Filter actions in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

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

📋 Request: Your manager wants an interactive dashboard where clicking on a region filters the sales data to show only that region's details.

📊 Data: You have monthly sales data by Region, Product Category, and Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Tableau dashboard with a map of regions and a sales table. Set up a filter action so clicking a region on the map filters the sales table to that region.

Sample Data

Region	Month	Product Category	Sales Amount
North	Jan	Electronics	12000
North	Feb	Furniture	8000
South	Jan	Electronics	15000
South	Feb	Furniture	7000
East	Jan	Electronics	10000
East	Feb	Furniture	6000
West	Jan	Electronics	9000
West	Feb	Furniture	5000

1

Step 1: Connect to the sales data in Tableau and create a new worksheet named 'Region Map'.

Drag 'Region' to Rows and Columns to create a map or use filled map mark type with 'Region' as geographic role.

Expected Result

A map showing the four regions: North, South, East, and West.

2

Step 2: Create a new worksheet named 'Sales Table' to show detailed sales data.

Drag 'Region', 'Month', 'Product Category' to Rows and 'Sales Amount' to Text or Columns with SUM aggregation.

Expected Result

A table showing sales amounts by Region, Month, and Product Category.

3

Step 3: Create a new dashboard and add both 'Region Map' and 'Sales Table' worksheets.

Drag both worksheets onto the dashboard canvas side by side.

Expected Result

Dashboard displays the map and the sales table.

4

Step 4: Add a filter action to the dashboard to link the map and the sales table.

In Dashboard menu, select Actions > Add Action > Filter. Set source sheet to 'Region Map', target sheet to 'Sales Table'. Set run action on 'Select'. Target filters: 'Selected Fields' with 'Region'.

Expected Result

Clicking a region on the map filters the sales table to show only that region's sales.

5

Step 5: Test the filter action by clicking on different regions on the map.

Click 'North' on the map and observe the sales table.

Expected Result

Sales table updates to show only sales data for the North region.

Final Result

Dashboard Layout:
+----------------+  +---------------------+
|  Region Map    |  |    Sales Table       |
|  [Map of four  |  |  Region | Month |    |
|   regions]     |  |  Product Category |   |
|                |  |  Sales Amount      |   |
+----------------+  +---------------------+

Interaction:
Click a region on the map -> Sales Table filters to that region

✓Filter actions allow interactive exploration of data by linking visualizations.

✓Clicking a region on the map dynamically filters the sales table to show relevant data.

✓This improves dashboard usability and helps managers focus on specific regions quickly.

Bonus Challenge

Add a second filter action so that clicking a product category in the sales table filters the map to highlight only regions with sales in that category.

Show Hint

Create a filter action with source sheet 'Sales Table' and target sheet 'Region Map', filtering on 'Region' based on selected 'Product Category'.