Getting Started

Quick reference

• 00:05 So we understand the concepts behind dashboards.
• 00:07 We're looking for something to identify the things that are going sideways in
• 00:10 the organization so that we can focus on those.
• 00:14 But then the next thing comes down to,
• 00:16 well, how do we get from here, a blank page, to
• 00:21 a dashboard that actually shows us the key metrics that we're actually looking for.
• 00:26 Is there any easy way, can I just go and buy a dashboard that works?
• 00:29 And the answer to that, unfortunately, is no.
• 00:32 Every business in the world is unique.
• 00:35 Even those in the same industry have different ways that they look at their
• 00:39 data, different metrics, depending on who's at the top.
• 00:42 This is actually one of the things that makes companies innovative and actually
• 00:46 makes them different in a lot of ways is that we look at our data differently.
• 00:50 So there's no way I can actually create
• 00:53 a dashboard template that's going to work for everybody that watches this course.
• 00:56 It's completely impossible.
• 00:58 And for that reason, this course doesn't focus on building dashboard
• 01:03 templates that you can reuse over and over and over again across every industry.
• 01:08 What it does focus on is, how do we build the individual elements so
• 01:13 you can collect them together the way that you need for your business.
• 01:17 How do we go through and build, say a bullet chart, or a column and line chart,
• 01:21 or column area chart?
• 01:23 How do we go and apply this cool little formatting over here so that when I go and
• 01:27 actually change a number up here for my budget, say to $90,000,
• 01:31 it actually dynamically changes this so it says we're not at target.
• 01:36 It's these kinda things that are the techniques that we're going to learn in
• 01:38 this particular course.
• 01:41 The first thing that we have to figure out is well how do we go about doing a layout?
• 01:45 Again remember we've got one page.
• 01:48 As we go through the entire course,
• 01:51 I'm going to show you all kinds of different visuals.
• 01:53 Every one of these you're going to see as we go through in builder from revenue
• 01:57 forecast to waterfall charts, bullet charts, and all kinds of different things.
• 02:02 But how do we start?
• 02:04 Do we just start building visuals, and throwing them at a piece of paper,
• 02:07 and seeing what sticks?
• 02:09 Well, I mean, that can work, but it's the ideal way.
• 02:13 What I prefer to do is I prefer to sit down with my organization,
• 02:17 sometimes I start with paper and pencil.
• 02:19 That's actually the dashboard developer's most important tool to start with,
• 02:22 is paper and pencil.
• 02:24 It's not your computer.
• 02:26 Because we can sit down and we can start asking people, what is it you need to see?
• 02:30 What are those key metrics?
• 02:31 And really start hammering back on those pieces.
• 02:33 What is it that you need to see and what is it that you don't?
• 02:36 If I need to build you a monthly dashboard,
• 02:39 is annual revenue supposed to be on there?
• 02:41 Probably not.
• 02:41 And it's really digging into what those key metrics are that they need to see
• 02:46 every single time they look at their dashboard.
• 02:49 They're going to give you lots of stuff that doesn't make sense and you know what?
• 02:51 Sometimes you're going to put it on there anyway.
• 02:54 And then you need to review it a little bit later to say what is it that you're
• 02:57 actually working with and what is it you're not.
• 02:59 I can tell you from experience that this is the hardest part of doing dashboard
• 03:02 development right off the bat, is trying to actually get your users to tell you
• 03:06 what they need, because often times they don't know.
• 03:08 And in those cases it's where we have to apply our own knowledge to come back and
• 03:11 figure out what can we give that we think will answer their problem and
• 03:14 then accept it when they come back and say yeah, I don't even really need that.
• 03:18 Okay, so this is a big challenge here.
• 03:20 Once you've figure out the kind of general gist when somebody
• 03:23 says well I'd like to see a chart that shows me what my sales are by month.
• 03:26 Okay, great.
• 03:27 Then we go back and we say all right, how do we want that to look?
• 03:30 And we built what's called a wire frame.
• 03:33 So this is a wire frame that's actually been sent out to say hey
• 03:35 look I've got my organization.
• 03:37 I'd like to build this out for
• 03:38 the tents and shelters product lines of The Outdoor Store,
• 03:41 which is the company that we're going to be working with through this course.
• 03:44 We're gonna look at setting up some different pieces here.
• 03:47 I'd like to have a chart that shows me my sales performance.
• 03:51 I'd like to see a little product line summary here with some traffic lists.
• 03:53 Show me what's good and what's bad.
• 03:55 Maybe I want to build a chart to compare my revenue versus budget by month.
• 03:59 So at this point in time, if you're building these things out you can look at
• 04:01 it and say you know what let's get a little bit more gradual here.
• 04:04 I'm not worried about what it looks like.
• 04:06 I'm not going to build a graphic here and tell you it's okay.
• 04:09 I'm just sketching to say these are the concepts of what I'd like and where.
• 04:14 It's pretty easy to do.
• 04:16 All we do is we just grab a selection of cells here, and
• 04:19 we put a black border around it, and
• 04:21 just type something into the center that actually tells us what we want.
• 04:25 There's by no means are we ever stuck with this.
• 04:28 And again, this is where I draft with paper and pencil first.
• 04:30 Then I'll go and I'll throw into my spreadsheet.
• 04:32 If you prefer to go spreadsheet first, by all means go and do that.
• 04:35 It doesn't matter.
• 04:36 The real idea here is that we're just trying to come back with what
• 04:40 are the concepts that we're looking for, about where we're going to put them, and
• 04:43 then we'll figure out what data do we need,
• 04:46 how do we build the actual visual and how do we get it in place?
• 04:49 How do we make it dynamic?
• 04:50 And all the other good things that will make people happy with our
• 04:53 dashboard once it's in their hands.

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