Just search Google or Pinterest for ‘Dashboard’ and ‘Google material design’ and you get one mouth-watering dashboard design after the other. Sparklines, circle diagrams, stacked bars, trends graphs. You’re getting spoiled!
Well – if it is about strategy dashboard – you’re getting bamboozled! Think with me for a moment…
1.
Implementing a strategy is something that concerns the entire organization so this dashboard is replicated/personalized per department, location, job role, etc.
2.
For the responsible managers in these departments, locations etc. strategy is a non-routine thing. That means there is always a lack of experience and context to put numbers into perspective.
3.
Therefore, the dashboards should provide the context and self-interpret the numbers. New technologies like pattern recognition and machine learning can do that. Hence, context trumps the numbers itself.
4.
Your car’s display says “It’s time for service.”. Based on a lot of numbers it just provides context. Only context and no numbers. And it passes the Shouldido-test. “What Should I Do?” (go to my dealer for a check-up).
It’s highly likely that every organizational dashboard you have at your disposal FAILS the Shouldido-test.
Just numbers. No context. No instruction. No prescriptive analytics.
A strategy dashboard that PASSES the Shouldido test explains – for example – where to curb/stimulate team ambitions, what to change in your target setting to boost organizational alignment, which change management style works best for Dept. 3, on what priorities to focus in Division B and who to connect to whom to foster knowledge sharing and to stop reinventing the wheel. All context. No numbers.