Sankey diagram

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Sankey diagrams are handy ways to visualise material or energy flows through usage and time. They are excellent for displaying energy source and usage, for example the UK government publishes a Sankey diagram of UK energy each year (pdf).

Perhaps the most famous example is Charles Joseph Minard's remarkable visual showing Napoleon's invasion of and retreat from Russia in the Winter of 1812–13. In that chilling example the thickness of the lines represent the remaining size of Napoleon's army.

I learned about Sankey diagrams from Edward Tufte but perhaps people see them most commonly today in Google Analytics showing the different paths visitors take on a website before leaving.

Published 23 Jan 2022

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I love this diagram by Henrik Kniberg for determining what to release to your customers and when. The idea is that a standard approach of having your grand plan of what you think people want at the start and then working on each bit at a time until finally, after months of work, you have something that works is not so smart. Each piece, in the car example, doesn’t help the customer at all until it’s all put together. Instead, you can focus on providing the next piece of functionality that helps someone get their job done a little better than before. In the beginning, they’ll probably have to put up with a lot if they want to use it, but with each successive release, they find they can get their job done a little better than before and get value out of what you’re building. A side-effect is the feedback you get along the way will likely help you learn and build something that is better than what you had in mind at the beginning, and all along the way, the customer had some value instead of waiting for months. Providing usable functionality at every step is not always easy, and it requires rework as you move from one step to the other. But it’s generally a price worth paying to give your customers value sooner and start learning as soon as you can. This diagram is explained in the brilliant product management book User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton.…I love this diagram by Henrik Kniberg for determining what to release to your customers and when. The idea is that a standard approach of having your grand plan of what you think people want at the start and then working on each bit at a time until finally, after months of work, you have something that works is not so smart. Each piece, in the car example, doesn’t help the customer at all until it’s all put together. Instead, you can focus on providing the next piece of functionality that helps someone get their job done a little better than before. In the beginning, they’ll probably have to put up with a lot if they want to use it, but with each successive release, they find they can get their job done a little better than before and get value out of what you’re building. A side-effect is the feedback you get along the way will likely help you learn and build something that is better than what you had in mind at the beginning, and all along the way, the customer had some value instead of waiting for months. Providing usable functionality at every step is not always easy, and it requires rework as you move from one step to the other. But it’s generally a price worth paying to give your customers value sooner and start learning as soon as you can. This diagram is explained in the brilliant product management book User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton.

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