Why choosing the right chart type matters in Tableau - Business Case Study

Scenario Mode

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

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to create a report that clearly shows monthly sales performance and product category distribution to help the team make better decisions.

📊 Data: You have sales data including Date, Product Category, Sales Amount, and Region for the past six months.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau dashboard with appropriate charts that show monthly sales trends and product category sales share.

Sample Data

Date	Product Category	Sales Amount	Region
2024-01-15	Electronics	1200	North
2024-01-20	Clothing	800	South
2024-02-10	Electronics	1500	North
2024-02-18	Clothing	700	East
2024-03-05	Home Goods	900	West
2024-03-15	Electronics	1300	South
2024-04-12	Clothing	1100	North
2024-04-20	Home Goods	950	East
2024-05-08	Electronics	1600	West
2024-05-22	Clothing	850	South
2024-06-10	Home Goods	1000	North
2024-06-18	Electronics	1700	East

1

Step 1: Connect the sales data to Tableau and create a new worksheet.

Import the data source with columns: Date, Product Category, Sales Amount, Region.

Expected Result

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

2

Step 2: Create a line chart to show monthly sales trends.

Drag 'Date' to Columns, right-click and select 'Month' as date part. Drag 'Sales Amount' to Rows and set aggregation to SUM.

Expected Result

Line chart shows total sales for each month from January to June.

3

Step 3: Create a pie chart to show sales distribution by product category.

Create a new worksheet. Drag 'Product Category' to Color and Label. Drag 'Sales Amount' to Angle and set aggregation to SUM. Change mark type to Pie.

Expected Result

Pie chart displays the share of total sales for each product category.

4

Step 4: Build a dashboard combining the line chart and pie chart.

Add both worksheets to a new dashboard. Arrange line chart on top and pie chart below. Add titles and legends for clarity.

Expected Result

Dashboard clearly shows monthly sales trends and product category sales share.

5

Step 5: Explain why these chart types were chosen.

Line chart is best for showing trends over time. Pie chart is good for showing parts of a whole at a glance.

Expected Result

Manager understands how the charts help in quick and clear decision making.

Final Result

Monthly Sales Trend (Line Chart)

Jan  Feb  Mar  Apr  May  Jun
|     |     |     |     |     |
*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*

Product Category Sales Share (Pie Chart)

[Electronics: 45%] [Clothing: 30%] [Home Goods: 25%]

✓Sales increased steadily from January to June.

✓Electronics is the largest product category by sales.

✓Clothing and Home Goods have smaller but significant shares.

Bonus Challenge

Add a filter to the dashboard to allow users to select sales by Region.

Show Hint

Use Tableau's filter feature and add a Region filter to the dashboard to enable interactive selection.