[Head-n-Tail Analysis (Part 1): The Toolkit]

In Part I, I explained what head-n-tail analysis is. Here I will show how you can make an analysis dashboard of your own data in no time.

To make it simple, I made a dashboard template (on English Premiere League teams TV revenue) for download. All you need to do is to plug in your data and generate a dashboard of your own in 30 seconds.

Assume that you have your data ready in an excel file with one dimension and one measure. Make sure the data is on "Sheet1". Here is a few data sets for you to try: File1 and File2.

Then follow these 3 steps: (based on File1)

1.Edit Data Source (data connection) to load your excel file. The data must be on "Sheet1".


You may see columns with nulls and  red ! sign. They are the old dimension and measure along with those associated calculated fields. Just ignore them and click "Go to worksheet".



2.Replace the old dimension "Team" and the old measure "TV Revenue" by those in your data using Replace References. In this case, "Team" is mapped to "Product" and "TV Revenue" is replaced by "Sales".



3.Edit "Number of Rows" to be that of your table (excluding header row). There are 13 rows in this example.


Voila, you have your Head-n-Tail analysis dashboard for coffee sales by product.

You can customize titles, text and colors later at your convenience. Individual charts and worksheets are available for you to add to other dashboards if needed. And your data source can be any database, not limited to excel files.

Give it a try and see if you can beat 30 seconds.