How do you make your BI reports and dashboards work better?

1 Know your audience

The first step to creating a successful BI report or dashboard is to understand who you are creating it for. Your audience may have different levels of data literacy, expectations, interests, and goals. You need to tailor your report or dashboard to suit their needs and preferences. For example, you may need to use different formats, languages, filters, or interactivity options depending on whether your audience is internal or external, executive or operational, technical or non-technical, or focused on a specific topic or a broad overview.

2 Define your purpose and scope

The next step is to clarify the purpose and scope of your BI report or dashboard. What are the main questions or problems that you are trying to answer or solve? What are the key metrics or indicators that you are measuring or monitoring? What are the sources and types of data that you are using? How often and how long do you need to update and maintain your report or dashboard? By defining your purpose and scope, you can avoid unnecessary complexity, confusion, or ambiguity in your report or dashboard.

3 Design your visuals

The third step is to design your visuals in a way that conveys your data insights effectively and efficiently. You need to choose the right type of chart, graph, table, or map that matches your data and your message. You also need to use colors, fonts, labels, legends, titles, and annotations that are clear, consistent, and appealing. You should follow some basic principles of data visualization, such as avoiding clutter, highlighting important information, using appropriate scales and axes, and ensuring accuracy and honesty.

4 Layout your report or dashboard

The fourth step is to layout your report or dashboard in a way that organizes your visuals and guides your audience through your story. You need to arrange your visuals in a logical order, grouping them by theme, category, or hierarchy. You also need to use white space, borders, headings, and subheadings to create visual separation and hierarchy. You should follow some basic principles of user interface design, such as ensuring readability, usability, accessibility, and responsiveness.

5 Validate and test your data

The final step is to validate and test your data before publishing or sharing your report or dashboard. You need to ensure that your data is accurate, complete, relevant, and up to date. You also need to check that your data sources are reliable, secure, and compliant with any regulations or policies. You should perform some quality assurance and quality control processes, such as verifying your calculations, formulas, filters, and joins, reviewing your data for errors or outliers, and testing your report or dashboard for functionality and performance.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?