Introduction
Businesses with well-designed dashboards are significantly more likely to achieve their goals. But dashboards aren't just about throwing metrics on a screen—they should align strategy, drive behavior, and deliver results. This guide explores how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can create effective dashboards to fuel success.
Understanding the Role of Metrics in Dashboard Design
Every Metric is a KPI, But Not Every KPI is a Metric
Metrics play a crucial role in dashboard design, but it's important to differentiate between general metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). As stated in the podcast:
"Every metric is a KPI, but not every KPI is a metric."
Businesses must select metrics based on organizational strategy, ensuring alignment from the executive level down to individual contributors.
Start with Organizational Strategy
When selecting metrics, begin with your company’s overall goals for the year, quarter, month, or week. Executive KPIs should trickle down into departmental and individual contributor metrics. As noted in the podcast:
"If we’re starting with an executive KPI or an executive rock to increase annual revenue by 20%, there could be a sales team metric that supports that KPI."
Balancing Monetary and Non-Monetary Metrics
Effective dashboards integrate both revenue-driven KPIs and non-monetary metrics such as customer success and engagement.
"We need to focus on metrics that matter, but also balance monetary—so, revenue—with non-monetary, like customer success."
A holistic view ensures businesses focus not only on revenue but also on factors that drive long-term growth.
Structuring Dashboards for Team Alignment
Creating a Single Pane of Glass
To ensure alignment across an organization, dashboards should be structured to provide a unified view of performance. Different levels of dashboards include:
- Executive Dashboards – High-level KPIs tracking overall business performance.
- Departmental Dashboards – Metrics that align with departmental goals and contribute to executive KPIs.
- Individual Contributor Metrics – Actionable metrics reflecting daily performance, such as conversion rates or lead generation.
As mentioned in the podcast:
"We’re really trying to create a single pane of glass for the organization."
Ensuring Consistency Across Dashboards
All dashboards should pull data from the same source, ensuring consistency from individual contributor reports to executive dashboards. For example, a marketing executive tracking campaign ROI should align with team-level open rates and lead generation data.
"You should have consistency from the metrics that you have at the individual all the way up to the executive dashboards."
Avoiding Dashboard Overload
Instead of creating a separate dashboard for each individual, focus on role-based views with shared data governance. This minimizes dashboard sprawl and ensures data consistency across teams.
Selecting the Right Dashboard Tools
Importance of Centralized Dashboarding
To reduce confusion, dashboards should be centralized, certified, and governed at the executive level. Many teams work within different platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, or other CRM tools, but consolidating dashboards prevents fragmented data insights.
"These dashboards really should be centralized, certified, and governed at the executive level."
Recommended Dashboarding Tools
- Looker (for Google users): Native to Google, Looker provides powerful dashboarding capabilities with role-based access.
- Power BI (for Microsoft users): Integrated into Microsoft subscriptions, Power BI is an effective solution for businesses using Microsoft tools.
- Tableau: A widely adopted, scalable solution that connects with various data sources and offers deep customization.
Ensuring Web and Mobile Access
Access to dashboards should be seamless across devices. Mobile-friendly dashboards enable teams to make data-driven decisions on the go.
Training Teams to Use Dashboards Effectively
Avoiding the Excel Trap
Many teams still rely on spreadsheets for calculations, leading to errors and inefficiencies. Instead, training employees to rely on centralized dashboards ensures they use accurate, real-time data.
"We want to avoid the Excel and back-of-the-napkin math trap and train teams to rely on dashboards as that source of truth."
Case Study: Replacing Ad Hoc Spreadsheets with a Unified Dashboard
A SaaS company replaced 15 ad hoc spreadsheets with a unified Looker dashboard, reducing errors, improving clarity, and increasing adoption. This streamlined the commission calculation process, eliminating the need for manual data exports and approvals.
"We worked with a SaaS company to help replace, gosh, like 15 ad hoc spreadsheets across their sales organization."
Encouraging Adoption Through Simplicity
Dashboards should be user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to understand. Mobile access, clear visualizations, and embedded dashboards in team meetings enhance usability.
Implementing Feedback Loops and Governance
Gathering Feedback for Continuous Improvement
Regular feedback ensures dashboards remain relevant and actionable. Teams should assess:
- Are the dashboards providing the necessary insights?
- Are there missing data points that could enhance decision-making?
"We need to implement regular feedback loops to ensure that the dashboards are user-friendly, to ensure that they are driving action."
Avoiding Overloaded Dashboards
Dashboards should focus on the most impactful metrics per department and role. Too many metrics create confusion and dilute strategic focus.
"One of the things we see a lot is that a lot of dashboards are just overloaded with too many metrics."
Maintaining Dashboard Governance
A structured approach to dashboard maintenance prevents outdated or irrelevant data from cluttering decision-making processes. Regular updates ensure continued alignment with organizational goals.
"If you can set up a rhythm of creating, modifying, and updating these dashboards over time, you'll create a lot less confusion and a lot more clarity."
Conclusion
Well-structured dashboards align teams on strategy, reduce data fragmentation, and drive the right behaviors. However, dashboards must be actively used, trained on, and iteratively improved to maintain effectiveness.
"So many companies have dashboards that they create and get really excited about, and then they just start collecting dust because nobody uses them."
By focusing on role-based access, departmental consistency, and governance, SMBs can leverage dashboards to become more profitable, growth-oriented businesses in 2025.
