Dashboard Dread: When Leaders Want Insights But Get Noise
READ TIME - 5 MINUTES
“Can we pull up the dashboard?” asked Carmen, the Div Head, as laptops snapped open and the room settled.
Ethan clicked, and up flashed a mosaic of charts: KPIs, gauges, trend lines, colour-coded widgets.
It looked impressive… and A LOT.
Carmen squinted. “Right. So… what changed since last week? And what do you need from me today?”
Ethan hesitated. “Well, if you look at the bottom right quadrant-no, the other right-you’ll see system usage for Region B dipped, but sentiment… um… hang on, where did that filter go?”
A few people leaned back, quietly relieved they weren’t the ones presenting.
Carmen closed her notebook, looking disappointed. “Team, I don’t need everything. I need to know what’s shifted, what you need from me, and what’s coming next. Can we try that next week?”
Yikes.
Why Dashboards Can Miss The Mark
Dashboards are just like kitchen junk drawers: every useful thing ends up thrown in “just in case.”
So often, we see that over time, they stop being decision tools and become scrolling galleries.
Leaders won’t hunt for insights; they expect insights to be obvious.
If they can’t see what changed and what you want from them in under 10 seconds, you’ll lose them.
If your dashboards have become overwhelming, here’s an easy idea to try:
The One-Page Decision View
The idea is to create a single, scannable page with just three tiles.
This bad boy is built for decision-making, not data sightseeing.
The tiles should be:
Tile 1: What changed this week
Tile 2: What needs a decision
Tile 3: What’s trending next
That’s it.
Everything else goes to an appendix link or tab (deep-dive for analysts and curious minds).
Why it works:
Cognitive load: People process three chunks quickly; beyond that, attention drops.
Executive time: Leaders make better decisions with crisp context and a clear ask.
Accountability: If a decision is visible every week until resolved, it gets resolved.
How to do it:
1. Define your three tiles
What changed this week: Make this 3 bullets max, plain language, direction and magnitude. Example: “Region B system usage down 7% w/w due to login errors post patch.”
What needs a decision: 1-3 explicit asks, each with options and a recommended path. Example: “Approve 2-week extension for training in Region B (Rec: Approve).”
What’s trending next: Here, add 1-3 leading indicators to watch; what may require action soon. Example: “Helpdesk tickets shifting from access to workflow questions. Content refresh likely.”
2. Set the rules of brevity
One page, no scrolling.
No more than three bullets per tile.
Visuals only if they clarify the point (a single sparkline beats a grid of charts).
3. Establish the cadence
Share the page 24 hours before the meeting in the agreed channel (Teams/Slack/whichever collab platform your people are on) and pin it.
Open the meeting with Tiles 1-3, then only dive into the appendix if asked.
End with decisions captured in writing (include owner + due date).
4. Build the appendix once, reuse often
Can you set it up so that it links to a “deep dive” dashboard with filters pre-set to match your tiles?
Keep historical back there in the “deep dive”; don’t clutter the one-pager with backstory.
Pro tip: Write the “What needs a decision” Tile first every week.
If you don’t have a clear ask, you may not need the meeting (how exciting!), or you need to sharpen your analysis.
The Bottom Line
Look, dashboards shouldn’t be museums of metrics; they’re decision tools.
When you strip down to what changed, what you need, and what’s next, leaders can act - and your work moves faster with less back-and-forth.
That’s it for this week.
Next Tuesday, we’ll tackle how to handle critically important but deeply un‑trusting external stakeholders - when you’ve tried everything, you’re out of runway, and you still need a way forward (eek! We’ve all been there!).
Don’t miss it!
See you then,
Team EVER
PS: Someone pass this on to you?
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