Making Informed Decisions: Guidelines for Creating an Effective Dashboard
summary
A practical process for dashboards: determine data scope first with a data element matrix, then whiteboard measures and dimensions, create a query mock-up spreadsheet, and build an Excel prototype (uses RAND/RANDBETWEEN for dummy data and Exelsius-style exports) to gather interactive feedback before handing documented field names and sample rows to DB techs. Emphasizes top‑down (annual report → KPIs → diagnostic reports) versus bottom‑up approaches, color palettes from ColorBrewer, KPI Mega Library for metric ideas, and keeping navigation, segmentation and criteria selection simple.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Dashboard development intro
- 3:36Executive dashboard requests
- 7:49Whiteboarding best practices
- 10:33Strategic vs operational design
- 15:08Low-tech executive engagement
- 23:44Successful dashboard elements
- 24:04Query mock-ups for data teams
- 26:20Excel prototyping techniques
- 31:12Feedback on prototypes
- 32:17Dashboard workflow steps
- 33:43KPIs and design resources
- 35:47Q&A
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