Good Dashboards Inform. Great Dashboards Align.
Dashboards don’t have to be data dumpsters. At their best, they are a monument to what matters within the organization.
When we think of dataviz in the workplace, we’re usually thinking of Tableau and Looker dashboards, designed to make everyone smart and support big, strategic decisions. But there’s another overlooked benefit of visualizing an organization’s data: the power to align.
Every organization struggles to keep members aligned around a common purpose. Brilliant strategy and customer insights are useless if everyone is rowing in different directions. Goal setting and OKRs go a long way toward accomplishing this, but this is where the humble dashboard can really shine.
One of the more common uses for dashboards is visualizing a team’s recent performance. This might include a sales team’s pipeline vs. win / loss. It might show a field service team’s recent site-visits v.s. first-time-fix rates. Or for a product team, perhaps it’s user engagement for recent launches.
