M40ManageManagement Systems· Module 2
Dashboards
The dashboard looks impressive. Nobody opens it, and nobody trusts the numbers when they do.
- Manage
- Grow
- Technology
- Strategy
- ~5 min · Template
The business problem
Dashboards are often built by technical staff around available data rather than management questions. They show too much, update unreliably and are disconnected from any meeting or decision, so they are quickly ignored.
Why it matters
A good dashboard answers a specific audience's questions at a glance, from trusted data, in the meeting where decisions are made. It saves time and focuses discussion.
What you will learn
- Design a dashboard for a specific audience and meeting
- Choose the right chart for each question
- Show targets, trends and exceptions clearly
- Ensure data is reliable before visualising it
Core questions
- Who will use this dashboard, when, and to decide what?
- What should they notice in the first ten seconds?
- Is the underlying data complete and trusted?
- How often must it update?
Work through the module
CaseWhat is happening?
Chain of pharmacies, 8 branches · Illustrative teaching case
A pharmacy chain builds a dashboard with forty charts. Branch managers never use it. It is redesigned for the weekly branch review: sales versus target, stock-outs, expiry risk and staffing, one row per branch, with red flags for exceptions. The review now starts from the dashboard.
DecisionWhat does the leader need to decide?
Show everything available, or design for the one meeting where decisions are made?
FrameworkHow should they think about the problem?
Question-first design
Start with the audience and the decisions they make. List the questions. Pick the KPI that answers each. Show trend and target. Highlight exceptions. Remove everything else.
ToolWhat can they use?
Dashboard design sheetTemplate
- Audience and meeting
- Five questions they must answer
- KPI and chart for each
- Target and exception rule
- Data source and refresh frequency
ApplicationHow does it apply to their business?
Apply it to your own business:
- Pick one management meeting
- Write the five questions it should answer
- Sketch a one-page dashboard on paper first
ImplementationWhat changes?
What should change in the business:
- Build it with existing tools
- Open every meeting with it
- Remove elements that nobody discusses
ReviewDid it work?
How to tell whether the change worked:
- Is the dashboard used in every meeting?
- Has meeting time spent collecting numbers fallen?
- Are exceptions acted on faster?
After this module you should be able to decide
Show everything available, or design for the one meeting where decisions are made?
And leave with: A one-page dashboard designed for a specific meeting.
Sequence · Management Systems