Five bubble-chart mistakes your board notices
The board won't tell you the chart is confusing — they'll just quietly stop trusting it. Here are the five things they clock first.
Bubble charts pack a lot of information into a small space, which is exactly why they fall apart when a single detail is wrong. These five mistakes get spotted by senior audiences within seconds.
Radius vs area
Size bubbles by area, not radius. A $200M bubble should look twice the size of a $100M bubble, not four times. Most tools default to radius; check yours.
Overlapping labels
Label the top five bubbles by revenue and hide the rest behind hover. A wall of overlapping text tells the board you didn't design the chart, the tool did.
The missing legend
Color without a legend is decoration. Put the legend near the chart title, not tucked in a corner where the eye finds it after the executive has already asked the question.
- Pick the framework that fits the decision, not the deck template.
- Design your chart for the eye first, the spreadsheet second.
- Show change over time — a snapshot rarely earns its slide.
Sara spent a decade as a strategy consultant at a top-tier firm before joining STRATObubbles. She writes about the tools senior teams actually use to make portfolio decisions.
