In today’s data-driven world, dashboards are essential tools for business owners who want to make informed decisions quickly. But before you dive into building one, it’s important to plan it carefully to ensure that it actually helps you achieve your goals.
In this blog post, we’ll walk through a simple, effective process to plan a business dashboard — even if you don’t have a technical background.
✅ Step 1: Know Your Business Objectives
Ask yourself:
What business questions do I want to answer?
What problems am I trying to solve with this dashboard?
Examples:
Are sales increasing month over month?
How efficient is my customer service team?
What is our profit margin per product or region?
🎯 Tip: Your dashboard should help monitor your progress toward specific goals — like increasing revenue, reducing costs, or improving customer satisfaction.
✅ Step 2: Identify Your Target Audience
Who will be using this dashboard?
Owner/Executive: Needs high-level KPIs, trends, and risk alerts.
Manager: Wants team performance, task tracking, and operational insights.
Staff: Needs day-to-day activities and performance breakdown.
🎯 Tip: Tailor the dashboard to the user — don’t overload executives with detailed tables or frontline staff with charts they won’t use.
✅ Step 3: Choose the Right KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
Focus on measurable, actionable metrics. Too many KPIs lead to confusion. Too few may hide problems.
Examples:
Sales revenue
Cost per acquisition
Inventory turnover rate
Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
Project completion rate
🎯 Tip: Make sure every KPI is aligned with your business goals and easy to update regularly.
✅ Step 4: Define the Data Sources
Where is your data coming from?
Excel files
POS systems
CRM platforms (like Salesforce or HubSpot)
Accounting software (like Xero or QuickBooks)
🎯 Tip: Ensure your data is clean and consistent. A dashboard is only as good as the data behind it.
✅ Step 5: Sketch the Layout First
Before touching a tool like Power BI, Tableau, or Google Data Studio, sketch a rough layout on paper or using tools like Figma, Canva, or PowerPoint.
Common layout sections:
Top bar: KPIs / Summary metrics
Middle: Charts and trends (sales, profit, growth)
Bottom: Tables or detailed drill-downs
🎯 Tip: Place the most important information at the top or top-left (where the eye naturally starts).
✅ Step 6: Choose the Right Visualization Types
Line charts for trends over time
Bar/Column charts for comparisons
Pie charts only for showing parts of a whole (use sparingly)
Tables for detailed breakdowns
Gauges or cards for single values (like current sales or profit)
🎯 Tip: Avoid fancy visuals if they make the dashboard harder to read. Simplicity wins.
✅ Step 7: Think About Interactivity
Dashboards should let users filter by date, region, team, or product.
Questions to ask:
Should I allow users to drill into product categories?
Do I need filters for different branches or departments?
Should users compare data from different time periods?
🎯 Tip: Interactivity adds value, but only when it helps the user — don’t overdo it.
✅ Step 8: Review and Iterate
Once your first version is ready:
Share it with the target users
Ask what they like or what’s missing
Iterate based on feedback
🎯 Tip: Dashboards are not “set it and forget it” tools. Update and improve them regularly as your business grows.
Final Thoughts
As a business owner, you don’t need to be a data expert to benefit from a well-designed dashboard. But you do need to think strategically about what you want to see, why it matters, and how often you’ll use it.
A good dashboard brings clarity. A great dashboard brings action.