Here we examine the constituent components that make a magnetocaloric material attractive for application. The field-temperature phase diagram is studied and using calorimetry, the first-order and second-order components of the magnetic field-driven magneto-structural phase transition in CoMnSi0.92Ge0.08 are extracted. It is demonstrated that below 262 K the transition shows a latent heat component associated with first-order behavior when the material changes from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic order. Such a transition is known as a metamagnetic transition. We identify 262 K as a tricritical point and above this temperature T-crit the transition shows only continuous, second-order characteristics. Hall-probe imaging that has a five micron pixel resolution is then used to study the striking differences in the spatial evolution of the transition above and below T-crit. We demonstrate that the hysteresis of the transition is linearly related to the magnitude of the latent heat; an observation that has important implications for the use of this and other first-order systems for application as magnetic refrigerants.