how we can continue to foster our missionary culture. The answer is recruiting. The main way we can reinforce the missionary culture of our company is with careful hiring choices. Should we really stand up right now and proclaim that people who are Tableau material generally identify with, believe in, and are dedicated to advancing our mission? Well, yes we should.
Value 2 – We build great products.
This one speaks for itself.
Value 3 – We use our products.
As a product company brimming with ambition, no value is grander at Tableau than We Use Our Products. What does this mean? It means that regardless what team you are on, your teammates expect you to use our products. Our products are the common language of the company. They are called Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Tableau Public and Tableau Digital. They do downright amazing things for our world and their charms are indistinguishable from magic.
We need to understand our products in order to understand our customers. Our customers spend many hours in front of our products, some of them all day. They are trying to improve their lives and improve the world. Yet there is no way to understand their hopes, ideas, fears or frustrations without using our products for ourselves. Unless you are periodically using our products with real data to solve real problems, you probably don’t quite ‘get it.’ Have you ever worked at a place where no one at the company really used the products? Have you ever worked for a company that lost its voice? These companies are filled with empty souls. We will never lose our way if we use our own products to solve problems.
Value 4 – We work as a team.
People at Tableau value teamwork and view it as an essential quality of our culture. People join Tableau, in part, because it feels “collaborative,” “accessible” and “friendly.” What does it mean to be a team at Tableau? It means we’re heavily invested in each other. When we achieve a company goal, it’s a win for us all; when we miss the goal, we all miss. The most obvious example is in selling – when the sales team over-delivers on a sales goal, it’s not only because we have a sales team filled with fantastic personal abilities. It means that Development has built amazing products, Marketing has created a great brand, and Operations is delivering the support and systems to make it all work.
Apart from the performance benefits of great teamwork, it’s great fun being part of a company where “We Are All in This Together.”
Value 5 – We respect each other.
We have a culture of respect and humility. We are biased against hiring self-centered and disrespectful people. We are a company populated by genuinely smart and respectful people. Tableau has developed its own particular brand of respect, one grounded in humility. It’s been described as “humble smart,” one where you can “hang around with smart people with nary a hair of arrogance or ego.”
Respect is also an element of our focus on customers. Hubris is the great sin of the corporation. Yes, we are analytics ‘experts,’ but our customers are the real experts. We listen to them. We can’t ever believe that we are inherently better than other companies. We must always watch and learn. This value stems in part from the maturity of our employees.
Tableau has developed its own particular brand of respect, one grounded in humility. What does this look like?
Here are a few examples: (1) “Seek to understand first.” Don’t be the kind of person who forms opinions before asking questions. (2) “Everyone has a face and a name.” There is no derogatory ‘them,’ (3) “Check your ego at the door.” That one says it all.
Value 6 – We are honest.
There has never been a period in American business history that better underlines the importance of honesty in business. We strive to build a business that is high integrity to its core.
Honesty starts with our internal interactions and decisions. In our culture we value behavior that is straightforward and sincere. We seek the truth in things. We value an open marketplace of ideas, where the best ideas float to the top regardless of origin. Honesty is also reflected in our corporate transparency.
Honesty begins with you. It is not a Board issue or CEO issue or a Management issue. It’s an everyone issue. It starts with you. Let’s continue to work in a way that is honest and authentic every day. For ourselves, for our teams and for our company.
Value 7 – We keep it simple.
A core cultural value of Tableau Software is Simplicity. Simplicity is the nature of great souls. (Some call this value the Tableau Zen).
We’ve always wanted to build products that are fast, easy and beautiful. Why? Because the world’s alternatives for seeing and understanding data are universally slow, painful and complicated. Simplicity is our identity. One of the most exciting things that has emerged in Tableau’s culture over the years is that every department has creatively embraced and reinforced this identity.
We have come to realize that reducing complexity for people represents an enormous and lasting opportunity for our business. This goes beyond our products. The way analytics software is generally evaluated, purchased, deployed and learned is cumbersome for people all over the world. And so in our culture we like to paint virtually everything with the brush of simplicity.
Ideas that simplify are valued here. The teamwork required to shape our business this way is only possible when there is a shared appreciation for simplicity. Every person in our company has an impact on it. It is important to articulate this value now, because it will be challenging to hold onto as we grow.
Value 8 – We delight our customers.
Tableau is a company inspired by its customers. This is not a lip service goal. We have direct relationships with our customers. Listening and delighting our customers is an integral part of who we are.
We have direct relationships with our customers. This isn’t true of all companies. If you work at a typical large software company, for instance, it’s easy to become insulated from customers because they often interact with customers in automated or arms-length ways. But it isn’t Tableau. You’ll notice that at Tableau we have all of the major organs of a direct, built-from-scratch business. We design products for people who use software, not necessarily for people who buy software. This is a disruptive approach in our industry. We are putting people in the center of an industry not known for it. To us, end-users are kings. Usability comes first. Freedom is the rallying cry.
