Will my organization adopt Observable?
Many are curious about how team members would adopt Observable at the start of their journeys. Here we share their feedback along with some information that we hope will help you consider how Observable could improve the data workflows in your organization.
Will the data scientists and Python developers be able to transfer their expertise to Javascript-based Observable?
Many of Observable's most powerful features are enabled because it is built around the language of the web, but getting started and becoming productive in Observable only requires learning a few basic JavaScript concepts. As team members start building on Observable, they see value immediately.
Organizations using Observable have shared how their team's data scientists, developers, and analysts can all work together in the same notebook, building on each other's expertise in one place instead of spending time translating between tools. They benefit from increased trust because the code and visualizations are in the same place, making analyses transparent. The reach and impact of their work grows since notebooks can be shared easily and securely within teams. Anyone with access simply needs a browser; no need to install anything. The result is so satisfying that it makes the learning process well worth the effort.
“...[our data team members] can tweak it, visualize it, and share their findings much faster, with no hardware or software concerns, lower friction, and a lot more fun at work.” - Tarek Rached, Stitch Fix
We've also made it easy to learn. Users can start with tutorials or view and experiment with any of vast collection of notebooks from the community. Observable notebooks react to changes immediately, and integrated version control means you can return to a previous version at any time. This encourages risk-free tinkering and empowers users to learn quickly.
When you have questions, you can reach out to Observable's customer support, and also get help on our active community forum. You and your team will not feel alone on your journey.
Will less technical team members be able to get value from Observable?
Observable is unique because it enables a better reading experience. Readers don't have to dig through a wall of code to find the insights they care about. Authors can arrange content in any order, include explanatory text alongside code and visualizations. They can describe analyses or weave in key observations to fully communicate the insights contained.
Readers are empowered to explore data and visualizations in notebooks interactively using built-in interface components like drop-down menus, date range selectors, or search terms.
Readers can also engage with authors by commenting directly, asking questions or giving feedback, in notebooks.
What will it take to migrate our existing workflows?
Migration is not required to get started and see improvements with Observable. Connecting to your data is simple and secure. Notebooks support SQL querying and include a number of tools for quick views of data including summary tables, interface components, and simple visualization libraries.
Many teams begin this way, then start building part of their workflows on Observable, and eventually go on to migrate their completed end-to-end workflows.
Observable is designed to remove limits to how teams analyze and visualize their data. Observable can be used to ask any question of the data, create any bespoke visualizations needed to answer the question, and assemble such components into unique dashboards that make sense for your specific use-case and can be used by everyone in your organization.