The X Advantages of Building a Dashboard From Scratch
Most business owners already understand the importance of having dashboards tracking metrics related to the business. With a solid dashboard, you can keep an eye on the performance metrics that matter most to your business, critically analyzing them and using them as information to make better informed decisions on behalf of the business. You can also use them to generate reports and visualize data, so you can communicate it better to stakeholders, partners, and other authorities.
But why rely on a static dashboard that someone already created? Creating a custom dashboard, rather than relying on one that already exists, can be massively beneficial for your business – and in several ways.
Why Custom Dashboards Are Beneficial
These are just some of the advantages you’ll enjoy with a custom dashboard:
- Visibility into the metrics that matter. Your existing dashboard might give you a glimpse of some of the important metrics you need. Or it might have a smattering of both important and unimportant metrics. But it’s not going to have all the metrics that matter and only the metrics that matter in one place. If you build your own dashboard from the ground up, you’ll have total control over what’s there – and all the visibility you need.
- A better analysis. With the right dashboard in place, you’ll be afforded an opportunity for better data analysis. You’ll have numbers and visuals above the fold that tell the story you need to know – and built-in tools to help you answer critical questions you might have. Ultimately, that leads you to better decision-making.
- Time savings. You don’t have to waste time sorting through metrics that aren’t relevant to your business, and all the information you need is going to be immediately apparent to you. Accordingly, you’ll spend less time creating reports, wading through data, and other tedious activities.
- Less stress and attrition. You and all your employees using this custom dashboard should experience less stress and attrition. You’ll be less frustrated because the dashboard will work exactly the way you want it to. That can lead to higher morale and higher confidence throughout the entire team.
- Aesthetic value. Let’s face it. Some dashboards are simply ugly. But if you’re in full control of the layout and design of the dashboard, you’ll have the power to make it aesthetically pleasing. It’s a small and somewhat subjective factor, but an important one nonetheless.
- Higher productivity. Imagine how much more productive your team will be when they have access to a dashboard that eliminates the “fat” from most dashboards – and gives them only the data they need the most. Each moment you spend using the dashboard will be more valuable.
- Greater profitability. Ultimately, a combination of these effects will allow your company to be more profitable. You’ll spend less time and less effort while making more informed all-around decisions for your business.
How to Get Started
So how can you get started building your own dashboard?
First, you need to find a tool that allows you to create your own dashboard – or at least modify a dashboard that already exists. Alternatively, you can hire a custom software developer or work with a development firm to build one from the ground up.
From there, you’ll need to answer the following questions:
- What’s wrong with other dashboards? Figure out what it is that you don’t like about other dashboards. Are they clunky and poorly organized? Are they simply not giving you access to the metrics you need most?
- Which metrics are most important to you? What are your KPIs or what other metrics are important to your business? Why are they important? How should they best be presented?
- How much flexibility will you need? How are your business’s needs going to change over time? How rapidly does your business or industry go through changes? How much flexibility will you need to incorporate?
- How should your dashboard look? This is a subjective factor, but it’s worth exploring. What kind of layout will be best for your reports, both from an aesthetic and functional perspective? What types of visuals will be most effective and what kind of color scheme do you want to use?
- What should your reporting be like? Finally, how concise and convenient should your reporting be? Are you interested in reducing the high-level information to be compressed to a single page? Do you want certain reports to be generated automatically?
It’s hard to answer these questions, especially if you’re new to the world of dashboard creation. But if you can answer them confidently and invest in a custom dashboard tool, you’ll give yourself the power to make better, faster business decisions indefinitely.