I recently had a conversation with Matthew that had very little to do with dashboards and everything to do with career direction.

His manager had left. He was now reporting directly to the CFO. His responsibilities had expanded quickly, but the role itself hadn’t caught up. More visibility, more ownership, but no clear definition of what progression looked like from here.

So instead of talking about projects, we stepped back and started mapping what he actually needed to do to shape his next role. 

We ended up walking through it as a step-by-step progression.

Step 1: Get honest about your capacity.

Before you ask for more responsibility, you need clarity on what you’re already carrying. I had him run a simple time audit, track what he was doing every 30 minutes, categorize it, and look for patterns. It’s hard to design a bigger role if you’re buried in work that shouldn’t belong to you in the first place. 

Step 2: Create leverage, not more work.

Once you see where your time is going, the next move is delegation. We talked about recording repeatable ad hoc requests so someone else could handle them next time. Framed the right way, that’s not offloading work, it’s mentoring. You free up time while demonstrating leadership before the title ever changes. 

Step 3: Make your value visible.

A lot of analysts assume their work speaks for itself. It doesn’t. We talked about capturing wins as problem → action → outcome, asking stakeholders to send feedback to leadership, and building a repository of proof. Visibility isn’t self-promotion, it’s clarity. 

Step 4: Write the role above the one you have.

This is where the conversation shifted. Instead of waiting for a promotion path, I had him write the job description for the role he wanted next. Not a small step up, but something closer to Director-level thinking, more strategic ownership, less purely hands-on work. 

Step 5: Design it around leadership pain points.

This part matters most. His CFO was overloaded and hard to access. So we reframed the role around relieving pressure from her plate. When your growth solves a leadership problem, progression becomes much easier to justify. 

Step 6: Attach compensation to the role.

If you’re defining the role, define the value too. We talked about setting a salary anchor early. It’s far easier to negotiate down than to try to move up later from an undefined baseline. 

Step 7: Remove emotion from negotiation.

Salary conversations are uncomfortable for most people. So we discussed ways to create distance from the negotiation, framing it objectively around the role and the business impact rather than personal need. That shift alone makes the conversation easier to navigate. 

Your Turn

Try this yourself.

Block 30 minutes this week and outline your ideal role, the work you want to own, and the value you’d create.

Next week, I’ll tell you what happened when Matthew shared the design of his next role with his boss.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, February 17, 2026 - 8pm GMT / 3pm ET

Data Modeling - The Secret to Scaling Tableau Without Slowing It Down

Speakers: Andy Kriebel & Kirk Munroe
Cost: FREE
Level: Intermediate

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 - 8pm GMT / 3pm ET

Before the Dashboard - Thinking Your Way Through a New Dataset

Speaker: Andy Kriebel
Cost: FREE
Level: FUNdamentals

🇩🇪 Essen, Germany
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 - 9:30AM - 1:30PM CET

In-Person Workshop: Build Better Dashboards and Demo Them With Confidence

Instructors: Andy Kriebel & Eva Murray
Cost: €497 €400
Level: Intermediate

Weekly Tips Roundup

I'm putting out one Tableau tip every day this year. That's 365 tips by the end of 2026.
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Some will be quick wins. Some will solve problems you've been stuck on for months. All of them will help you build better dashboards faster.
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Here's what I shared this week:

📌 Blue vs. Green - What does it mean? → Watch the recording​
📌 Thoughtful color choices for race, ethnicity, and world regions → LinkedIn​
📌 Heatmap warning: Turn off "Include totals in color" or switch to AVG → LinkedIn​
📌 Continuous learning: How I improved my own jitter plot after teaching it → LinkedIn​
📌 KPI + Sparklines in one sheet using dual axis → LinkedIn​
📌 Color your BANs based on positive/negative performance → LinkedIn​