Five lessons from Amazon on plotting data better
Amazon’s WBRs are famous for conveying lots of information in little space. They allow us to dive deep into the numbers.
There are five lessons I particularly like that I took away from the Amazon WBR plot format:
Plot multiple time horizons, best together in one chart. Don’t just plot the weekly user numbers but also the monthly ones on a secondary axis.
Plot comparisons. Plot this year's weekly user numbers and last year's weekly numbers in the same graphic with different colors.
Include additional highlight numbers, such as last month's total revenue vs. the planned revenue and the YoY growth.
Plot growth rates. Best, we want things to accelerate, so plot the growth rate compared to last year's (or whatever comparison you chose in 2.)
Plot against goals if possible. Have a reasonable goal, and plot your numbers against it!
These five lessons make any plot or dashboard better and deeper. They help you go from data to information.
