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# Chapter 4 — Practice-on-your-own hints — Companion

> Diagnostic hints for the Practice-on-your-own problems from Chapter 4 of The Defensible Decision.

Canonical URL: https://www.thedefensibledecision.com/ch/04/practice/

[← Chapter 4 companion](/ch/04/) · [All chapter resources](/ch/)

Short diagnostic hints for the two Practice on your own problems in this chapter. Attempt each problem before opening the hint. Complete answers appear in Appendix G of The Defensible Decision: Practice Workbook.

### Problem 1 — the churn-attribution chart

Restated: A support team asks Copilot to &laquo;show why churn increased in Q3.&raquo; Copilot returns a bubble chart with three variables mapped to x, y, and bubble size. Name the family Copilot picked, the family the question actually calls for, and the one-sentence direction that would steer to the right family.

Show a diagnostic hint

Diagnostic cue. Begin with the analytical question, then choose the chart family that makes its comparison visible.

Complete answers appear in Appendix G of The Defensible Decision: Practice Workbook.

### Problem 2 — the promo-lift chart

Restated: A marketing analyst wants to show the Q3 promotion lifted revenue for three product lines but hurt margin on two. Copilot returns a clustered column chart. Name the two candidate families for this argument, pick the primary, and explain in one paragraph why the other family is a secondary chart, not a shared one.

Show a diagnostic hint

Diagnostic cue. Separate the relationship claim from the comparison decision before choosing a chart family.

Complete answers appear in Appendix G of The Defensible Decision: Practice Workbook.

### Related on this site

- [Chapter 4 companion page](/ch/04/) — further reading, self-check quiz, and the chart-family selection activity.

- [Chart gallery](/gallery/) — browse chart families with worked examples per family.

- [All chapter companion pages](/ch/).

- [Feedback](/errata/) — share corrections and improvement opportunities across all chapters.

### About the three-tier Practice format

Each chapter of the book closes with a three-tier Practice block adapted from Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic's course-adoption pattern in Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!: Practice with us (one worked problem with full solution in the book), Practice on your own (open problems with complete answers in Appendix G of the Practice Workbook; this page offers short diagnostic hints), and Practice at work (an open-ended prompt to apply the chapter's move to a live artifact). This page hosts the middle tier.
