Fill in the register and the rules below once, as a team. Everything here is a decision, not a rule handed down.
The rules
Four hold across every dashboard.- Every dashboard reads from the flat file. Not from a platform connector, not from a separate export. A dashboard on its own data source will eventually disagree with a report, and there is no way to settle which is right.
- Every number traces to a row in the data dictionary. A metric on a dashboard that isn’t defined anywhere is a metric being invented in public.
- Every dashboard has one named owner. Not a team. Dashboards with no owner are the ones that break silently and stay broken.
- Every dashboard answers a stated question. Written on the dashboard itself, so a viewer knows what it’s for and a reviewer can tell whether it still does its job.
The register
One row per dashboard. This is the list that gets reviewed. Examples use Doughnut Labs, a SaaS company that sells disruptive Doughnut Technology. Delete them and fill in your own.
Tiers match the KPI tiers in the dictionary. A dashboard mixing tier 1 outcomes with tier 3 diagnostics usually needs splitting, because the two have different audiences and different refresh needs.
Naming
A consistent name makes a dashboard findable in a tool that lists forty of them alphabetically. E.g.{account}_{scope}_{cadence}, lowercase with underscores: doughnutlabs_paid-media_daily. Scope is the area, not the tool. A dashboard named “Looker Studio copy 3” is a dashboard nobody will open.
Refresh and lag
Access
Broad view access is usually right. Broad edit access is how a shared dashboard acquires someone’s private filter.
Reviewing and retiring
Dashboards need maintenance in the opposite direction from most documents: the work is removing tiles, not adding them. At each review, per dashboard:- Does it still answer its stated question?
- Has anyone opened it this quarter? Most tools can tell you.
- Which tiles have not changed a decision in a quarter? Delete them.
- Do the numbers still match the flat file? Check one figure by hand.
- Is the owner still the right person, and still here?
Before you build a new one
Check the register first. Most requests for a new dashboard are answered by an existing one, or by adding a filter to it. A near-duplicate dashboard splits the audience and doubles the maintenance, in the same way a near-duplicate landing page splits traffic.Related resources
- Report writing concepts How to design what goes on a dashboard.
- Marketing reporting data dictionary Where every metric is defined.
- KPI definitions Which KPI a given piece of work is judged on.
- Flat file The single source every dashboard reads.
- Reporting best practices Why one source matters.