How often is the data driving the dashboard updated?If the data on the dashboard isn’t getting updated on a regular basis, how useful is it?Snapshots in time are fine if you want to understand what happened when specific events occurred.And if that isn’t good enough and in my experience it never is… the data has to have regular updates.After all what good is knowing that 1% of your customers had issues with your products or services last quarter if that number is sitting at 5% so far this quarter?If you don’t know, you can’t even begin to ask what changed. And do you want to know that information after the quarter?After the quarter: 5% of customers having issuesAfter one month: 1.67% of customers having issuesAfter one week: .42% of customers having issuesCatching things that are causing major disruptions is the POINT of a dashboard.

Is the math even right? Did the person who put this on the dashboard know how to calculate this properly?This one seems obvious.And yet so many people that start making dashboards don’t understand math at all.They know enough to be dangerous.Take for example this statement…One third of our contacts in the CRM are duplicates.Tread carefully here because likely 50% of your contacts are duplicated!!!Does the dashboard report 33% or 50% and while 33% is HUGE. 50% should scare the crap out of you.Are 50% of those contacts getting double emails?Double phone calls?Think that looks like you know what you are doing or that you care?

Are these items important to day-to-day operations, are they important to the overall health of our organization, or are they important at all?Dashboards in your car report mission critical items. Speed, temperature, voltage, fuel level, distance traveled.What do your business dashboards measure?Does it relate to what you need to manage?You know the mantra…What gets measured gets managed.Right?Are you measuring mission critical business information or just some stuff that someone thought would be nice to know?The answer to that question can change your business forever.

Where is this data coming from?If you want to know what’s going on, the data has to come from a source that has a direct connection to the events.If you want to know about LinkedIn messaging and the data isn’t coming off of a direct LinkedIn feed… is it accurate? Is it up to date? Do you know?And if the answer to “Do you know?“ is “I don’t know.” That’s ok. AND it’s time to do something about it.

Why are we tracking this data?Tracking things makes us feel good because we are doing something.If you are tracking activity and it has no actual correlation to results…What’s the point?You have to know the point.What outcome are you measuring for?Start there.