VISUALIZATION

Design Thinking in Tableau

An Illustration using the Business Model Canvas

Rutuja Pawar

Published in

Towards Data Science

6 min readMar 19, 2021

Business Model Canvas in Tableau (Design⁴,⁵,⁶) (Source: Image by the author)

Design Thinking is a process based on the user-centric design that helps to build user empathy and guide the search for breakthrough innovation¹. Likewise, design thinking can be utilized for strategically structuring the development of new or the documentation of the existing business models through the use of the Business Model Canvas². The Business Model Canvas serves as a valuable template to visually design and prototype the important aspects of a business in terms of how it creates, delivers, and captures value¹.

But imagine if you could combine this business model canvas using design thinking with data-driven analytics! In this way, you can have a dynamic business plan coupled with real-time insights. This becomes particularly important and helpful in planning & collaboration especially when you want to start a new business venture. This is exactly what this article illustrates as to how you can get started and implement this concept using Tableau.

We will first look into the implementation details for the main canvas followed by its linking to the real-time insights,

Data Source: We will start by creating an Excel file in Tabular format with two sheets namely, Version and Canvas Details. The Version sheet consists of the details to be filled out in the canvas header with four fields namely Designed For, Designed By, Date and Version. Making the header dynamic ensures proper versioning.

Sheet Version (Source: Image by the author)

The Canvas Details sheet consists of the main canvas fields for the nine blocks namely Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Value Propositions, Customer Relationships, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams.

Sheet Canvas Details (Source: Image by the author)

Connecting to the Data Source: In the Tableau Data Source pane, select Data->New Data Source. Select the Microsoft Excel file data source and locate your created file in the above step. Since our two excel sheets are disjoint, remember to create two data source connections one with the Canvas Details and the other with the Version sheet as depicted below.

Data Source Connections (Source: Image by the author)

To facilitate collaboration in a team, the dashboards should be published to the Tableau Server, making sure that you are using a Live connection to your excel file saved at a shared location and the server has access to that file³. In this way, different users can edit and update, with the changes being automatically reflected on the canvas.

Design and Implementation of the Canvas: To start with, on a plain dashboard (Custom size 1400 x 827), layout & design the Business Model Canvas as per the template⁴,⁵ and according to the below components:

Views: Create a total of 10 sheets, one for each block including the Version sheet. Create text views by dragging and dropping the relevant excel fields to Rows and a calculated Blank field to Text on the Marks card.

Formatting used: Title-Comic Sans MS (15 pt), Fields-Calibri (11 pt), Color Palette: #D0EEF7, #FFD5C2, #FAE99F

An Example Sheet for Key Partners (Source: Image by the author)

Formatting used: Title-Comic Sans MS (11 pt), Fields-Calibri (11 pt)

An Example Sheet for Version (Source: Image by the author)

Header: Add the canvas title using the Objects->Text (Comic Sans MS-18 pt). Further, from the Sheets pane, drag and drop the Version sheet completing the header of the canvas. Accordingly, align and adjust the header components.

Canvas Header (Source: Image by the author)

Main Canvas: To create the different blocks, arrange the layout on the dashboard accordingly through the use of containers (Objects->Horizontal, Vertical). These containers will then hold the respective sheets. Drag and drop then the respective sheets from the Sheets pane into the containers.

Sheets Pane (Source: Image by the author)

To make the dashboard more creative, go forward and add the relevant icons⁶ of your choice as Objects->Button (Image) to each of the blocks. These buttons in turn will help to navigate to the data analysis dashboards.

Button Configuration Key Partners (Source: Image by the author)

Furthermore, complete the design with the placement of the arrows⁶ as Objects->Image to visualize the dashboard flow. The final canvas will look something like this,

Linking Data-driven Insights: Once the designing and implementation of the canvas is completed, we can further create individual dashboards for each of the nine blocks and provide for their to and fro navigation from the main canvas through the image buttons. These individual dashboards e.g. here Key Partners (modified illustration⁷) provides for deep-dive statistics and analysis into the different key partners available and how their effects can be measured in relation to the business. These individual dashboards are data analysis dashboards that represent the key data related to each of the blocks in the form of intuitive visualizations. The data visualized here can be curated from varied data sources including databases, excel, etc.

An Illustrative Dashboard⁷ for Key Partners (Source: Image by the author)

Don't forget to add a uniform Image Button on each of the individual block dashboards to navigate your way back to the main canvas.

Button Configuration (Source: Image by the author)

Finally, the end-to-end flow for Key Partners here as an example will look something like this,

An illustrative flow for block Key Partners (Source: Image by the author)

Furthermore, dashboards for other blocks can be implemented simultaneously. As an end result, we will have a complete intuitive dynamic flow with your business plan linked to the deep-dive analysis dashboards thus helping you to simplify, strategically plan & manage your business.

To summarize up, this article demonstrates how can one combine Design Thinking with Data Analysis using Business Intelligence (BI) tools creating a structured flow and in turn uncovering new possibilities. As the underlying idea remains the same, the implementation steps in this article are illustrative and can be adapted accordingly to your choice of BI tool. As an example, you can refer to my other article Design Thinking in Power BI, which serves as another variant of this article.