Are Your Dashboards and Reports Ignored?

You’ve spent countless hours preparing a great executive dashboard for your organization. After a few months, you realize that no one is using it.

While you don’t receive any complaints about the dashboard, you also don’t receive any praise. It may feel like a literal gut punch when you went to great efforts to deliver what the organization said was needed. 

The First Sign of a Problem

You should be concerned when no one is complaining or asking for dashboard modifications. When a dashboard is providing value, the users have improvement ideas or want to see even more information. You should strive for a functional dashboard that drives organizational action. When this happens, the business understands the value of being data-driven.

Three Most Common Reasons Dashboards Are Ignored

Here are the most common dashboard adoption issues – and how to overcome them.

• Your Dashboard is Beautiful But Not Useful
  Dashboards should contain vital information to the business. 
  • Does management routinely track this information?
  • Are you measuring what is needed or just using available data?
  • Were you asked to create this dashboard?
• Your Dashboard is Not Trustworthy or Timely
  Once a dashboard is made available, it must have reliable data that is updated regularly. 
  • How often does the data get updated?
  • What checks were done to ensure the data was accurate?
  • Does the data come from a trusted source?
• Your Dashboard Is In a Secret Location
  Users must understand where to find the dashboard and how they are expected to use it. 
  • Do users have to click multiple links to find the dashboard?
  • How are users made aware of updates?
  • Did anyone provide initial training to the users?

A dashboard is a business investment and a useful executive management tool. Treat it as such.

Read the complete article here, with tips and tricks for solving this issue.