UPDATE!! We originally spoke to Telain in October of 2021, and she recently took the microphone during our monthly sync call to talk about her incredible work with the Tableau Foundation on the Data Equity Hub project! When we first spoke, we asked about her career journey, and she said:
Throughout my career, I have positioned brands and successfully marketed, communicated, and promoted new products, services, causes, initiatives, and executives in uniquely creative, cost-saving ways that yielded lasting customer, partner, employee, and community connections. The arc of my career spans working in large corporations, nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, and working as a consultant and a contract employee. Although the roles and environments changed a lot over time, a constant was the value I brought to each position.
I've approached each job with a "Day 1" mentality and an intentional choice to deliver excellence, while learning new skills that would be transferable in the future. The journey equipped me for my role at Tableau, where I was tasked with finding a way to help people understand how they can advocate - to do good - using data.
Over the past 12 months, Telain has supported Executive Comms and PR along with the Foundation's public affairs initiative, the Racial Data Equity Hub, which has recently been relaunched as the Data Equity Hub. Her projects have included: content development and writing for multiple mediums and channels (newsletter, web microsites, scripts for interviews and video projects, blogs, leadership messaging docs, PPT decks, a case study, and creative briefs). She also created and launched the Data Equity Newsletter and the Tableau Data Advocacy Explorer. Here's how she describes her approach:
I kept thinking, we've got to find a way to do this, where we can communicate these big ideas so we're not overwhelming people - so they're not afraid to stick their toe in the water. Because we're telling them that they can get familiar with data, they can start a data journey. But the reality is, it's not that easy. The users of this platform are doing amazing advocacy work, and now they're being told they have to become data scientists. And so just to get them started, I felt like we had to come up with a way to communicate this effectively, succinctly, and take all this information that we were trying to give them and organize it in a way that made sense.
For me, this was about how the average person could approach a data project. I began thinking like a user, asking: What are the resources that Tableau can offer me so that I can be successful with my data project? What are the training things available at Tableau that are free? And what tools can Tableau give me that help me keep moving my project along?
As I sat and thought, it just all came together on the page - the answers to those questions fit into four distinct quadrants, and from there, I saw an acronym emerge to represent those quadrants: ARTT! From there, 'The Art of Data Advocacy' became our marching order - we now had a framework for communicating clearly to our intended audience. It enabled us to show people how to advocate with data - to identify areas of improvement - so that they can do more good in the world, with greater efficiency!
When you're on a project, you must strategically over-communicate. Try to ignore the feeling you get that you're communicating too much - over is always better than under, and your team will thank you for it. Remind your stakeholders about milestones and give frequent status updates; let your client know the progress stage that you're in, and how the project is moving forward, and even remind the team of their deliverables.
Telain's work mantra is: Deliver results daily. Add to current and long-term success. Be significant.
I hope everyone can do the work they love in supportive environments where they thrive. Find Your Happy!
Feeling inspired to become a consultant like Telain? We are always looking for highly skilled writers and creative communicators, so if you think consulting could be a fit for you, please visit our consulting page to start the process!