What makes a great Dashboard?

by David Ledger

Organisations often struggle with the challenge of providing the right information to the right people in a format that is suitable to help them measure, monitor and manage their areas of the business.

Here are some of the common pitfalls to avoid when considering your own Dashboard implementation.

Example screenshot of a customised PREO™ Dashboard

Keep it Simple...

Simple uncluttered representation of "relevant" information helps businesses identify issues earlier (both good and bad) and helps drive the appropriate behaviour needed to constantly improve their bottom line.

Data is rarely the issue...

Lack of data is usually not the issue - the data is there... somewhere.

Often it is inaccessible to everyone who needs it or the same data ends up being created multiple times by different people across the organisation. This leads to user frustration and multiple versions of the truth!

A Dashboard helps to avoid this situation by becoming the visible interface for all key stakeholders (one version of the truth).

Just give me what I need...

OK, the data is available to those who need it, but it is presented poorly or critical data is hidden in a million other sets of data. As a result, the recipient is unable to identify the critical information or determine what the data it is trying to tell them.

Introducing a Dashboard forces the removal of extraneous data and provides the viewer with information that they can extract meaning from and base actionable decisions on.

Talk to me...

Data is made available in a format which the user is expected to manipulate or decipher trends from. This incorrectly assumes that decision makers are all black belt business analyst (we have never seen that!).

It is critical that the data is presented in a way that "talks" to the recipient with no possibility of misinterpretation or (ideally) manipulation!

Where is the Budget data?...

The relevance of information is often lost because there is no point of reference. "Are those sales figures good or bad?" ..."what results were we expecting this month?"

Always make sure to reference the data so the viewer can immediately tell if a result is good, bad, improving or declining.

Keep it Relevant...

Individuals in an organisation need information that is relevant to them in order that they can measure, monitor and manage their areas of responsibility.  That's all they need (or want) to see!

Make sure it is relevant.  Less is usually more.  That's it!

PREO™ Dashboards have been used in the following contexts;

• Senior Executive Business Scorecards
• Sales and Marketing Dashboards
• Representative Incentive Scheme Dashboards
• Campaign Management Dashboards
• Pre-marketing Scorecards
• Brand launch Scorecards

Example screenshot from a PREO™ Dashboard, illustrating Metric Status and Trend information alongside results, budgets and variance data.

About Vedere Group

Vedere Group help clients improve revenue and profitability through improvements in sales and marketing performance. Vedere Group provide a range of Reporting Suite Performance Reporting Services, Profiling & Segmentation software, Performance Scorecard software, Strategic Sales & Marketing Consultancy services and Strategic Data Analysis services to the Pharmaceutical industry.

About the Author

David Ledger is Managing Director of Vedere Group. David has 18 years experience consulting to and working within the pharmaceutical industry. After heading up the global sales and marketing effectiveness group for a top 10 Pharma company based in Europe, David set up his own company in 2000 to help clients improve revenue and profitability through sales and marketing performance improvement. Over the last 6+ years, in addition to working with all of the top 10 international R&D companies, David has achieved accolades for twice winning New Zealand Exporter of the Year (Services & Emerging categories) and Deloitte Top 50 fastest growing company in New Zealand.