Meet the DataFam 01: Brittany Rosenau
Learn more about fellow brand-new Tableau Ambassador and JLL Senior Analyst Brittany Rosenau
Welcome to Meet the DataFam!
Happy Friday, all! As I sat down to write Three Thursday Things last night at like ⌚️11:59:43 p.m., it occurred to me that since the 2022 Tableau Ambassadors were announced yesterday and my first interview victim is a first-time Tableau Public Ambassador, today would be a great day to publish the first edition of Meet the DataFam, an idea I’ve had cooking for a bit. (Three Thursday Things will return next week.)
The Format
I’ve chosen the following structure for Meet the DataFam.
1️⃣ The Background The backstory regarding my interactions with my guest. Seems like there’s always a fun little anecdote to share.
2️⃣ The Viz I’ll pick my favorite of each guest’s public data visualizations on Tableau Public or other portfolio or website.
3️⃣ The Questions I’ll pose the same questions to each guest (in writing) and publish their answers exactly as written, editing as lightly as I possibly can considering I majored in English as an undergrad. I’ll clarify dataviz jargon and Tableau-specific terms and link to relevant websites where appropriate.
The Background
Some time ago, I began to notice Brittany’s Twitter content and Medium blog (WHICH YOU SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO NOW. Go ahead, I’ll wait.) First, I noticed that she’s a fellow Floridian. I’m in Tampa and always down to commiserate on the state of our state, so I was excited to learn that (spoiler alert: this is one of the questions 🤦🏼♀️) Brittany lives in Tavares, America’s Seaplane City, just northwest of Orlando in Central Florida. Seaplane City? Tavares is pretty landlocked as far as Florida locales go, but after some speedy Googling, I discovered it’s in Lake County — not Seminole, as I’d erroneously assumed — and, SURPRISE, there are a lot of lakes there! I didn't know what a seaplane was either, but Britannica.com to the rescue. A seaplane is
any of a class of aircraft that can land, float, and take off on water.
They have an interesting history, too, but I’m prone to digression, so I’ll leave you to explore that for yourself if you’re so inclined.
A bit later, Brittany’s blog post about link hoarding of color palettes and color palette tools popped on to my radar. She collects her bookmarks in raindrop.io, too!, I exclaimed to myself. (Doesn’t take much to get me excited generally, but Raindrop is truly life-changing. Check it out and thank us later.)
The Viz
My favorite viz on Brittany’s Tableau Public profile is 10 Years of 99% Invisible. I share her love of nerdy podcastery, and the design and analysis in this viz are so on point. Her passion for the topic really comes through. Also, I’m generally not a fan of waffle charts, but they are perfect here! I can’t imagine another chart type for this data now.
The Questions
Where are you from originally?
I’ve moved around a fair bit, so to avoid an existential crisis I usually just say, “the midwest”. I was born in southwest Michigan, but have lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, and most recently Seattle, Washington.
Where do you live now?
Sunny Tavares, Florida!
Where would you live if you could live anywhere (assuming money, family, work location, etc. are not a concern)?
There are too many places I’d like to try out! Probably somewhere with four proper seasons and close to a large body of water.
Do you have any pets? What kind(s)? What are their names?
Currently I’ve got a 38-gallon tropical freshwater aquarium, and a paludarium (a tank with some water, some land) with a few fiddler and red claw crabs. I do love dogs and plan on getting one of my own someday.
Did you start your career in a data-related role or in another field? If another field, which one?
Technically yes? I think more jobs are data-related than people think even if they don’t have a formal “data” title like analyst. My first full-time job was a mix of updating floor plans in CAD [computer-aided design] and data validation for occupancy planning.
If you had to choose a different career path, what would it be? Why?
If I could be guaranteed that turning a hobby into a job wouldn’t backfire and make it not fun anymore, I’d pick being a professional percussionist, or working at an aquarium or museum. Or maybe a LEGO designer!
What is your favorite Quick Table Calculation in Tableau? Why?
Percent of Total, hands down. I think it was one of the first I learned, and it’s pretty easy to gut-check you’ve done that one “right”.
What do you find the most challenging about Tableau?
“You don’t know what you don’t know.” I’ve been using the tool for a few years now but I feel like I pick up something that was hiding in plain sight whenever I watch someone else do something live. Also it’s tough to format things nicely “out of the box”. It’s really easy to make a dashboard, but making one that is aesthetically pleasing and has good UX/UI is a whole other skill set from analysis. Since I don’t have a formal design background it’s been a long road of trial and error, learning about how to use whitespace, keeping font sizes in mind, and trying to avoid too many colors at once.
What do you like most about Tableau?
Whenever someone asks, “Can I do xyz in Tableau?”, nine times out of ten the answer is, “Technically, yes,” and someone has done it before on [Tableau] Public, written a blog about it, or recorded a video walking [viewers] through it. It’s crazy to me how many people freely volunteer their time to teach and create resources for others to level up.
If you couldn’t use Tableau, how would you do data visualization? (e.g., coding language, other BI tool, draw it, wouldn’t do it)
Before Tableau, I was making charts in good old Excel or Google sheets, so I suspect I’d probably still be tinkering away there. I’ve wanted to try Datawrapper for a while because I really like their content, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
What is your favorite chart type? Why?
Decisions, decisions. Bar charts feel like the obvious choice, so I’ll cross those off the list. Out of the built-in Show Me options, my favorite are heatmaps. Once you start coloring on something other than SUM() they can really be fun. Outside of Show Me, I love jitter plots! They can work great in both fun and business settings.
[Nicole’s note: when Brittany says “coloring on”, she means using the data values to calculate the saturation, value, and sometimes hue of the color of the heatmap. Or highlight table. Which is another thing Tableau calls heatmaps.]
Which community challenges do you regularly participate in? Why would you recommend them to new members of the Datafam?
I’d probably consider myself a serial dabbler in community projects; so far I’ve participated at least once in Back 2 Viz Basics, Viz for Social Good, Data Plus Music, Workout Wednesday, and Iron Quest. I still want to check Real World Fake Data off my list. I’m really excited about Makeover Monday returning because it was my intro to the greater community and really kickstarted my data viz path.
For newer folks, I’d check out Makeover Monday and Back to Viz Basics. I’d also say, don’t feel pressured to participate in everything or feel like you need to ‘keep up’ with what others are doing. If you see a data set or project that looks fun, go for it. If something doesn’t spark joy anymore, it’s okay to let it go and move on to the next thing.
What hill would you die on? (e.g., for me, that the use of the Oxford comma is the only way to use a comma!)
Tools won’t solve people/process problems! Tools can be a great help — but if you don’t have the right frameworks, incentives, or support systems, there’s only so much you can do to make change.
Any certifications, honors, or accolades you’d like to share (e.g., Viz of the Day, Tableau Certified in some area, etc.)
This might sound cheesy, but I’ll never forget the feeling of getting my first Viz of the Day. Unofficially, sometimes getting a compliment from someone I’ve looked up to has meant more in the moment than a certification or other award could. I’d encourage folks to let people know when they like someone’s work — you’ll never know how much it could make their day or validate they’re on a good path.
How can people learn more about your work? (e.g., portfolio/website URL, social media handles, etc.)
I’m fairly active on Twitter at @brrosenau — that’s where I publicly post most of my data shenanigans. You can also find me lurking in other data corners of the internet — I love Slack as a platform and I’m a volunteer admin for the Locally Optimistic Slack community. For stuff that can’t fit in a tweet, I occasionally write things up on Medium.
Some acknowledgements
There are already several super solid contributors in the area of DataFam interviewage, not to mention DataFam guest bloggers appearing on a variety of sites. I wanted to highlight two of my favorites here.
Tableau Public Ambassador and 2022 IronViz finalist Kimly Scott recently launched her blog, She Will Viz — 💫which is all about women in dataviz supporting one another 💫 — and interviewed the fabulously talented Nicole Klassen, another new Tableau Public Ambassador 🥳, member of Women in Dataviz (join us on Discord!), and badass accountability partner. (She’s able to check in on me without making me feel bad about my ADHD-induced time mismanagement and she gives bonus data and design feedback!!)
CJ Mayes writes a recurring column called What’s Good on his site. He explores a question or topic in depth with his interview subjects. CJ’s conversational style draws out the best in each of his guests. He asks the right questions in the right order, which is a talent I’m afraid I don’t possess. Recently, I especially enjoyed the post “Custom Chart Types with Brian Moore”.
Want to be a guest? Drop me a line to hello@nicoledesignsdata.com, DM me on Twitter, or comment here. Newbies especially welcome!
