Tableau would like to be known for it’s customer-first attitude and easy-to-use set of products. Dan Jewett, VP of Product Management at Tableau Software, Inc., helps the company keep its eye on the ball when it comes to creating end-user friendly tools. He sat down to chat with John Furrier on theCUBE at the Tableau Conference to talk about how he handles product organization (see the entire interview below).

Jewett began by mentioning that Tableau brings its developers to the conference so they can hear from practitioners. Getting feedback directly from product users “sparks innovation,” Jewett said. It keeps the engineering group on its toes, solving customer problems.

Tableau engineers balance varying customer demands by funneling potential features through stylistic requirements. Engineers at Tableau are taught to value “beauty and craftsmanship.” What they try to evoke, said Jewett is an emotional response from their customers. He explained, “People love it when the things they have work and help them look great.”

Part of what drives Tableau’s focus on an elegant, intuitive interface is the fact that many in the Product Management team comes “from outside the industry,” Jewett commented. They spend “a lot of time talking to customers” and only a few team members have Business Intelligence backgrounds, he furthered.

Customer needs, long-term goals keep Tableau focused

While their goals for products are lofty, Jewett said that the business doesn’t have a “moonshot vision.” But he did emphasize that for Tableau, “public and private cloud deployments are critical.” While their company runs cloud-first apps internally, Jewett explained that they have no such expectations from their customers. “We’re committed to whatever the customer needs,” he stated.

Tableau’s may not characterize its goals as “moonshots,” but Jewett expressed that they do understand the size of the market opportunity it’s trying to handle. It’s what keeps the company humble, said Jewett, when they consider “how little [they’ve] accomplished” in comparison to their long-term goals.

Project Elastic brings Tableau to the tablet

Part of sustaining customer interest is producing tools that meet customer needs for specific situations or preferences. One of Tableau’s newest tools is Project Elastic, a tablet-based product introduced at the conference. The company’s approach to the Project Elastic release is to “get it out there, test it, see how it works.” This methodology is similar their Story Points release. “With story points,” Jewett explained, “we knew we were going to be on to something, but not sure how people will use it.”

In fact, Project Elastic is one of the three main product highlights from the conference that Jewett believes will have the most impact. The other two are the new ability “import and bring in Excel files” and Tableau’s focus on product performance. After all, “You can ever be too fast,” Jewett quipped.