Dashboards

An essential tool to realize strategy

Dashboards, like the one in a car, help you reach your destination by highlighting hurdles and opportunities. This information can trigger action, just like when the low fuel (battery) indicator flashes and you know it’s time for gas/petrol (a charge).

Below are example dashboards within different technology stacks.

Click on the images below to take the dashboard for a spin

Tableau

See more at public.tableau.com or click on the image

Power BI

Power BI is a great tool to integrate with the Microsoft ecosystem

ShinyApps

Dashboards created in RStudio and hosted on ShinyApps

Tools

My favorite dashboard tools

Principles of successful dashboards include,

  • Action-oriented Try to predict future outcomes and decide what actions to take if such an event occurs. Be prepared to proactively address complications rather than apologizing later, or worse learning from your customer
  • Interactive Content must be relevant and contextual. Users can drill into certain aspects such as dates, products, people, etc
  • Automated – Dashboards requiring a manual process to collect information tend to become outdated and die off over time
  • Customer-focused The purpose of any business process is to efficiently deliver value to your customer. The customer’s expectation determines many of your measures and performance targets. In fact, publishing dashboards for your customers may even be a competitive advantage