Funnel

The Funnel layout uses a tapering trapezoidal shape to represent progressive narrowing, filtering, or qualification across stages. The widest section at the top represents the full universe of inputs — all leads, all candidates, all raw data — and each subsequent band narrows as items are filtered, qualified, or refined. Percentage labels and absolute numbers at each stage quantify the conversion between levels. The funnel shape is one of the most universally recognized business metaphors, making it immediately legible to any professional audience. It works best when the narrative is about reduction, selection, or progressive refinement. The visual proportions of each band encode the magnitude of drop-off, so a sudden narrowing communicates a bottleneck without requiring any additional annotation.