Our consultants are often asked to help with creating a dashboard view in TimeControl’s Dashboard module.  (That’s a picture of the TimeControl dashboard in the post, right here.)

Over the years, we’ve tended to ask a few common questions that often has our client pause and then say they’d like to think about their request some more.  The problem isn’t technical.  Nor is it a process problem.  The issue comes from not thinking about what a dashboard is for and how it can be used.  Here are a few basic questions about what you’d like to display:

1. In what way does this indicator reflect some corporate strategy?
Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean that it is meaningful.  Is this indicator something that will move the organization forward if it shows something to you?

2. Is the Key Performance Indicator actionable. 
We will ask something simple for example, “If this indicator is green, what action, if any, will you take?  If the indicator is red, what action, if any, will you take?” and so on.  If the traffic light is red, we stop.   If it’s green, we go.  That is something we understand in traffic.  What is the business equivalent here?

3. Is the KPI measurable?
Do you actually have a measure that shows what the performance indicator is about?  Is it a measure that can be counted on?  How often is it measured?

4. What about timing?
Many people will ask for “real-time” dashboards.  That’s easy to demonstrate but hard to make a difference with.  “What action will you take based on this indicator?” we will ask.  “How often are you prepared to make that decision?  Hourly?  Minute-by-minute?  Daily?  Weekly?  Virtually no one says hourly.

There’s a lot more to creating a dashboard than just making it pretty and picking out awesome icons.  I wrote a much longer article about this over on my EPM Guidance site some 14 years ago but the logic still applies.  The article was an offshoot of a project management presentation I’d done.  You can find it at: https://www.epmguidance.com/2010/04/28/the-keys-to-key-performance-indicators/.