How to Build a Successful Dashboard

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A practical guide to building effective dashboards by understanding audience needs, defining goals, selecting the right metrics, and keeping visualizations simple.

As a data analytics expert, you will be asked to build many dashboards and reports. I have built hundreds of dashboards, but not all of them were successful. Some of the stand out and still are in use by hundreds of user over last few years.

It is painful when you spend hours building a dashboard, only to find that after a few days it is no longer used. So, how do you build a dashboard that users actually love?

Who needs it? – Audience

Who is the audience? Who is requesting it? Who will be checking this dashboard regularly? What other dashboards are they using? Are they C-suite executives, salespeople, directors, students, or teachers?

You need to identify and categorize your audience. It is always better to build for one specific group rather than multiple groups. The reason is simple: different audiences have different preferences and focus on different data and KPIs.

Specify and limit the user groups - for example, managers, teachers, or new employees.

Why do they need it? – Goals and Objectives

Understanding why they need this dashboard is critical. In some cases, they may not need a dashboard at all, but rather a simple data export with one dimension and one metric.

Clarify the purpose of the request. How will they use this dashboard? This understanding will help you decide how to structure the data and choose the right visualizations.

What do they need? – Metrics and Dimensions

Ask the audience what questions they need this dashboard to answer. For example:

• Is sales declining in a specific country or city?
• How does performance change by month or day?
• What is the NPS score by product or team?

Create a list of dimensions (product, brand, country, year, month, day, hour, etc.). You can have many dimensions, but choose them together with the audience.

Decide which dimensions belong in charts or tables and which should be placed in filters.

Dashboards with more than two metrics are overwhelming and confusing. Select one or two key metrics, such as Sales Amount, Spend Amount, or Number of Orders - one primary KPI and one secondary metric.

How to visualize? – Keep it simple

Choose simple charts with clear breakdowns and reference lines. Users should quickly be able to answer key questions such as: Are we doing well or not?

Include comparisons with previous time periods or benchmarks to clearly show growth or decline. Use a maximum of two colors in charts to avoid visual noise.

Final Tips

• Involve users at every step. They are your customers.
• Build what they need, not what you personally prefer.
• Use no more than two metrics.
• Identify key dimensions and move the rest to filters.
• Start with KPIs and include comparisons to previous periods or benchmarks.
• Prioritize simplicity above all else.