Inquiry on How to Start a Dashboard Project

[Doug H]

I’m doing some research for an blog post and wanted to get some input on Excel dashboard creation... more specifically not the execution of the creation but on the planning and development of it. This would fit the scenario where someone on the leadership team says “Let’s put together a dashboard!” and has appointed you the person to do that. What are some of the things you would consider doing to start off this project?

I’ve got some ideas that this would involve eliciting requirements from your stakeholders, facilitate some wire framing sessions and such but would like some perspective from others. Thanks in advance.

 

[oldbrewer]

get together the boss, some of his/her direct reports and ask them

what do we want to measure
how will we measure it/them to provide good quality data
how will we analyse the data
how will we report the data
do we really need a dashboard
could we just use charts
can dashboards be misleading
are we going to have targets against some or all of the measures
are we all aware that targets always drive up costs
has anybody in the room heard the term "systems thinking" ?

 

[Caleeco]

I have set up a few dashboards, and they all vary in their output...

Some things to consider
1. Who is my target Audience?
2. Who will this be used by?
3. What do I want to measure? (metrics/KPIs)
4. How are these metrics going to be presented? numbers? charts?
5. What level of granularity is needed (see point 1 & 2) ie. weekly, daily summaries etc
6. Do NOT use 3D charts
7. Aesthetics go a long way to compliment good data

Your dashboard will be specific to you and your team (in terms of the data to be shown), but if you google "How to create a dashboard" you can find lots of good examples.

Thanks
Caleeco

 

[Caleeco]

one more thing... pivot tables, pivot charts and slicers are excellent tools for dashboards :D

 

[Doug H]

Thanks Caleeco and oldbrewer for your insights on my question. It helped validate some of the things I’ve thought about. I’ve written a blog post about the pre-work involved in creating an Excel dashboard. Here’s some main points:

- considered the purpose of this dashboard like what’s it going to accomplish and the group of folks it’ll really support
- put it together by brainstorming it on paper or whiteboard (take a picture afterwards).
- figure out your KPIs or Key Performance Indicators.
- keep your key stakeholders in the loop
- put together a draft dashboard and test
- announce and then tell people it’s available (marketing!)

Even though it’s a bit over the top, I titled it “Don’t Build an Excel Dashboard Until You Read This” :-j

The full article is [URL="http://www.exceltraining101.com/2016/08/dont-build-an-excel-dashboard/"]here[/URL].