Show me the Answer: Dashboarding and KPIs Tangible Data 15 th October 2008.
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Transcript of Show me the Answer: Dashboarding and KPIs Tangible Data 15 th October 2008.
Show me the Answer: Dashboarding and KPIs
Tangible Data
15th October 2008
Slide 2
Some questions for you
Do you know what a dashboard is? Do you currently have a dashboard in operation? Is your dashboard working well? Are you looking to implement a dashboard in the next 12
months?
Slide 3
Who this session is aimed at
Fundraising analysts with little or no experience of creating dashboards & KPIs
People who have developed a dashboard and would like to pick up some industry best practice
Aimed at the people who are tasked with building or improving the dashboard Rather than the audience who use them
What this session is not Not a review of what’s new in cutting edge software Not a review of interactive reporting and analytics, OLAP Data
Mining, reporting suites, Web-based analysis, etc.
Slide 4
Show Me the Answer: Agenda
Context What exactly is a dashboard?
What’s the Answer... Knowing your audience Getting the information right
... And how do you Show it? How not to show it: common mistakes Examples of successful dashboards
Best practice guide to building a dashboard
Appendix: some further useful slides for you
Context
What exactly is a dashboard?
Some recent history – where does dashboarding come from
What are the main issues?
Slide 6
Recent History
Dashboards evolved out of the growing ‘information overload’ of computerisation
A new evolution of an existing business concept Executive Information Systems (1980s) OLAP (online analytical processing) & business intelligence in the
1990s Key Performance Indicators (often synonymous!) Balanced Scorecards (Kaplan and Norton) are a textbook favourite:
4 key areas on one page financial measures: revenue, profit etc. customers: customer satisfaction etc. internal activity: efficiency innovating and learning: process improvement
Slide 7
What exactly is a dashboard?
Stephen Few: Intelligent Dashboard Design (2006)
Visual Display
Of the most important information(..to achieve one or more objectives)
Fits entirely on a single computer screen
Can be monitored at a glance
Slide 8
Life before Dashboards (Does this sound familiar?).....
Usually: Senior business user X approaches the analyst... ‘I want to see...’ (and I need it Now)
Analyst produces report in the time available Not very beautiful – and not a real KPI report: Business User
‘What does this mean? / Actually I really needed...’
Over time user(s) asks for many different KPIs Result many different (inconsistent?) Excel/ Access/ Web reports
Managers’ solution ‘We really need to purchase X software, solve all our dashboarding problems’
Slide 9
.....What are the issues here?
Two separate issues around dashboarding:
What to dashboard Which metrics / Key Performance Indicators, at what level, for
what reason: reviewing the KPIs as a whole What’s the Answer?
How to display it How to make the KPIs immediately comprehensible How to Show it
What’s the Answer....
Getting the information right: bringing in the stakeholders
Slide 11
What’s the Answer: defining the KPIs This section just covers how to define the KPIs:
specific examples of KPIs will be mentioned later
Who is your (internal) customer? Individual department managers, executive board, managing
director only, etc.
Defining the KPIs is an analysis project... Analyst time & resource put aside Business user time & resource put aside
.... which never really ends e.g. Marketers keep finding new & innovative solutions to
fundraise Marketing KPIs need to evolve with the marketers
Slide 12
Analysts: It is your problem to work out what is in the report The analyst is not just the production machine Business users know their business very well –
but need your help in communicating the rightmetrics
How can you work out what to include? Ask your customers what they want to know?
What’s the Answer: defining the KPIs Analysts: It is your problem to work out what is in
the report The analyst is not just the production machine Business users know their business very well –
How can you work out what to include? Ask your customers what they want to know? ..... They want to
know Everything Follow the strategic targets – but may need more or less in the
main dashboard “What are your top 3 areas of concern/ areas to track?” “How would you use information about X” -> defines whether to
show volume or value, acquisition or retention, etc.
Slide 13
Getting the numbers right Interpreting and querying the database correctly: can you reach all
the data sources? Getting the numbers to match what the business thought it had Matching other (lower-level) reports
Computer says no? You’re not reporting what’s in the database, you’re reporting what’s in the business ....
“Actually we include all recruits who responded to source code xxxx as Direct Recruits” so the Direct Recruits metric needs to incorporate that.
.....Although sometimes KPIs flag up practices that are divorced from reality “Oh we always estimate these supporters as current unless we have a ‘stop flag’”
....maybe a separate analysis to get a more realistic picture?
What’s the Answer: defining the KPIs
... And how do you Show it?
How not to show it: Common mistakes
Good Practice examples
Slide 15
You Are Not The Audience People who design the dashboards focus on the look & feel
Beautiful & sophisticated charting & ‘fuel gauge’ representation etc. People who read dashboards are really interested in the numbers
“If the statistics are boring, then you’ve got the wrong numbers” (Edward Tufte)
How not to show it: Too clever
3D Charting does not help here (Top L.H. chart)
No need to have so many different jolly colours
Slide 16
How not to show it: Too detailed Excessive detail in the overall dashboard..
... or the individual chart is just confusing
Make sure you use the right chart (see Appendix)
Slide 17
How not to show it: Too busy
Stick to consistent styles & backgrounds Introducing meaningless variety or complex tools doesn’t help
Also: Visual displays can still be misinterpreted If the chart trend looks serious, telling managers it’s not actually as
serious as it looks doesn’t always work
What do these gauges tell us?
Slide 18
Good practice examples
Slide 19
Good practice examples
Slide 20
Good practice: Context & commentary Some context is essential
Explains (excuses?) anomalies & provides sound bites But minimal: do not overuse (Put detail in the cover note)
Slide 21
Good practice examples
Not all interesting designs are wrong!
Best practice guide to developing a dashboard
Slide 23
Dashboarding approaches
There is a plethora of dashboarding tools and software in the market
Excel is a great place to start if you own no other dashboarding software Best to try out an existing Excel dashboard on your own data Many different free or cheap downloads Powerful capabilities and flexible data manipulation: very good
display capabilities But keep best practices in mind, avoid the defaults, avoid things like
3D charts, bright colours, and pie charts And consider data security and access control
Slide 24
Think through the end results.... What will it need to show?
Who will need to look at it?
What decisions are they likely to take?
How are they likely to react?
“everything’s going well, no need to worry”
“everything’s going well, no need to worry”
“you’re measuring it the wrong way”
“you’re measuring it the wrong way”
“why are they going down?”
“why are they going down?”
“you’ve got the figures wrong
“you’ve got the figures wrong
Slide 25
The 3 Ps Plan
Link into Strategic Plan wherever possible – use same metrics Are those metrics clearly defined? – if not, define Base the dashboard around these metrics
Performance Show how you’re performing In particular over time – typically on a monthly basis Showing YTD and comparisons with last year, as appropriate So you can easily see – will you meet targets?
Pointers Explanations of your current performance Why are you over- or under-performing? Albeit keep the detail in subsequent pages
Slide 26
Visualising information Charts
Great for showing key performance measures over time Trends Keep simple! – if getting too complex, use......
...tables and numbers Great for showing greater detail Or the numbers on which the charts are based
Words At the top of the page! Demands to be read! The most important messages Great for including the Pointers i.e. explaining the trends in the charts
Slide 27
Giving the dashboard a bit of zip
Speedometers Comprises half a
doughnut chart A miniscule slice
of a pie-chart The outside bit of a
speedo photo grabbed from the Web
and a simple Up/ Down control in Excel
And a lot of imagination... to give you this!
Also see http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/SpeedometerXP.html
Space for text/ commentary
Slide 28
Temperature gauges
Traffic lights
Tangible: data
Using Excel to make your dashboard look like a dashboard
Slide 29
A couple of NFP examplesAverage Last cash gift of current ad hoc donors (£)
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Average latest Ad Hoc gift this year (£) 15£ 15£ 15£ 15£ 14£
Average latest Ad Hoc gift last year (£) 11£ 11£ 11£ 12£ 12£ 12£ 12£ 14£ 15£ 16£ 16£ 15£
Percentage of Current Donors who are Gift Aided
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
% Current Regular Gift Aided this year (volume %) 65% 65% 65% 65% 65%
% Current Regular Gift Aided last year (volume %) 63% 63% 63% 63% 63% 63% 63% 63% 64% 64% 64% 64%
% Current Ad Hoc Gift Aided this year (volume %)
56% 56% 57% 57% 56%
% Current Ad Hoc Gift Aided last year (volume %)
39% 42% 43% 44% 46% 47% 47% 51% 53% 53% 54% 55%
Number of Legacy supporters on file
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Legacy pledgers on file this year 15 16 16 16 16 16
Legacy intenders on file this year 5 5 5 5 5 5
Legacy enquirers on file this year 48 48 48 49 49 50
Legacy pledgers on file last year 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
Legacy intenders on file last year 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Legacy enquirers on file last year 44 44 44 45 45 45 46 46 46 47 47 47
Last Year
0%
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100%
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
This Year
0%
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100%
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Last Year
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Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Ave
rag
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ift
£
This Year
£0
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£16
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Ave
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Last Year
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Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Th
ou
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Legacy pledgers on file last year Legacy intenders on file last yearLegacy enquirers on file last year
This Year
0
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Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Th
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Legacy pledgers on file this year Legacy intenders on file this yearLegacy enquirers on file this year
What are the 10 areas of my business that are most important to me? e.g. Regular givers Ad hoc donors Legacy marketing Events Fundraising Membership Raffle supporters
What sorts of things do I want to know about them? Recruitment rates Net growth Tracking volume, value % Attrition Cross-/up-selling Total Annual value Gift aiding Mail order purchase
Slide 30
Venn Diagrams are useful for supporter file overlaps Stacked bars give total volumes & broken down
A couple of NFP examples
Any Questions?
Julian Foxon 01285 883 783
Georgina Spary 01285 883 779
Slide 32
Tangible DataPart of the Cello Group
The Old MuseumTetbury RoadCirencesterGL7 1UP01285 644220www.tangibledata.co.uk
“experienced, high-calibre staff with all round knowledge of statistical
techniques, presented in an accessible, jargon-free,
client-friendly manner”
“down to earth, approachable yet
knowledgeable data experts”
“a huge resource - able to help us with any data issue whether how to write SPSS syntax, where to source additional data, how to approach
an analysis task. All that and a light-hearted yet professional, relaxed yet efficient, proactive yet no-pressure
approach to our relationship.”
Appendix: additional useful slides
More on how to Show it
Business Intelligence Tools available
Step-by-Step guide to dashboarding
Other sources to research
Slide 34
More on how to Show it
Stephen Few again:
“The greatest display technology in the world won't solve [the information overload problem] if you fail to use effective visual design.
And if a dashboard fails to tell you precisely what you need to know in an instant, you'll never use it, even if it's filled with cute gauges, meters, and traffic lights.”
Slide 35
More on how to Show it: Charts
e.g. How do we show growth of the supporter base – a pie chart?.... This chart is very busy and hard to interpret. Pie charts show splits of a file or group We want to show a trend – progression year on year
Volume of customers recruited by year
Pre 1982 1982-19861987-1992 19921993 19941995 19961997 19981999 20002001 20022003 20042005 20062007 Unknown
Slide 36
More on how to Show it: Charts
... A line graph? This gives a bit more information But line graphs are usually used to show a trend in behaviour (e.g.
renewals rate) We want to show a trend in volumes or different types of volumes
Volume of customers recruited by year
-
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
Pre 1
982
1987
-199
219
9319
9519
9719
9920
0120
0320
0520
07
Slide 37
More on how to Show it: Charts
... A bar chart? A bar chart is the appropriate format to convey this information But we really want to show a cumulative trend....
Volume of customers recruited by year
-
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
Pre 1
982
1987
-199
219
9319
9519
9719
9920
0120
0320
0520
07
Slide 38
More on how to Show it: Charts
... A cumulative bar chart with annotations will do This clearly shows the slowing growth trend: titles have been added and
formatted, and brand colours added The early part of the data (years1980-1993) has been omitted for ease of
interpretation Little growth in the early years – can be mentioned in a footnote
Growth of customer base 1995- 2007
-
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007Vo
lum
e o
f cu
sto
mer
s -
curr
ent
or
lap
sed
('0
00)
Note: Includes all customers w hether active or cancelled subscriptions.
Slide 40
More on how to Show it: Interactivity
Interactivity is most useful when it allows the user to perform ad hoc queries -> this makes the report a data mining tool not a dashboard
Some dashboards have interactive filters (to squeeze several different reports onto ‘one’ screen) -> not really an at-a-glance one page comparison In practice the business will select out the top 3-4 preferred views
and cobble together their dashboard “Let’s go straight to Page 17” ... how useful are pages 1-16?
Slide 41
More on how to Show it: A good example
Slide 42
More on how to Show it:
NFP example
Slide 43
Business Intelligence Software available 5 Top Business Intelligence Tool Vendors
1. Business Objects: Leading BI tools vendor
2. SAS: second-largest BI tools vendor, mostly from its advanced analytics tools, but its effort market its QRA tools since 2004 has paid off
3. Cognos: BI tools and financial performance management applications, &workforce analytics.
4. Microsoft: highest growth rate among the top 10 vendors. ProClarity Software and also embedded BI tools that are bundled with Microsoft SQL Server. (Analysis Services and Reporting Services). NB specific Excel 2007 features for BI
5. Hyperion: acquired by Oracle
Slide 44
Summary: a Step-by-Step Guide
tangible: data
A) Defining the Dashboard
1. Work out who and what the dashboard is for
2. Plan the dashboarding project and resource it Including time from senior business users
3. Get involved in understanding /interpreting the KPIs What is their impact? What are the action points?
4. Work to get a minimal, meaningful, and appropriate list of KPIs
And make sure the numbers are accurate and true in a business sense
You may need to work with database operations to clean the source data
Slide 45
tangible: data
B) Choosing the dashboard
5. Choose your developing tool Many good external software suppliers and analytics partners
out there to support you
6. BUT – you still need to own and understand the KPIs
Try agreeing them and drafting a one-sheet Excel report (dummy numbers) before you buy
7. If you are working with a supplier or other team, write a full and detailed brief
If possible ask for example reports based around your KPIs
Summary: a Step-by-Step Guide
Slide 46
Summary: a Step-by-Step Guide
tangible: data
C) Designing the dashboard
8. Choose the design and layout around the metrics Most important KPI in the top left Most appropriate for each metric
9. Don’t be seduced by the pretty pictures The design must clarify not obscure the content
10. Don’t cram too much in Not too busy & not too long! If there is too much information for 1 page this may be more
than one report
Slide 47
Summary: a Step-by-Step Guide
tangible: data
D) Implementing the dashboard
11. Keep the dashboard updated and refreshed This means planning in more resource: who, specifically, is
responsible for this?
12. If the dashboard is to be handed over to a production team, write a handover briefing
A full definition & derivation of each KPI
13. Monitor changes in strategy and have a change control plan as requirements evolve
Slide 48
Other Sources to try The Dashboard Spy (http://dashboardspy.com/ )
Contains vast number of examples of best practice, free templates, free tools, comparisons of major software providers
e.g. ‘Best Excel Dashboard 2008’
Intelligent Dashboard Design Book by Stephen Few (2006)
“An alternative to crappy dashboards” recent blog by Avinash Kaushik (see handout)
Logi Report and others http://www.freereporting.com free Excel based dashboarding too with a great deal of functionality www.javaplanetinc.com http://www.exceluser.com/catalog/landdash2.htm around £25