Cohort analysis patterns in Tableau - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is a cohort in cohort analysis?

A cohort is a group of users or customers who share a common characteristic or experience within a defined time period, such as signing up in the same month.

beginner

Why use cohort analysis in Tableau?

Cohort analysis helps track how groups of users behave over time, revealing trends like retention, engagement, or churn patterns.

intermediate

What is a common pattern for creating cohorts in Tableau?

Create a calculated field to assign each user to a cohort based on their first activity date, often grouping by month or week.

intermediate

How do you calculate retention rate in cohort analysis?

Retention rate is calculated by dividing the number of users active in a later period by the number of users in the original cohort, often expressed as a percentage.

beginner

What visualization best shows cohort retention over time?

A heatmap or line chart showing cohorts on one axis and time periods on the other, with color or lines representing retention rates.

In cohort analysis, what does a cohort usually represent?

A Users grouped by their first activity date

B Random group of users

C Users grouped by their last purchase

D All users in the dataset

Cohorts are groups of users who share a common start point, like their first activity date.

Which Tableau feature helps assign users to cohorts?

A Filters

B Calculated fields

C Parameters

D Sets

Calculated fields allow you to create cohort groups based on user data like first activity date.

What does retention rate measure in cohort analysis?

A Percentage of users returning over time

B Total sales per cohort

C Number of new users each month

D Average session duration

Retention rate shows how many users from a cohort continue to engage over time.

Which visualization is best for showing cohort retention over time?

A Pie chart

B Bar chart

C Scatter plot

D Heatmap

Heatmaps clearly show retention rates across cohorts and time periods using color intensity.

What is a typical time grouping used for cohorts?

A Day of week

B Hour of day

C Month or week of first activity

D Year of birth

Grouping cohorts by month or week of first activity helps analyze user behavior over consistent time frames.

Explain how to create a cohort analysis pattern in Tableau from raw user data.

Think about grouping users by when they started and tracking their activity over time.

Describe why cohort analysis is useful for understanding customer behavior.

Consider how grouping users by start time helps see patterns.