Many dashboards have gauges, traffic lights or images with a number.
The colorful presentation could be eye-catching. But these dashboards often don’t provide useful information that guides decision-making.
Useful data requires deliberate consideration on what the users look for.
Does a Product Manager want to know what customers are not happy about?
Or, does she want to know whether a particular dissatisfaction is a persistent problem?
The answers to these questions determine what data to include in the dashboard.
If the Product Manager wanted to know what customers weren’t happy about, a bar chart that shows the top five issues and their corresponding frequency of occurrence could be revealing.
On the other hand, if the Product Manager wanted to know whether a particular problem is a persistent issue, a line graph that shows the number of occurrences over a period of time would indicate whether the problem is a persistent issue.
You can see why a single point of data is seldom sufficient.
In determining what data to include in a dashboard, identify what information the users need. Then, reverse engineer the data and the type of graph you use to present the message.
For more tips on results and dashboards, check out my YouTube channel.
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