Does your business need a dashboard? I believe every business should have at least one!
For an aircraft, the dashboard consists of the dials and lights spread throughout the cockpit. These provide vital information to the pilot(s) such as engine status, altitude, airspeed, and heading, just to name a few.
Similarly, the dashboard in most cars contains critical information about the operation of the car – fuel status, speed, engine temperature, oil pressure, etc.
A dashboard is simply a summary of useful information. Dashboards in your business help you focus on the things that are most important to the business – the ‘Key Performance Indicators’ (KPIs).
You might argue it’s possible to fly a plane or drive a car without any fancy indicators. Sure, but you also then would have an increased chance of running out of fuel or experiencing engine failure that you could have been alerted to with the right indicators. The more complicated the equipment (or business), the more important it is to have summarized critical information at a glance.
Dashboards can be maintained on an office whiteboard, bulletin board, in Excel, or an interactive website. Done properly, a dashboard acts as an accountability tool, ensuring appropriate personnel are making progress toward stated business goals. But before a dashboard can be effective:
- Business goals must exist
- KPIs must have been developed
- The dashboard must have been established
- All necessary employees need to know how they can affect KPIs
- The dashboard must be reviewed and acted upon with regularity
More complex businesses may have departmental or divisional dashboards that roll up into an overall company dashboard, but each dashboard is populated with KPIs relevant to that area.
I recently helped a small business create their first dashboard. They had struggled for years, trying to grow their business without visibility to important growth/sales data. Now, they’ll be able to tell at a glance, each day or week, if they’re on the right track, rather than waiting for quarterly or annual reports.
So how do you establish KPIs? There really isn’t a magic formula. It’s highly dependent on a number of business factors – a startup may have very different goals than an established business. Ultimately, KPIs are unique to your circumstances and each KPI should be directly tied to a primary business goal.
What are your business goals?
What are your KPIs?
How effective is your dashboard?
If you’re stuck with any of the above questions, or if you’d like help establishing goals, prioritizing KPIs, or designing an effective dashboard, feel free to reach out and we can set up a time to discuss.