How do you visually show some of the product subcategories in a bar graph in Tableau?

Let’s consider an example. Suppose we are using the Sample – Superstore of Tableau’s Desktop. We need to analyze the sub-categories of product the company sells by Region. We need to know which subcategories have the lowest sales. The managers are considering dropping those subcategories that have the lowest sales for each Region. We need to design a graph that clearly show the lowest three categories for each.

For the data we have in Superstore, this solution here is not perfect but it works as it does display the data correctly. Here is the end result.

Grouping in Tableau is a manual process. The three subcategories were created by using the mouse to lasso the last three. Next, hover over one of the three bars and wait a second for the popup. Next, click on the paper clip icon. Choose Sub-category from the popup. If you wish, you can change the colors by first clicking the Color mark then Edit Colors.

With this dataset, it happens that the three lowest sub-categories by sales dollars are exactly the same for all four regions. Because of this I can simply create a group with these three in it and visually differentiate the group with color.

I created the chart with Tableau Desktop. I got a temporary license to this by enrolling in a Tableau course on Coursera. I was able to share my chart to my public account with tableau. In Tableau Public, at the top right part of the screen there is a share button that I can click and get an HTML link to the chart. Here is the link.