Field note · May 4, 2024
support-tickets.priority: 4 values, 92.6% in the top three
4 values with 48.4% concentrated in one of them, and what that does to every chart downstream.
Distribution of priority on support-tickets, because every chart built on it inherits this shape.
normal— 1,935 rows, 48.4%high— 903 rows, 22.6%low— 864 rows, 21.6%urgent— 298 rows, 7.4%
The top three take 92.6% between them. With only 4 values there is no tail to worry about, which makes this a genuinely easy column to chart.
select priority,
count(*) as rows,
round(100.0 * count(*) / sum(count(*)) over (), 1) as pct,
round(avg(first_response_min)::numeric, 2) as avg_first_response_min
from support_tickets
group by 1
order by rows desc;The second column is the one that matters. Share of rows tells you what is common; avg_first_response_min tells you whether the common thing is the important thing. They disagree more often than not, and a chart that shows only the first is answering the easier question.
Decide what happens to the tail before you plot it. "Other" as an explicit bucket is honest; twelve slivers is not, and neither is silently taking the top eight.