Andy Kriebel

Waterfall charts show running totals in a way bar charts can't.

Here's how to build one in Tableau.

1. Drag Order Date to columns and break it down by quarters.
2. Drag Profit to rows and change the mark type to a Gantt bar.
3. Change the Profit field to a running total quick table calculation.
4. Drag Profit onto colour.
5. Create a calculated field called Height: -SUM([Profit])
6. Drag that to the size shelf.

That's it. Waterfall chart done.

Have you used waterfall charts in your dashboards, or do you tend to stick with bars?

📌 Save this for when you need it.

P.S. This is the kind of chart we build in Next-Level Tableau: www.nextleveltableau.com/

6 hours ago | [YT] | 1

Andy Kriebel

8 simple charts I use to make my visualizations easy to understand.

Which one do you reach for most?

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4 days ago | [YT] | 59

Andy Kriebel

Your dashboard isn't bad. It just has one of these five problems.

1. Too many colors. When everything is highlighted, nothing is.
2. Too much information. The Rule of 4: more than four elements competing for attention and the dashboard is doing too much.
3. Built for yourself, not your audience. Start with the question, not the charts.
4. Container chaos. Simple structure always wins.
5. Static instead of functional. This is Tableau, it should feel responsive.

None of these are hard to fix once you know what to look for.

If you want to go beyond the basics, this is exactly the kind of thing we work on in @Next-Level Tableau

6 days ago | [YT] | 2

Andy Kriebel

Current year vs prior year sales is one of the most common Tableau requests I get.

Here's the exact calculated fields you need.

1. Create a Current Year Sales field:
IF YEAR([Order Date]) = {MAX(YEAR([Order Date]))} THEN [Sales] END

2. Duplicate it, rename it Prior Year Sales, and add -1 after the closing curly brace.

3. Create a Percent Difference field:
(SUM([Current Year Sales]) - SUM([Prior Year Sales])) / SUM([Prior Year Sales])

4. Format it as a percentage.

5. Drag everything onto the view and you've got your big numbers.

Have you used this approach before, or do you calculate year-over-year a different way?

1 week ago | [YT] | 2

Andy Kriebel

#TableauTip: Tableau doesn't have a built-in option to place labels above a horizontal bar chart.

So here's the workaround:

1. Add a dual axis using an average of zero as a Gantt bar
2. Set the opacity to zero and reduce the size to nothing
3. Drag your dimension to the label shelf
4. Hide the headers you don't need

Done. Less than two minutes once you know the steps.

1 week ago | [YT] | 2

Andy Kriebel

Dashboards die in inboxes.

Not because the build is bad. Because nobody knew why to open it.

Three framing moves worth trying on your next release:

1. Lead with the decision, not the data. Start your message with: "This will help you decide: [specific decision]."
2. Give one do-this-now action. Ask them to check whether a specific metric is above or below a threshold.
3. Make access frictionless. Direct link to the exact tab, no hunting around.

Ship one dashboard with this framing and notice what changes.

I'm going into more detail on all of this in tomorrow's newsletter. If you're not on the list yet: nlt.kit.com/

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 9

Andy Kriebel

Most people spend three weeks Googling why their filters won't behave. John Manor spent three weeks on a plan.

Swipe to see the difference.

The first dashboard he built just before he started the 30-Day Accelerator. The second is a personal project he built halfway through the course. As John put it: "Andy is a great instructor and both he and the community are super nice."

If you want a clear path from where you are now to dashboards you're proud of, the accelerator is free: www.nextleveltableau.com/accelerator

And if you want to go further, that's what Next-Level Tableau is for.

P.S. You can follow John's progress on his Tableau Public profile: public.tableau.com/app/profile/john.manor/vizzes

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 14

Andy Kriebel

Here's every single step of my dashboard design process:

1. Draw a rectangle in Excalidraw (or paper, PowerPoint, etc.)
2. Add placeholders for each chart, BAN, control, text box, etc.
3. Draw containers around the items you want to group together
4. In Tableau, set the size of the dashboard
5. Delete the Phone layout
6. Float a container
7. Set the position of the container to 0,0
8. Set the size to the same size as the dashboard
9. Add 10-20 pixels of inner padding
10. Drag in a Text object into the container for the title
11. Add a Blank object below the title in the same container (makes dropping objects into the container easier)
12. Add the next container
13. Add a Blank object into the same container
14. Add the charts in that container
15. Set the width and height of charts/containers as necessary
16. Repeat 11-16 until done with all containers and charts
17. Delete all blank objects added as placeholders
18. Format and resize as needed

I promise this process will work every time!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 16

Andy Kriebel

#TableauTip: You want one region to always stand out in your chart. Every other colour fades out automatically.

Here's how.

1. Click on the mark you want to highlight.
2. Then click the triangle on the colour shelf and choose Assign Highlight Colours to Palette.

Done.

Tableau creates a new palette with your selection highlighted and everything else faded.

Want to highlight more than one? Select both marks first, then do the same thing.

To reset it, go to the colour shelf, choose Edit Colours and then Assign Palette.

Save this for the next time you need to make one series stand out. 📌

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Andy Kriebel

Your homework for the weekend.

Pick one of your dashboards. Find a chart that's sitting on its own sheet, doing one job.

Now challenge yourself to rebuild it using map layers so it works on a single sheet.

Map layers aren't just for maps. That's how you build cleaner, faster dashboards with fewer sheets. KPI cards, bar charts, donut charts, all on one sheet, no complicated containers.

The dashboard in this post? Built on one sheet using map layers.

Publish it to Tableau Public when you're done. I'd love to see what you build.

P.S. If you need a hand getting started, I ran a training on this earlier this year. Watch it on demand here → www.nextleveltableau.com/resources

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 14