Visualize how money, energy or users flow between stages. Ribbon width is proportional to the amount, so the big movements jump out.
Subscription and services revenue flowing down to net profit.
Three revenue lines merge into one trunk, then split twice: first into gross profit and cost of revenue, then into net profit, operating expenses and tax. The width of the last green band is the whole quarter in one glance.
Open in the editorTwo salaries split across rent, food, transport and savings.
Everything a household earns enters on the left and has to leave on the right. Savings is the only band that is not spent, which makes an under-saving month impossible to hide.
Open in the editorWhere sessions come from and how many of them convert.
Four acquisition channels feed one session pool, which then splits into bounced, browsed and converted. The ribbon into 'Converted' is deliberately thin — that gap is the growth problem.
Open in the editorGeneration by source, split into consumption and losses.
The classic Sankey use case: every terawatt-hour generated is either consumed by a sector or lost in transmission. Losses get their own band, so efficiency is a width you can measure with your eyes.
Open in the editorCandidates by channel, ending in hires and rejections.
Unlike a funnel chart, a Sankey keeps every channel visible all the way down, so you can see that referrals are a tenth of the volume and half the hires.
Open in the editorStore, marketplace and wholesale revenue against COGS and margin.
Three sales channels with very different margins converge, then split into cost of goods, fulfilment, marketing and what is actually left. Marketplace volume looks impressive until you follow its ribbon.
Open in the editorA funding round allocated across team, product and go-to-market.
Investors ask exactly one question about a round: where does it go? Two money sources merge into a single pot and fan out across the departments that will spend it.
Open in the editorSupply sources distributed across agriculture, industry and homes.
Three supply sources, one distribution network and four end uses. Because a Sankey conserves volume, the leakage band is the difference between what was pumped and what was billed.
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