Before you start creating charts and arranging dashboards, it is important to think about what numbers are most important to track for your role, your department, and your company. After you answer these questions, you should have a good idea about what you want to track and how to design your dashboards.
Track Your Goals
- What daily/monthly/yearly goals have you set?
- What are your strategies to achieve those goals?
- How do you monitor the goals and strategies as well as any daily tactics that help you reach them?
Make Data-Driven Decisions
- What important decisions do you need to make from this dashboard?
- What data helps you make those decisions?
- What KPIs do you discuss regularly in internal meetings?
Improve Your Reporting
- What data is missing from your current reporting?
- What are some areas of concern that your data could shed some light on?
- Do you have any reports that take you a long time to compile on a regular basis?
- What data do you want to see in one place?
How should you arrange your dashboards?
To help you find an effective way to design your dashboards so you and others in your company can have clear, relevant metrics, we've found this framework to be very useful:
At the top is the Vision. It is the goal your company is trying to accomplish and is the one KPI the entire group cares about.
The next level down tracks your Strategic Objectives. These are the KPIs that support the company vision. You can't reach your vision without hitting these objectives.
The bottom level includes all the Tactics that feed into the strategic objectives. They are the specific actions that show you how you got to your KPIs and contribute to their success.
The large blue box containing the Vision and the Strategic Objectives would represent a C-level dashboard. Usually, management only needs to see the top numbers that show if you are reaching your goals.
The Department boxes represent specific dashboards for each department or initiative that supports each Strategic Objective. If a number is off on the main executive dashboard, then you can investigate further in the department dashboard to see what is causing the change.
To get a personalized discussion around your company's goals and how to set up your metrics and dashboards, contact your Grow Account Manager.
Example Dashboards
We have also created a series of example dashboards to give an idea of what others are tracking in various roles, departments, and industries. Talk to your Account Manager to discuss what would be best to track for your business.