How to Make a Dumbbell Chart in Tableau

A dumbbell chart, also known as a DNA chart, is a fantastic way to visualize the change or compare a range between two data points. This guide will walk you through exactly how to build one step-by-step in Tableau, turning your comparative data into a clean, insightful, and professionally designed visualization.

What is a Dumbbell Chart, and Why Should You Use One?

Dumbbell charts get their name from their appearance: two circular marks (like the weights) connected by a line (the bar). They are a variant of the bar chart and excel at showing the difference or distance between two distinct values for a particular category.

Imagine you want to see how your marketing channels performed this quarter compared to last quarter. You could use a grouped bar chart, but a dumbbell chart often tells the story more clearly by focusing on the gap between the two time periods for each channel. It makes it instantly easy for your audience to see:

• Which channels improved (and by how much)
• Which channels declined
• Which channels stayed roughly the same

They are less cluttered than grouped bar charts and draw your audience's attention to the change or comparison you want to highlight, making them incredibly effective for performance reporting, pre/post analysis, or comparing projections to actuals.

Preparing Your Data for a Dumbbell Chart

Before you jump into Tableau, make sure your data is structured correctly. You typically need your data in a "wide" format for this task. This means you should have separate columns (or measures) for each of the two data points you want to compare.

For example, if you're comparing Q1 2024 sessions to Q2 2024 sessions for various marketing channels, your data might look like this:

Channel, Q1 Sessions, Q2 Sessions Organic Search, 15000, 18000 Social Media, 8000, 7500 Email, 12000, 14500 Paid Search, 10000, 13000

Here, "Channel" is your dimension (the category you are comparing across), while "Q1 Sessions" and "Q2 Sessions" are your two separate measures.

Step-by-Step: Creating a Dumbbell Chart in Tableau

Ready to build? We'll use the sample data structure from above to create our dumbbell chart.

Step 1: Get the First Measure onto the View

1. Drag your dimension (e.g., Channel) onto the Rows shelf.
2. Drag your first measure (e.g., Q1 Sessions) onto the Columns shelf.

You’ll now have a standard horizontal bar chart. Don't worry, this is the first step in our transformation.

Step 2: Add the Second Measure to Create a Dual Axis

1. Drag your second measure (e.g., Q2 Sessions) onto the Columns shelf, placing it to the right of your first measure.

You should now see two side-by-side bar charts. Tableau has automatically generated two separate marks cards in your Marks shelf — one for 'Q1 Sessions' and one for 'Q2 Sessions'. This separation is what gives us the power to customize each part of the dumbbell chart.

Step 3: Combine with a Dual Axis and Synchronize

1. Right-click on the second green pill on your Columns shelf (e.g., SUM(Q2 Sessions)) and select Dual Axis from the dropdown menu.

Your charts will now be layered on top of each other, and you'll have two different x-axes, one at the top and one at the bottom. This isn't quite right, because their scales might differ, misrepresenting the data.

Crucially, you must synchronize them.

1. Right-click on the top axis (or either axis) and select Synchronize Axis.

Both axes will now share the same exact scale, correctly aligning your data points.

Step 4: Change Mark Types to Circles and Lines

1. On your Marks shelf, you’ll see separate cards for your measures (SUM(Q1 Sessions) and SUM(Q2 Sessions)) and an 'All' card.
2. Select the marks card for SUM(Q1 Sessions). Change the mark type from 'Automatic' (or 'Bar') to Circle. A circle will now appear on the chart marking the Q1 data point for each channel.
3. Now, select the marks card for SUM(Q2 Sessions). We need to create the connecting line here. Change its mark type from 'Automatic' to Line. A line will now connect the Q2 points, which isn’t what we want yet — we need the line that connects Q1 and Q2.

Step 5: Putting it All Together

This is the counterintuitive but brilliant part of how Tableau works. Since we can only have one Mark Type per Marks Card, we need to create the second circle on the 'Line' Marks Card. How can we do this? Using Measure Names and Measure Values!

1. Return to the Data Pane on the left and drag Measure Names onto the Path mark on the 'Line' marks card (the one for SUM(Q2 Sessions)). Now the line connects what are currently... just the Q2 points!
2. Drag Measure Value to the Columns shelf to replace the SUM(Q1 Sessions) and SUM(Q2 Sessions) pills. Filter Measure Names to just show Q1 Sessions and Q2 Sessions.
3. Change your Marks back to Line on the 'All' marks card.
4. Drag Measure Names onto the Path card in the Marks pane. Voilà. That's the bar of the dumbbell.
5. Drag Measure Values onto the Columns shelf again to create the dual axis chart. The original Measure Values pill should be on the Line shelf, the duplicated Measure Values pull will have its Marks changed from Line to Circle.
6. Right click the second pill and select dual axis. Again, remember to Synchronize the axes!

You officially have a dumbbell chart! You'll now see dots representing both Q1 and Q2 sessions for each channel, with a straight line connecting them.

Step 6: Fine-Tuning and Formatting

Now for the finishing touches that move your chart from functional to professional.

• Adjust Sizes: Click on the 'Circle' marks card, then click Size and use the slider to make your circles larger or smaller. On the 'Line' marks card, adjust the thickness of your line.
• Add Color: Want to show if performance increased or decreased? Create a calculated field. Go to Analysis > Create Calculated Field. Call it "Performance Change" and use a formula like: SUM([Q2 Sessions]) - SUM([Q1 Sessions]) Drag this new calculated field to the Color shelf on the 'Line' marks card and the 'Circle' marks card. Then, click on the Color shelf to edit the color palette to show negative values in red and positive values in green or blue. This instantly tells the story!
• Clean Up Axes: The top axis is now redundant. Right-click it and uncheck Show Header. You can also edit the remaining axis to have a clearer title.
• Polish Tooltips: Hover over a mark. The default tooltip can be messy. Click on the Tooltip button in the Marks pane for each of your mark cards to edit them. You can write simple sentences like "Q1 Sessions: <SUM(Q1 Sessions)>" to make them clearer for your audience.

Bonus Tip: Calculating the Growth Percentage

To add even more value, you can display the growth percentage as a label.

1. Create another calculated field named "Growth %".
2. Use the formula: (SUM([Q2 Sessions]) - SUM([Q1 Sessions])) / SUM([Q1 Sessions])
3. Format this field as a percentage by right-clicking it in the data pane, navigating to Default Properties > Number Format > Percentage.
4. Drag this "Growth %" field onto the Label property of your connecting line's Marks card. Now, the growth percentage will appear along the bar of the dumbbell, offering brilliant context at a glance.

Final Thoughts

By following these steps, you can create a clear and effective dumbbell chart in Tableau to highlight key comparisons in your data. It’s an excellent chart type that focuses your audience's attention on performance changes and provides much more instant insight than a standard bar chart ever could.

While mastering tools like Tableau is rewarding, it often involves a significant learning curve with many manual steps just to build a single chart. For those situations where you need analysis done fast, we built Graphed to remove the friction. Instead of clicking through menus and setting up dual axes, you simply connect your data and ask in plain English: "Create a chart comparing last quarter's sessions to this quarter's sessions by channel." Graphed generates a live, interactive dashboard instantly, so you can spend less time wrangling visuals and more time acting on insights.