Show Me panel for recommendations in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

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

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to explore the sales data and find the best visualizations to understand sales performance by region and product category.

📊 Data: You have a dataset with columns: Order Date, Region, Product Category, Sales, and Quantity.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau worksheet using the Show Me panel to find recommended chart types that best represent sales by region and product category.

Sample Data

Order Date	Region	Product Category	Sales	Quantity
2024-01-05	East	Furniture	500	5
2024-01-10	West	Technology	1200	3
2024-01-15	South	Office Supplies	300	10
2024-02-01	East	Technology	700	2
2024-02-10	West	Furniture	400	4
2024-02-15	South	Technology	900	6
2024-03-01	East	Office Supplies	200	8
2024-03-10	West	Office Supplies	350	7
2024-03-15	South	Furniture	450	3

1

Step 1: Open Tableau and connect to the sales dataset.

Load the data with columns: Order Date, Region, Product Category, Sales, Quantity.

Expected Result

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

2

Step 2: Drag 'Region' to Rows shelf and 'Product Category' to Columns shelf.

Rows = Region, Columns = Product Category

Expected Result

Tableau shows a grid with regions as rows and product categories as columns.

3

Step 3: Drag 'Sales' to Text on the Marks card.

Marks card: Text = SUM(Sales)

Expected Result

Sales totals appear in the grid cells for each region and product category.

4

Step 4: Click on the Show Me panel on the right side of Tableau.

Show Me panel opens showing recommended chart types based on current fields.

Expected Result

Show Me highlights suitable charts like heat map, text tables, or bar charts.

5

Step 5: Select the 'Heat Map' chart type from the Show Me panel.

Choose Heat Map in Show Me

Expected Result

Tableau creates a heat map showing sales intensity by region and product category with color shading.

6

Step 6: Observe the color gradient representing sales values and adjust colors if needed for better contrast.

Edit Colors: Use a sequential color palette with good contrast.

Expected Result

Heat map clearly shows which region and product category combinations have higher sales.

Final Result

Sales by Region and Product Category Heat Map

Region/Product | Furniture | Technology | Office Supplies
-------------------------------------------------------
East           | ███       | ██████     | ██
West           | ██        | ████████   | ███
South          | ████      | █████      | ████

Color intensity shows sales volume.

✓Technology sales are highest in the West region.

✓Furniture sales are strong in the South and East regions.

✓Office Supplies have moderate sales across all regions.

Bonus Challenge

Use the Show Me panel to create a stacked bar chart showing sales by region with product categories stacked.

Show Hint

Drag 'Region' to Columns, 'Sales' to Rows, and 'Product Category' to Color, then select the stacked bar chart in Show Me.