Business dashboard design is based on the metaphor of driving a car: dials, gauges, traffic lights, rear-view mirrors. But there is a huge fault with this metaphor that is driving business performance in reverse (pardon the pun).

KPI thresholds are not improvement tools; they make people react in a rush to quick fixes and gaming that end up making performance worse. (more…)

The most useful way to see true signals of change in your KPI is to use an XmR chart. Here are five easy steps to build an XmR chart for your KPI. (more…)

Measuring performance takes some time and effort. But is that a good reason to rely only on readily-available data? (more…)

Colour is a hugely important part of how we design our performance reports and dashboards, particularly the KPI graphs they contain. But there are 5 big mistakes that can destroy the ease and integrity of interpreting the information they contain. Are you making any of them? Let's find out...

Too often we assume that performance measurement depends on technical systems, like a business intelligence system or dashboard application. But for performance measurement to become entrenched in how our organisations work, it's the non-technical systems that matter most.

by Michel Dekker, Nova Silva

Enrico Bertini explains in his recipe¹ that studying plays an important role in becoming a Data Visualization expert. However, he also emphasizes it is just the beginning. This was probably the reason why Ben de Jong approached me a year ago to help him improve data visualizations at the bank he works for.

I've written about two very powerful graphs to use on performance dashboards, or in performance reports that need to be concise: my version of Stephen Few's bullet graph, and my version of Edward Tufte's sparkline (my version is called a smartline). Is one better than the other?

The world loves Stephen Few's bullet graph. It's small, concise and speaks volumes about the comparison between current performance and targeted performance. It's a prodigious improvement on dashboard gauges. In constructing a bullet graph, however, you have options. Here's the one I recommend...

Lots of my new clients share the same habit (a bad one): they conclude whether performance is getting better or worse by comparing the current month's (or week's or quarter's) performance measure value with last month, or with a target or standard. If this month (or week or quarter) is worse, they go digging for the cause. Trouble is, they don't find that cause.