Tree Maps and Tableau

I'm beginning to become a big fan of the tree map.  It is very useful to see where business is coming from.  One of the cool features in Tableau is the user can bring dates to a row and then the tree maps also act as a bar chart comparing where the business is coming from YOY.  

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Sample Tree Map from Tableau

As you can see above I can tell 2007 was my best total sales year with declining sales throughout the years.  The decline was primarily driven by Office Machines as the size of that box never returned to its largest total in 2007.  

I can see myself using this for many different dashboards and analysis in the future.  Maybe I may even use bubbles. 

Keep Up with Your Quants - Harvard Business Review

Very good article about using data to make decisions and communicate results.  

having big data—and even people who can manipulate it successfully—is not enough. Companies need general managers who can partner effectively with “quants” to ensure that their work yields better strategic and tactical decisions.

Often times analysts struggle to communicate their findings in a way the organization understands.  Finding a common ground makes for a great combination. 

We all know how easily “figures lie and liars figure.” Analytics consumers should never pressure their producers with comments like “See if you can find some evidence in the data to support my idea.” Instead, your explicit goal should be to find the truth.

How many times I have heard this in my career?  Quite a few times.  As data consumers, we can't be afraid of being wrong or showing that a decision we have made lost money.  That happens.  Always strive for the truth.  It is much better to improve results then to take a hit to your ego.

The rest of the article is a great read on how to better receive analytics.   Being someone who can take analytics and turn data into money is what separates the men from the boys.