Most dashboards are impressive.
They're colourful. Detailed. Full of charts.
They're also mostly useless.
Because they answer:
"What happened?"
But not:
"What should we do?"
Good KPIs should drive decisions.
Not decorate slides.
The common mistake
Too many metrics.
I regularly see:
- 40+ KPIs
- multiple dashboards
- different numbers in different places
- no one sure which is "right"
When everything is important, nothing is.
The rule of five
As a rough guide:
Each team should track no more than five core KPIs.
That's it.
Enough to show:
- performance
- risk
- capacity
- quality
- financial health
Anything beyond that becomes noise.
How to choose better KPIs
Ask three questions:
1. Can we influence it weekly?
If you can't change it soon, it's not operationally useful.
2. Does it drive behaviour?
If nobody acts differently because of it, drop it.
3. Is it trusted?
If the team doesn't believe the number, it's worthless.
Examples that work
Instead of:
- "Website visits"
Try:
- "Qualified leads per week"
Instead of:
- "Tasks completed"
Try:
- "Cycle time"
Instead of:
- "Total revenue only"
Try:
- "Revenue + gross margin"
Actionable > interesting.
Keep dashboards boring
This sounds counterintuitive.
But the best dashboards are simple:
- one screen
- clear targets
- red/green status
- trends over time
No hunting for insights.
They should be obvious at a glance.
One more tip: automate everything
Manual reporting:
- introduces errors
- wastes time
- reduces trust
If a KPI can't be automated, challenge whether it belongs on the dashboard.
Good measurement creates focus.
Focus creates progress.
Everything else is just decoration.
