The Art and Science Behind

Dashboarding

Taha Azizi

Western Financial Group

MBA MSc. B.Eng

Dashboard as Analytics Story

• One Page Summary of the Story of Your

Analytics

• Combination of Arts and Science

5 Principles

Art Principle 1 – Communication

• Customer is God

• Two Sided

• Tools Determination

Science Principle 1 – Metrics

Definition

• Definition of KPIs and Scores

• Thinking about Customers

• Linkage to Strategy and Plans

Art Principle 2 –

Layout – Keep It Simple

• Recommended:

White Background

Non-Busy

The Less Ink The Better

Art Principle 2 – Layout (Cont.)

Art Principle 2 – Layout: (Cont.)

Science Principle 2 –

Metrics Tuning

• Recommended:

Normalizing

Making Dimensionless

Using Combined Index

Science Principle 2 – Metrics Tuning (cont.)

• Normalizing

Scale your KPI between 0 – 1 or 0% - 100%

Hard to get an understanding when Max and Min is not clear

Market Share, Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty (NPS)

Science Principle 2 – Metrics Tuning (cont.)

• Making Dimensionless

Absolute Revenue $ versus Growth %

Science Principle 2 – Metrics Tuning (cont.)

• Using Combined Index

Loss Ratio & Operating Expenses & Earned Premium Combined Ratio

Revenues & Salaries/Benefits & Expenses EBITDA

Art Principle 3 –

Visualization

• Tables

• Graphs & Charts

• Maps

Art Principle 3 – Visualization

a. Tables

• Recommended:

Less Data

More Symbols

and Colors

Art Principle 3 – Visualization

b. Charts & Graphs

• Recommended:

2-Dimensional

Pie

Bar

• Not Recommended:

Gauge

Radar

Art Principle 3 – Visualization

c. Mapping

• Recommended:

Heat Map

Bubble Map

• Useful for

Sales Analysis

Risk Mitigation

Science Principle 3 –

External Information

• Competition – Benchmarking

• Economics – Inflation

• Demographics – Product

Art Principle 4 –

Differentiation

• Highlight Differences

• 80-20 Rule

• Avoid Artificial

Differentiation

Art Principle 4 – Differentiation (Cont.)

$80,400

$80,405

$80,410

$80,415

$80,420

$80,425

$80,430

$80,435

Dep1 Dep2 Dep3 Dep4 Dep5

Departmental Sales 2015

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

Dep1 Dep2 Dep3 Dep4 Dep5

Departmental Sales 2015

($20,000)

($10,000)

$0

$10,000

$20,000

$30,000

$40,000

$50,000

Dep1 Dep2 Dep3 Dep4 Dep5

Departmental Profit 2015

Indifferent Artificial Differentiated

Science Principle 4 –

Trends and History

• Current Status – not enough

• Previous Behavior – best predictor

Identify Seasonality or Causes

Science Principle 5 –

Lead Vs Lag

• Using Lead Indicators

Sales Pipeline / Claims

• Suggestions and Recommendations to

Action Plan

Art Principle 5 – Integration

• Wrapping up the story

• So What?

• Not only histories & facts but also

suggested actions

Summary of Dashboarding Principles

• Pr.1 – Choosing right metrics for right users

• Pr.2 – Designing simple layout for tuned KPIs

• Pr.3 – Visualizing internal & external data

• Pr.4 – Differentiating trends & history

• Pr.5 – Wrapping up the story & recommendation

Questions and Answers