So, we thought we’d give you a few tips to help you get comfortable with planning your dashboard build. Specifically, we’re going to answer three questions before we build our dashboard: “who? what? and how?”

Check out our 5 minute video tutorial here:

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Before you start building your dashboard, you should be able to answer three questions:

  1. Who is this dashboard for?
  2. What is this dashboard trying to accomplish?
  3. How can I build this dashboard?

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1. Who is this dashboard for?

  • Does your audience already know what you’re talking about?
  • Do you need to add more context to help make your point?

Actions:

  • Think about what context your audience will need and add this to your dashboard. For example, any acronyms that will need clarifying or if an increase in a number is a good or bad thing.

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2. What is this dashboard trying to accomplish?

  • Once your audience has seen the dashboard, do you want them to:
    1. take an action?
    2. know something they didn’t know before?
  • What information do they need to take an action/be informed?

Actions:

  • Write out a clear summary of your dashboard’s purpose (and add it to your dashboard’s description!)
  • Write an outline of the questions you want answered in your dashboard’s tiles. Start thinking about the story you’re trying to tell to your audience.

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3. How can I build this dashboard?

  • What data do I have?
  • How can I use it to make my point?

Actions:

  • Match datasets to the outline of questions you made in the step above.
  • Think about which metrics + dimensions you’ll use to make your points (and if these exist yet)
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