Dashboards grow because adding a chart is easy and removing one feels risky. A year later, the management team has sixty tiles, three versions of revenue and no faster way of deciding anything.
Dashboards grow; decisions don’t
Every extra measure costs attention. When everything is on the screen, the meeting debates which number is right instead of what to do about it. The dashboard has become a place to look, not a tool to decide.
Start with the decision
List the five decisions the team makes every month.
For each, name the one measure that would change the decision.
Show those measures, against their baseline, and nothing else on the first screen.
Everything else can live one click away. What matters is that the first screen answers the questions the meeting actually asks.
If a measure wouldn’t change a decision, it doesn’t belong on the first screen.
Illustrative sample data. Provan, its people, clients, figures and sources are fictional and shown for demonstration only.