Detail level of marks in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a sales analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants to understand sales performance by product category and sub-category, with the ability to see details at the product level when needed.

📊 Data: You have sales data including Order Date, Region, Product Category, Product Sub-Category, Product Name, and Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau dashboard that shows total sales by product category and sub-category, and allows drilling down to product-level details using the detail level of marks.

Sample Data

Order Date	Region	Product Category	Product Sub-Category	Product Name	Sales Amount
2024-01-05	East	Furniture	Chairs	Office Chair	250
2024-01-10	East	Furniture	Tables	Dining Table	450
2024-01-15	West	Technology	Phones	Smartphone X	700
2024-01-20	West	Technology	Accessories	Headphones	150
2024-01-25	South	Office Supplies	Paper	Printer Paper	80
2024-01-30	South	Office Supplies	Writing	Ballpoint Pens	40
2024-02-05	North	Furniture	Chairs	Gaming Chair	300
2024-02-10	North	Technology	Phones	Smartphone Y	650
2024-02-15	East	Office Supplies	Paper	Notebook	60
2024-02-20	West	Furniture	Tables	Conference Table	800

1

Step 1: Connect to the sales data source in Tableau and load the data.

Use the provided sales data table with columns: Order Date, Region, Product Category, Product Sub-Category, Product Name, Sales Amount.

Expected Result

Data is loaded and visible in Tableau's Data pane.

2

Step 2: Create a new worksheet to show total sales by Product Category and Product Sub-Category.

Drag 'Product Category' to Rows, drag 'Product Sub-Category' below it on Rows, drag 'Sales Amount' to Columns and set aggregation to SUM.

Expected Result

A bar chart or table showing total sales summed by category and sub-category.

3

Step 3: Add Product Name to the Detail mark to enable drill-down to product level details.

Drag 'Product Name' to the Detail shelf on the Marks card.

Expected Result

Marks now represent individual products within each sub-category, allowing detailed analysis when hovering or filtering.

4

Step 4: Create a dashboard and add the worksheet. Enable tooltips to show Product Name and Sales Amount details.

Add the worksheet to a new dashboard. Customize tooltip to include Product Name and Sales Amount fields.

Expected Result

Dashboard shows sales by category and sub-category, with detailed product info visible on hover.

5

Step 5: Test the detail level by hovering over marks and verifying product-level details appear.

Hover over bars or marks in the dashboard to see detailed product names and sales amounts in tooltips.

Expected Result

Tooltips display product-level sales details, confirming the detail level of marks is working.

Final Result

Sales Dashboard

Product Category | Product Sub-Category | Total Sales
-----------------------------------------------------
Furniture        | Chairs               | $550
                 | Tables               | $1,250
Technology      | Phones               | $1,350
                 | Accessories          | $150
Office Supplies | Paper                | $140
                 | Writing              | $40

Hover on bars to see product details like 'Office Chair: $250', 'Gaming Chair: $300', etc.

✓Furniture and Technology categories have the highest total sales.

✓Within Furniture, Tables generate more sales than Chairs.

✓Product-level details reveal which specific products contribute most to sales.

✓Using detail level of marks helps explore data from summary to detailed view easily.

Bonus Challenge

Add a filter to the dashboard to select sales by Region and observe how the detail level of marks updates accordingly.

Show Hint

Drag 'Region' to Filters shelf and add the filter control to the dashboard. Check that product details update when region changes.