Build Your Action Plan

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Create a plan to run the Tableau Blueprint Assessment in your organization.
• Describe the resources available in the Tableau Blueprint Tool Kit.
• Complete the Tableau Blueprint Assessment.
• Use the Tableau Blueprint Assessment results to build an action plan for your organization.

Run the Tableau Blueprint Assessment in Your Organization

Now that you’re familiar with the Tableau Blueprint Assessment and the benefits that it can provide to your organization, it’s time to take action. There are five steps to running the assessment in your organization.

1. Designate an assessment project lead.
2. Determine key stakeholders.
3. Administer the assessment.
4. Aggregate and synthesize results.
5. Create an action plan.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to complete these steps on your own. We’ve created the Tableau Blueprint Tool Kit to help guide you.

Designate an Assessment Project Lead

The assessment project lead owns the execution of the assessment and the analysis of the results. They are accountable for determining the scope of the assessment exercise, creating an execution plan, and presenting final recommendations. Some characteristics to look for in an assessment project lead are strong project management skills, someone who’s familiar with your Tableau deployment, and someone who’s able to take the results and generate insights.

Determine Key Stakeholders

To build an accurate 360° view of your organization, identify a broad set of participants to take the Tableau Blueprint Assessment. Use the grid below to identify your stakeholders. (Replace each role with a specific name or names.) There’s no limit to how many people can complete the assessment. In fact, we’ve found that when organizations complete an assessment across multiple stakeholders, this leads to rich alignment conversations that help the team progress forward. 

If multiple lines of business are participating in the assessment, complete additional copies of this matrix as appropriate. Each organization has a unique number of people who personify the different roles and levels of sponsorship for this work. Identify the essential individuals in your organization, and remember that you can always add more stakeholders along the way.

Administer the Assessment

The assessment project lead should use the resources provided in the Tableau Blueprint Tool Kit to help inform stakeholders and invite them to complete the assessment. The lead begins by inviting key stakeholders to participate. This invitation can be an email from the assessment project lead or executive sponsor, Slack post, or kickoff meeting to describe the assessment. Use the templates provided in the Tool Kit and make sure to describe the purpose of the assessment, why it’s important, and how the results can directly affect the organization. During this time, be sure to set clear expectations. Share what individuals can expect when taking the assessment, and provide a timeline for completion and next steps. 

Track completions by establishing a feedback mechanism that respondents use to let the project lead know they’ve completed the assessment. This feedback loop can be as simple as a checklist on Quip, a direct message in Slack, or an email. Feel empowered to use whichever feedback method works best for your organization. Finally, collect the PDF results for further analysis using the Tableau Blueprint Assessment results collection spreadsheet in the Tool Kit.

Aggregate and Synthesize Results

After all stakeholders have completed the assessment, the assessment project lead aggregates, analyzes, and synthesizes the results to uncover key insights and prioritize recommendations. Use the Tableau Blueprint Assessment results collection spreadsheet in the Tool Kit to record all results in one place. To visualize the results and recommendations in a Tableau workbook, download the Tableau Blueprint Assessment Results starter workbook, connect to the Tableau Blueprint Assessment results collection spreadsheet, and replace the sample data source with the spreadsheet.

As your team starts to review the results, pay close attention to consistent trends and any disagreements or outliers in the results. All of the results should lead to a healthy discussion within your organization that helps you identify the key findings within the three sections of the assessment—capabilities, commitment, and data culture. For more details on Tableau Blueprint Assessment recommendations, see the Tableau Blueprint documentation in Resources.

Create an Action Plan

Once the results are in, it’s time to create an action plan. Define your priorities based on your assessment results and key findings. And be sure to refer to the initial analytics strategy you developed. This strategy includes initiatives and actions and shows clear ownership to ensure you remain focused and organized along your journey. 

Your action plan is your guide as you evolve and build additional capabilities. Refer back to your plan to ensure that you’re taking action on the recommendations you received, working on meeting your objectives, and achieving your goals in an organized and strategic manner.

Establish Repeatable Processes

The Tableau Blueprint Assessment is built to track your progress over time. You can stay focused on the action plan you created by using our built-in status feature and toggling the status for each action item, indicating its status. Think of this as your guide showing you how far you’ve progressed in your journey.

Continue to gather information and perspectives from sponsors and multiple stakeholders about your enterprise architecture, the use of data and analytics among business teams, and analytical skills both present and needed. Evolve your governance model over time to make the appropriate data and content available to the corresponding audience. Establish iterative, repeatable processes across Tableau Blueprint to install and configure software, educate users, and enable communications. Monitor platform utilization, measure user engagement, and host engagement activities to promote and support the growing use of data and analytics. And lastly, have fun along the way!

Remember, starting small is OK. Tackling the low-hanging fruit is a great place to start and can help you build momentum.

Have more questions or need support? Join the Tableau Community and participate in a thriving, global network of data enthusiasts. To get your users more involved and stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest from Tableau, check out our External Tableau Activities page.

Resources 

• Tableau: Tableau Blueprint Assessment
• Tableau: Tableau Blueprint Tool Kit
• Webinar: Ideating Your Analytics Strategy (signup required)
• Webinar: Creating Buy-in, Alignment, and Participation in Order to Orchestrate Change (signup required)
• Tableau: Tableau Community
• Tableau: External Tableau Activities