Creating a dashboard

From empty to something people use. The order of the work matters more than any individual setting.

From empty to something people use. The order of the work matters more than any individual setting.

Create one

1. Decide who it is for and what they decide with it.
2. Create the dashboard and name it for that audience.
3. Add the headline number first.
4. Add the supporting reports.
5. Add filters the reader will actually use.
6. Show it to one of them before sharing it widely.

Step one is the whole job

"A dashboard for support" produces a collection of charts. "A dashboard the team lead opens each Monday to decide where to put people this week" produces something used.

Show it to a real reader early

Before it is finished. They will say which number they actually look at and which they ignore, and that conversation removes half the reports.

Name it for the audience

"Weekly team review" tells people whether to open it. "Support metrics v3" does not, and it will be sitting in the list unopened in a year.

Filters: two or three

Date range, and perhaps group or brand. Every additional filter is a way for a reader to produce a number nobody intended and then quote it.

Put the definitions on it

What is excluded, which dates are used, when it refreshes. That text prevents the recurring meeting where two people compare different numbers for the same thing.

Then leave it alone

A dashboard that changes every week cannot be compared over time, and people stop trusting what they saw last month. Change it deliberately, and say when you have.

See also

• Adding and arranging reports
• Dashboard filters that work
• Sharing a dashboard with colleagues