Autumn is here… 🍂✨
These past few months have been full of change for me… a new job, a bit of travel, and the slow shift into cosy weather ☕
Now that things have settled and I’m starting to find my rhythm again, I’m looking forward to get back into blog writing and sharing more ideas :)
In a few recent conversations I’ve had with friends and colleagues, I realised that not everyone has come across the Tableau Exchange, so I thought I’d write a quick post about what it is, and how I like to use it to spark dashboard ideas and explore new projects 💡
What is the Tableau Exchange?
The Tableau Exchange is like an app store of products, created to help you get more out of Tableau as a product. You’ll find accelerators, connectors, and extensions that you can download, open, and explore.
I’ve found that most resources are free, however there are some extensions that have paid options.
Exploring Tableau Accelerators ⚡
One of the main offerings on the Tableau Exchange is Accelerators. These are pre-built dashboards created for specific industries or topics.
Each Accelerator is free to download and comes with mock data that reflects a realistic dataset for that area. The descriptions usually outline the key questions the dashboard is designed to answer, along with a short data dictionary explaining the fields, which is always helpful when you’re exploring something new!
They’re designed so that a business can download an Accelerator, connect their own data, and start uncovering insights straight away without waiting on dashboard development.
Personally, I like exploring Accelerators to learn more about different industries – what they measure, the metrics they focus on, and the kind of data they work with. It’s a simple and hands-on way to build domain knowledge while practising in Tableau.
✨ Tip: Exploring Accelerators can be great way to increase your domain knowledge of industries and the key issues they face.
How it can help you?
For Enterprises 🏢
Accelerators give teams a quick way to explore how Tableau could support different parts of the business, with ready-made examples for areas like sales, finance, and customer service.
Gain insights quickly without waiting on new dashboard development
Prototype ideas and share early concepts with stakeholders
Explore what’s possible in Tableau using realistic business examples
For Personal Use 🌼
If you’re building your Tableau Public portfolio or experimenting with new ideas, Accelerators are a great hands-on learning tool.
Open them up to see how dashboards, calculations, and parameters are built
Redesign layouts and create your own take on the content
Explore topics and industries you might not have worked with before
Reimagining an Accelerator 🎨
My Higher Education Admissions dashboard actually started as a redesign of Tableau’s Academic Admissions accelerator. It later went on to be featured as a Viz of the Day, which made the project feel even more special to me.
Here’s how the process went:
- I downloaded the Accelerator workbook from the Tableau Exchange.
- Removed all calculated fields to bring it back to the base dataset.
- The data was exported as a CSV and treated like a real project brief. (You can also build directly in the workbook if you prefer.)
- The logic, layout, and design were then rebuilt from scratch.
This approach allowed me to treat it as a real world project, allowing me to build the dashboard from start to end.
💡 Tip: Removing the existing calculated fields is a great way to practice building them yourself.
Final Thoughts 🍃
The Tableau Exchange is a great place to discover new dashboard topics and see how different industries approach their data. I often use it to build domain knowledge and to challenge myself to design dashboards that adapt to different subjects and audiences.
I hope it gives you a few ideas to explore too :)
If you explore the Tableau Exchange and create something new, I’d love to see how it turns out! Feel free to tag me @datavizfairy on Twitter or Shreya Arya on LinkedIn ✨
