The Bubble Chart

A one-page bubble chart that plots each item on two measures at once — effort against impact, cost against value, price against quality, reach against risk — and scales each bubble by an optional third number, so three variables read from a single picture. Both axes fit themselves to your data, so any pair of measures works without you setting a scale; a faint cross splits the plane into four quadrants so the priority read pops out — low effort and high impact lands in one corner, and the winners are obvious at a glance. It beats a table because position does the ranking for you: you don't compare rows of numbers, you compare places on a map, and the eye sorts them instantly. Each bubble carries its own label, the size dimension carries a third value like reach or budget or head count so bigger bets literally look bigger, and the axes label their own extremes so you keep the scale. It works best when both measures are numeric and roughly continuous — a score, a count, a price, a week count. Use it for a feature or project prioritization, an effort-versus-impact backlog, a risk-versus-reward portfolio, a cost-versus-value shortlist, a market or competitor map, a customer segment plot, a price-versus-quality comparison, or any set you sized on two numbers and want to weigh at a glance. List a label, an x and a y — plus an optional size — per line and the bubbles, axes and quadrants draw themselves; leave it blank to print the empty plane and plot it by hand.

• Landscape
• 1 page
• Planning

Best for: Plotting a set of items on two measures at once — effort vs impact, cost vs value, risk vs reward — with an optional third number sizing each bubble, so priorities read as places on a map.