Field note · July 25, 2026
The category that eats the chart
4 values with 44.3% concentrated in one of them, and what that does to every chart downstream.
plan on saas-subscriptions has 4 values, and one of them is 44.3% of the data.
starter— 1,108 rows, 44.3%team— 800 rows, 32.0%business— 442 rows, 17.7%enterprise— 150 rows, 6.0%
The top three take 94.0% between them. With only 4 values there is no tail to worry about, which makes this a genuinely easy column to chart.
select plan,
count(*) as rows,
round(100.0 * count(*) / sum(count(*)) over (), 1) as pct,
round(avg(mrr_usd)::numeric, 2) as avg_mrr_usd
from saas_subscriptions
group by 1
order by rows desc;The second column is the one that matters. Share of rows tells you what is common; avg_mrr_usd 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.