Reasons to Enter Iron Viz

Written By Emily De Padua

5 Reasons + 1 Pep Talk

It’s Iron Viz season! Are you thinking about entering? I hope you do, there’s nothing quite like Iron Viz, the annual global data visualization competition held by Tableau. Speaking from personal experience, standing on the precipice of, “Do I enter?” can be (well) a standstill. If you’re thinking about entering and on the fence (or looking for sweet motivation to keep going throughout the competition window), I am sharing 5 of my favorite reasons that ultimately got me to enter Iron Viz in 2020 and 2022 (plus 1 pep talk from me to keep going).

💡 Reason 1: The awesome theme! (Or not.)

Iron Viz entries revolve around a designated theme that ties all of the entries together. When the Iron Viz competition is announced, the theme for the qualifying round becomes known. Themes have included Health, the Arts, Music, Movies, and more! 

There may be years when the Iron Viz theme sets off this big beautiful lightbulb in your big beautiful brain for a viz that just won’t leave your mind and you want to build, come hell or high water. This happened to me when I entered in 2020, the theme was Health, and I devoted a whole viz exploring and tracking my mental health while living alone during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a viz I would have wanted to make regardless of the competition, I just needed the right spark of inspiration to bring it to life. 

Alternatively, there may also be years where the theme doesn’t quite set off those creative fireworks, since it’s more a simmering thought in the back of your brain that eventually grows into this big beautiful idea and viz that you’re frantically rushing to bring to life in time for the deadline. This happened when I entered in 2022, where I had to sit for a few days on the theme, “Visualizing the Arts,” as I cycled through a couple ideas before Color Studies was born. 

It’s also valid if the theme is what ultimately decides whether this is the year you enter in Iron Viz. It’s okay if one year’s theme doesn’t speak to you. Despite having a whole Bachelors in Music Performance, I generally struggle with making vizzes about music. This was particularly brought to my awareness when one of the Feeder themes in 2019 was Music, I was completely uninspired and totally blank at the thought of an Iron Viz related to music. It happens! For me, I listened to myself, went “ah well, maybe next year,” and I was absolutely right–I entered in 2020! 

TL;DR: Enter because the themes are cool and you have an idea for a viz that fits this year’s cool theme. 

Screenshot of my 2020 Iron Viz Entry, All By Myself?

📊 Reason 2: The Finished Viz

When I first entered Iron Viz in 2020, I was in a real creative (and career) rut when it came to anything Tableau-related. For months, I would start projects and abandon them halfway. I would think, “That’s a cool viz idea” and feel absolutely nothing.I eventually started shying away from participating in any Tableau-related community projects because I was pretty embarrassed I was struggling to do something that others appear to do so effortlessly. (And that’s called avoidance-as-a-coping-mechanism, you precious bean). In hindsight, it probably didn’t help that I was pretty burned out (professionally, emotionally, mentally, physically, the works!) and was quietly in the midst of a job search that was stalled multiple times due to an unforeseen global pandemic. Finishing a viz for Tableau Public felt like this daunting task that I just couldn’t bring myself to complete. But here’s the thing. I was struggling so much with finishing vizzes, I didn't feel as confident leaning on my Tableau Public portfolio in interviews as much as I wanted. Real conundrum, right? 

So in 2020, I promised myself that I would finish one viz that year, so I entered Iron Viz. 

There’s something about the Iron Viz timeline that can give a person that much needed pressure cooker environment to bring a viz to life. Maybe it’s the way the entire Tableau Community comes together to cheer everyone on like we’re all marathon runners just trying to make it to the finish line. Or the way it’s this big once a year window. Maybe it’s the cash prize? The promised glory of making it to the final round? I’m not sure, but whatever is in the secret sauce, it’s what got me to the finish line twice. And that’s what matters. Even though I still struggle to produce more than one viz publicly (which truthfully, it’s important to say that I wish you all could see me at my day job, where I’m a vizzing machine), I have the comfort and security that I am fully capable of finishing vizzes. And even if a viz idea doesn’t pan out and make it to the finish line like I had hoped, I now have the comfort that an unfinished viz does not indicate whether I am capable of producing vizzes publicly at all. 

TL;DR: Enter because the goal is to submit a viz, and this viz will be one more viz than you had before in your Tableau Public Portfolio.

💻 Reason 3: The opportunity to practice asking for feedback from the community.

The #DataFam community can be this treasure trove of thoughtful brains who want to witness you making the best work to your abilities. When it comes to support, the community can be unfailingly generous and there are groups of wonderful souls who have actively contributed to this kindness (Like you! You have definitely contributed, whether you know it or not!). 

But if you’ve had experiences where receiving feedback was a terrifying experience marked with embarrassment, shame, and just overall not great vibes, tapping an online community of strangers for feedback on your work can be a genuinely terrifying experience. They can be one of the kindest, supportive, and generous communities (like the #DataFam) and still the very thought of asking publicly for help on a viz that you’re making can still make you break out into emotional hives (hello, it’s me). If you’re like me and asking for help is a struggle, I’m here to say that your feelings are valid and those feelings are probably understandable given your experiences, feelings, and reasons for why asking for help can be a hard thing. But as Glennon Doyle says–we can do hard things. 

I think entering Iron Viz made asking for feedback an easier experience for me because I felt there was this common “in” that made asking a stranger that you respected for support a less awkward experience. Iron Viz is a known competition among your Tableau colleagues,  especially the #DataFam, that it didn’t feel weird to virtually ask someone you’ve admired from afar, “Do you mind taking a look at my viz and let me know what you think?” When I started opening my Iron Viz entry up to feedback, I didn’t start cold direct messaging people right away either. I slowly started with sharing it with Tableau friends and acquaintances that I made through networking or the NYC TUG, then (as I got bolder), I’d actively search Twitter for anyone in the #DataFam that was offering feedback. For me, I was so worried about burdening someone with a request I made, so I was always on the lookout for anyone that gave me the permission to ask for feedback. 

If you’re shy like me, I’m happy to share that a really great program is Iron Viz Feedback Initiative lead by Sarah Bartlett. Assembling a team of #DataFam community members, Iron Viz participants can sign up for 15 minute feedback review slots on their viz. Feedback will be provided on the Iron Viz scoring criteria of Design, Storytelling, and Analysis. 

TLDR: Enter because it’s easier than ever to get community feedback on your Iron Viz submission.

✨ Reason 4: The Confidence Boost

While it may look obvious to some, the truth is sometimes, you don’t know you’re fully capable of doing a thing until you’re actually in the midst of doing it. For me, that was how I felt about my Tableau skillset. I felt like, in theory, I knew a lot about Tableau and knew the tool well, but I didn’t feel totally confident in that truth. I doubted the capabilities I had as a developer, designer, and storyteller.   When I entered Iron Viz for the first time in 2020, I learned that I had essentially lost my own creative voice. As data analysts with data partners across multiple teams with different needs and perspectives that we’re trying our best to work with, we can get so trapped working so hard on what other people want that we can lose sight of what we, as the creator, personally want. This lost sense of creative self isn’t intentional, either. It can be natural, particularly for the field where we’re in where we constantly have to balance conflicting needs and priorities with what you and your tools are capable of. For me, this was not something that happened overnight but was the result of an accumulation of chipping away at your creative self over time until you wake up one day and go, “What the hell happened?” 

Entering Iron Viz became about reclaiming this artistic voice and design perspective that I didn’t even realize was mine to lose, but I did. When we undervalue our work for the sake of pleasing others, it can lead to a loss of a creative voice that ultimately matters (because your creative voice does matter, I promise, because it matters to you). I was undermining myself by undervaluing what I was capable of creating. This happened again when I entered in 2022. 

Screenshot of my 2022 Iron Viz Entry, “Color Studies”

Creating data visualizations publicly, whether for Iron Viz or not, on Tableau Public can be an exercise in letting yourself be in the driver’s seat for a viz’s creation. It can be an exercise in self expression for some, a puzzle to solve for others, and something in between for everyone else. Ultimately, by entering Iron Viz, I learned so much about myself–the way I think, design, connect with others, and connect with topics. What amazing self-discovery will you make if you decide to trust yourself and just enter? 

TL;DR: Enter because this is your viz, from start to finish, and the only person you need to prove you can do it is yourself. Your greatness as a Tableau developer isn’t determined by how you do in Iron Viz, but the confidence boost sure does help. 

💌 Reason 5: The Friends!

Iron Viz entries are single author entries that cannot be Viz Collabs (wouldn’t that be so cool if there was a Viz Collab competition??) but that does not mean you cannot make friends along the way. What kind of friends are we talking about here? 

Accountability buddies are a godsend. An accountability buddy is someone you can work with to achieve a common goal–finishing your Iron Viz entry. It’s like having a running buddy for your marathon training. Accountability buddies in the Iron Viz development can be someone you can:

  • Check in with updates on your Viz development

  • Vent to on a design iteration that didn’t pan out

  • Be a soundboard for/be your soundboard

  • Someone to commiserate over meeting the competition deadline

  • And more!

As you can see from the tweet above, an accountability buddy is ultimately a buddy that helps you not self sabotage your entry from making the deadline. It makes the viz development process a lot less lonely of an experience. By the end of my Iron Viz competition entries, I was in whole group chats of supportive friends. And as someone who struggles with social anxiety, making more friends and finding comfort in socializing within the #DataFam made so many parts of my Vizzing life more bearable, easier, and (ultimately) happier.

TL;DR: Enter because this is a community-wide #DataFam event, and we’re all cheering each other on to make it to that finish line. What better way to make Data Friends than collectively building the best vizzes we possibly can?

🏆 +1 Pep Talk (The Long Story Short)

Anyone can enter Iron Viz with Tableau Public, a dream (within the competition’s theme), and before the competition window deadline. 

When I first learned about Iron Viz, I thought only the best of the very best of the Tableau #DataFam community could enter. If you feel this way about entering Iron Viz, I am here to (lovingly) shake you and go, “Absolutely not, babe! You can do it, and I refuse to let you suffer in the same self-sabotage that allowed myself to think that only data visualization superstars can enter. Anyone can enter. Everyone wins.”

The traditional definition for “winning” Iron Viz, which is making it to the final round, getting the cash prize is something completely out of your hands that you cannot control outside of putting your best foot forward. There are fantastic entries that, for whatever reasons, have not cracked the top rankings. There are incredibly talented Tableau creators that have not ever made it to the Iron Viz Championship stage. But does the material gain of “winning” Iron Viz counteract any of the important growth in your data visualization journey that came because you entered Iron Viz? I firmly believe it does not. 

So then what even is “winning” Iron Viz? Is winning only making it to the finals? Or is winning finishing the viz? Is it when you learn a new technique in Tableau? The friends we made? What about after the competition? Is it considered winning if the viz you made leads you to more opportunities–new design talks, more community visibility, or even a new job opportunity? If we take in all the variations of what “winning” could mean in Iron Viz, then ultimately it is whatever you want your “winning” to be. Because you can never truly know what can come out of entering Iron Viz, everyone ultimately wins. It just depends on your definition and what happens. 

Whatever is your winning metric is (ultimately) your reason for entering. But you have to put yourself out there and enter the ring. I’m rooting for you.

TL;DR: The only way to find out what can happen if you enter Iron Viz can only happen if you enter Iron Viz. So enter and find out what “winning” is for you. I’m rooting for you. 

Photo taken by photographer, Chelsea Pineda, at the local ice cream shop after the results were announced from the feeder round for Iron Viz 2020.

Emily De Padua
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