How I Improved Our Tableau Information Architecture to Cut Costs by $100K

Who we are

Flywheel Digital (Flywheel) is a leading ecommerce company that helps clients grow their brands on platforms such as Amazon, Walmart and Instacart. At Flywheel, our teams rely heavily on tools like Tableau to explore, test, and validate insights before scaling them into fully integrated solutions.

However, as the adoption of Tableau grew, so did the complexity of managing access. With multiple teams requesting licenses, varied levels of usage, and little clarity on licensing structure or alternatives, we began encountering significant inefficiencies in how Tableau was being used and provisioned.

Problem

We faced two main challenges:

  1. Inefficient License Utilization: The user experience around requesting and accessing Tableau was fragmented. There was no clear path for users to understand what type of license they needed, how to request it, or whether alternative reporting options existed. This led to confusion and overprovisioning—many users ended up with licenses they didn’t need, or didn’t use at all.

  2. Confusing Navigation and Poor Information Architecture: The Tableau environment had grown organically, with dashboards spread across folders, inconsistent naming conventions, and no central structure. Teams often asked for access to dashboards they already had, simply because they couldn’t locate them.

I stepped into the Tableau Administrator role shortly after the previous owner left, and it quickly became clear that the experience needed streamlining. The system wasn’t aligned with user needs—there was no clear structure, no guidance, and little visibility into how licenses were actually being used.

I wanted to ensure that the environment was supporting users—not driving up costs or eroding trust in the tool.

Designing the Solution

I decided to tackle the ineffective utilization of licenses, knowing this would provide a quick win in cost reduction and lay the groundwork for a more structured Tableau governance strategy.

Rather than assigning licenses ad hoc, I implemented a role-based licensing framework with predefined eligibility criteria and an approval process to ensure Tableau licenses are assigned based on actual user needs and usage patterns.

Next I focused on improving usability and the Information Architecture of the Tableau environment to make report discovery more intuitive and reduce confusion for teams.