chart-big-idea

name	chart-big-idea
description	Distill the central claim a chart should communicate before choosing the chart type, title, or encodings. Use when creating chart titles, figure captions, visual briefs, or deciding whether a chart earns its place.

Chart Big Idea

Every chart needs a claim: the Big Idea, the sentence it should prove at a glance.

When to use

Use before:

• creating a Flint chart
• writing a chart title or caption
• deciding between chart types
• turning a table into a figure
• reviewing whether a visual artifact communicates the intended point

Shared Knowledge Gate

Before selecting a consequential chart claim, stance, or recommendation, consult scout-knowledge-base for relevant prior decisions, failure modes, procedures, and gotchas. Read only records whose signals or preconditions match the visual decision, and treat them as context rather than authority. If unavailable, state that once and continue with the current evidence; do not create a local fallback while framing.

Output

Produce a short chart brief:

Big Idea:
Audience:
Decision or use:
Measure and units:
Comparison:
Recommended chart type:
Risk to avoid:

Method

1. Name the reader's task. What decision, scan, or explanation does the chart support?
2. Find the comparison. Time trend, category ranking, distribution, relationship, composition, flow, or target progress.
3. State the claim. Write one sentence that someone could argue with.
4. Check the evidence. Confirm the data can actually support the claim.
5. Choose the stance. Neutral, diagnostic, cautionary, comparative, or prescriptive.
6. Compress. Remove words until another removal would damage the claim.

Title rules

Good chart titles state a finding:

Weak	Strong
Revenue by quarter	Scout shows the fastest revenue climb by Q4
Support tickets by hour	Midday is the busiest support window
Implementation duration	Most implementations finish inside four weeks

Use subtitles for scope, population, time period, and units.

Tests

A chart Big Idea is ready when:

• it names what changed, differs, clusters, leads, lags, or matters
• the chart's encodings directly support the claim
• the title still makes sense if the reader sees only the visual for three seconds
• it avoids overclaiming beyond the data

Failure modes

• Topic title: names the metric but not the finding.
• Unsupported claim: title says "best" or "fastest" without data that proves it.
• Decorative surprise: chart type attracts attention but weakens the comparison.
• Missing stakes: the figure is true but irrelevant to the reader's decision.