Dashboard Example: Dashboard Metrics and KPIs. A simple but interesting approach to figuring out your core key performance indicators comes in the form of this kpi development checklist and sample Excel Dashboard Template from Stacey Barr.

It’s even got hints as to whether you should delegate each task or tackle it yourself.

Core KPI Checklist

1. Choose just one result that’s important to your business. [Don't delegate this.]
2. Decide the best way for you to measure that result, and how frequently. [Don't delegate this.]
3. Look for the data for that measure, or get it as easily as you can. Get as much history as you can, too, to have an instant time series. [Delegate this.]
4. Set up a routine to capture the data in a simple spreadsheet. [Delegate this.]
5. Set up a graph in the spreadsheet that automatically updates with new data as it’s added. [Delegate this.]
6. Review your measure for a few weeks, until you find a way to make it improve. [Don't delegate this.]
7. Go back to step 1, to choose another result.

Here is her Simple Excel Dashboard Template.

Over at the http://www.enterprise-dashboard.com blog, I cover the Michigan Government Performance Dashboard. It’s a fascinating project that even involved the Governor touting the business performance dashboard as part of the State of the State address.

What I thought I’d focus on here is an artifact from that government dashboard project that I stumbled upon online. It’s a sample dashboard that the Michigan Government Performance Dashboard team published as a recommended local government dashboard. Take a look at this screenshot:

Now take a look at how they used this for their own performance dashboard layout:

You can view the latest performance dashboard by visiting the Michigan Dashboard at http://www.michigan.gov/midashboard

Excellent thoughts here from Dashboard Spy reader, Terry Brown (Director of Marketing at Klipfolio.com). His article is particularly helpful for KPI dashboard builders.

Anatomy of a KPI: From Raw Number to Clarity

The use of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is an integral part of business intelligence. The careful definition and use of a KPI, enable a business or department to monitor its progress against these goals.

Let’s use a simple scenario to take a raw number and turn it into a KPI that is concise, clear and has meaning.

Consider the finance department within a company. One of the key objectives is to reduce the amount of outstanding invoices to increase cash flow.

The overall objective is refined to: Reduce outstanding payables over 30 days to less than $30k.

They wish to compare the current metric to the historical average to indicate movement; trending up, down or unchanged.

We now have a KPI that is not simply a number; we’ve added meaning and insight without adding complexity. Where the above KPI is mean for at-a-glance awareness, tooltips and hover-over states can provide additional context to the metric as seen in step 5.

This example highlights the key characteristics of a KPI: it is relevant and associated with a high-level goal for the company; it can be measured as a numeric value, one that provides context, from an operational system. It is tied to a group/departments activity; they are accountable to take action to keep the KPI within the identified thresholds.

Alternative visualizations of the above

There is significant research regarding which metrics matter to specific industries. However, it is important to understand that the performance indicators that are key for an individual organization cannot be dictated by an out-of-the-box solution. They vary depending on the industry, the functional area of the company, and the unique needs and focus of the organization. Contact us at Klipfolio.

There’s a new web/mobile version of Klipfolio Dashboard coming out. And you may be able to get in as a beta tester. This is important news in the business dashboard community so I’m going to repeat it and drop the link for you again.

And, yes, I’m proud to say that The Dashboard Spy was the first to leak news of the upcoming beta.

I caught wind of it and communicated with Allan Wille. While I’m not at liberty to give more concrete details, I can tell you that it there is a chance to get in on the public beta test of this new revolutionary dashboard product.

Go to this page and you’ll see some links to check out. I’ve signed up there hoping to get into the beta and I suggest you do the same.

http://www.klipfolio.com/kpi-dashboard/beta

Enuf said. This is going to be hot.

Hubert
The Dashboard Spy

From this post about a media convergence dashboard comes an interesting screenshot showing a fascinating use of an executive dashboard as part of an interactive television type of experience. Can enterprise dashboards replace TV? Take a look at this dashboard screenshot. Sorry for the small size – visit the source dashboarding blog directly for a much larger screenshot.

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A dashboard spy reader pinged me last week for an example of a map driven enterprise dashboard. His business unit was considering integration of a GIS system into their dashboard reporting system And wanted some examples of current map driven dashboards that he could examine in a hands-on manner. He wanted an introduction dashboard, and not some lame demo. He just wrote me thanking me for the resource I pointed him to and I wanted to share it with you.

Take a look at the approach that the US federal government took with their Recovery.gov dashboard. Significant portions of it are strongly integrated with maps and allows the user to drill down all the way to the street and address level as well as flip between funding, aerial and street map views.

You will definitely want to try out this dashboard for yourself. Use this link:

http://www.recovery.gov

Take a look at this next screenshot and you’ll see that the recovery.gov homepage is itself a dashboard. It’s not apparent when you go there as they have a slick looking graphic at the top but scroll down on the page and you’ll see that there is a very nicely designed business dashboard layout in use.

This dashboard is a major tool in the federal government’s watchdog program that encourages transparency in government spending. While the data has been questioned as of late, it’s still an extraordinary use of technology to keep taxpayers in the loop as to how their money is spent. I encourage all business dashboard project team members and dashboard users to take a look at this dashboard example.

Want to play a game with The Dashboard Spy and Information Visualization expert Stephen Few? In his blog post, The Billion Pound-o-Gram Redesigned, he takes a stab at redesigning a pretty well known chart by David McCandless.

Take a look at the original chart here:

Here is how it appeared in Guardian.co.uk’s Information is Beautiful Friday:

The Billion Pound-o-Gram

289 billion spent on this. 400 billion spent on that. When money reaches this level it literally becomes mind- boggling.

Yet these figures are regularly issued by the government – and the media – as if they are self-evident facts that everyone understands.

Frustrated by this, I created The Billion Pound-O-Gram. It’s a cousin of the Billion Dollar-O-Gram.

In this version, I’ve mixed up of 2008/09 figures from the Treasury and the Guardian. Visualising the numbers like this puts them in visual context, making them easier to relate to.

I was pretty shocked by the size of the UK budget deficit – essentially the country’s overdraft. It’s more than an entire year’s worth of income tax.

So, now for the game. Stephen Few has redesigned the graph. Take a look at his version:

Here is what he had to say:

All of these comparisons are incredibly simple to make using the bar graph below. Take a minute to notice how easy it is to see the relationships between these values from largest to smallest and to compare them. Notice especially how easy it is to compare each of the values with the budget deficit, which appears as the vertical black reference line.

In the bar graph, I stuck with the colors that McCandless chose to make it easy to compare his chart with mine, except that I tweaked a few colors a bit to resolve minor problems. In McCandless’ chart, some colors stand out more than others, but they should be equal in salience unless there’s a reason to feature some items over others. Also, for some unknown reason McCandless sometimes altered a single color from rectangle to rectangle, which serves no purposes and creates potential confusion. For example, notice that some of the green rectangles are lighter than others, yet they all represent “Earning.”

I can’t imagine anyone seriously arguing that McCandless’ chart communicates this information as well as the alternative above, but is his chart more engaging? Some folks might find it more engaging purely on the level of entertainment, but not in a way that encourages or supports meaningful consideration of the information, resulting in optimal understanding. Journalism should tell the story truthfully and clearly.

So, which version do you like and why?

Hubert Lee
The Dashboard Spy

Today’s Xcelsius Dashboard Example features a benchmarking approach to medical practice performance management. This web-based xcelsius dashboard allows healthcare practices to enter values related to their physician compensation and production metrics. After selecting the medical specialty and entering the KPI information, the dashboard displays the practice’s ranking as compared to industry benchmarks.

Take a look at this dashboard screenshot. Visit the actual dashboard: Physician Compensation and Production Dashboard. The dashboard is a free web offerring from MGMA – Medical Group Management Association.

Here is a Dashboard Spy video of the doctor compensation dashboard in action:

Interested in the metrics contained in this healthcare dashboard? Click the Read more link:

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Dashboard Spy readers will need to get out their magnifying glasses out for this chart example. Talk about a complicated flow chart!

Based on the classic flow diagram style of charting, we have entities (with different shapes indicating state) of different types and various styles of connecting lines.

Here’s the link to the original. It’s at the U.S. senate site:

New Health Care System Diagram

And here’s a preview screenshot.

Oh, and, before you ask, No, it’s NOT a joke. Your tax dollars at work!

A Dashboard Spy reader wrote me asking about social media dashboards.

I sent him to check out this post titled:
Top 10 Social Media Dashboards

Here’s an excerpt:

One of the things we often hear from nonprofits and social enterprises is: How do I manage the torrent of social media conversations coming at me?

The answer used to be: Painstakingly and one conversation at a time. But a new crop of social media tools aims to tamp down the social media gusher by letting you update, monitor, manage and maintain several communication outlets at once. (While it’s sometimes hard to know what counts as a social media dashboard, we’re not including a wide range of customer relationship management (CRM) or social media monitoring tools here.)

When selecting a dashboard for personal or professional use, you should consider such items as cost, analytics and which social networks they support, among other things. Our list is meant to feature some of the breakout social media dashboards in the space and highlight their distinguishing features to make the selection process a bit easier.

Here are 10 of our favorite social media dashboard tools: