Dashboredom
A term originally coined by Aaron Hursman in a December 2010 article for Information Management, Dashboredom is running rampant through conference rooms around the world.
What is Dashboredom? Dashboards that bore. That don’t capture meaningful metrics that truly describe the health of the business. That simply serve to allow managers to CYA (I don’t need to spell that one out for you, do I?).
Don’t get me wrong – dashboards can be a useful tool, when concocted thoughtfully. Instead of crafting lengthy spreadsheets that creep ever larger over time, the most innovative organizations are re-working their dashboards into more of a cockpit model, with just a few vital indicators.
Mu Sigma’s belief is that dashboards must evolve to be more actionable and forward looking. Often we help clients through the process of selecting the right indicators by using System Dynamics as a framework. This method, based on stock-flow diagrams, helps teams visualize data flows and the impact data elements have on one another. Client feedback has been extremely positive, and the resulting dashboards are far from boring – instead they encapsulate the most impactful KPIs for the organization.
For more on this topic, see our article from the May/June issue of Analytics Magazine.