KPI Dashboards

A KPI dashboard is the best tool you can use to keep track of how your company is performing. Since it provides a visual representation of your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs), a dashboard helps you analyze and react to business data efficiently.

Staying on top of your performance isn’t just an option these days. It has become a necessity if you want to thrive in today's competitive landscape.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through what KPI dashboards are, the best practices for creating them, dashboards different teams can use, common pitfalls to avoid, and, overall, how to maximize their potential.

What is a KPI Dashboard?

A KPI dashboard is a visual tool that combines and displays your business’ most crucial metrics in real time. This allows you to gauge your company's performance at a glance.

One of the best things about a KPI dashboard is that it can provide actionable insights from complex data sets. As a result, you get to make more confident decisions.

Whether you're looking at sales trends, operational efficiency, or customer satisfaction, the right dashboard setup can illuminate critical areas of your business that need attention or improvement.

8 KPI dashboard best practices

Creating a dashboard can be overwhelming with all of the KPIs to choose from. Here are eight best practices you should do to leverage your data and dashboards to the fullest:

1. Define clear objectives

Before setting up a KPI dashboard, you must define what you want to achieve with it. Determine the specific goals and metrics that are most relevant in getting you where you want to go. This way, you can design a dashboard that truly serves its purpose.

2. Choose the right KPIs

As mentioned, there are many KPIs to choose from. However, not everything will be beneficial to your objectives. Some may be redundant or downright irrelevant.

Focus on those that directly reflect your company's strategic goals. Ideally, these indicators should provide insights into performance and guide future strategies.

For example, if you want to boost customer satisfaction, we recommend displaying metrics like customer health score and customer complaints due to poor service or product quality. These will provide valuable insights into areas that need attention.

3. Simplify the design

A cluttered dashboard can obscure important data. In fact, 87% of people can’t focus when they need to analyze multiple data visualizations all at once.

That’s why you should keep the design simple and the layout intuitive. This way, you make sure that the information is easy to understand and act upon at a glance.

4. Prioritize data accuracy

The decisions you make based on your dashboard are only as good as the data quality behind them. You should put up rigorous data verification processes to guarantee accuracy and reliability.

5. Update regularly

The business environment is dynamic, and so should your dashboard. Regular updates reflecting the latest data make sure your decisions are always based on the most current information.

6. Train your team

Aside from data quality, you should also make sure everyone who needs to use the dashboard understands how to interpret and act on the data presented. 

To achieve this, hold regular training sessions and provide continuous support.

MetricHQ, our open library for everything metrics and KPIs, is a great resource to help you track your business performance. It can provide insights into a wide array of metrics and KPI examples to equip your team with the knowledge they need to leverage your data’s potential.

7. Integrate with other systems

Your KPI dashboard should not stand alone but integrate seamlessly with other data systems in your organization. By doing so, it allows for a more holistic view of your company's performance.

8. Monitor and refine

Review your dashboard's effectiveness regularly and make adjustments as needed. Having a continuous improvement process will help you maintain the dashboard’s relevance and utility.

Best KPI dashboard examples

Executive, marketing, sales, and supply chain are crucial departments in any business. Because they encompass the important functions of a company, we consider them the best KPI dashboard examples to help get you started:

Executive dashboard

An executive dashboard brings together important metrics from different parts of your company into one easy-to-access place. Designed for top-level leaders, this dashboard helps make quick, informed decisions by showing key data that affects productivity, growth, and risk management.

A well-crafted executive dashboard should include broad company-level KPIs that provide a quick overview of performance. Tailoring it to meet the specific needs of each executive can enhance its effectiveness. 

For instance, your CEO might notice a significant drop in sales revenue through the sales performance metrics displayed on the dashboard. This prompts them to investigate further and discover that a sales strategy needs adjustment. Because they spotted the trend early on, everyone can take corrective measures to improve sales performance and prevent further decline.

A CEO’s dashboard might display KPIs from various departments like:

• Finance: Tracks Gross Profit Margin, EBITDA, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable to monitor the company's financial health.
• Sales: Monitors Revenue and Opportunity Pipeline to see how well the sales team is performing and how much potential business is in the pipeline.
• Marketing: Measures Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Web Sessions to gauge the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and online activity.
• Support: Tracks Ticket Volume and Average Handle Time to assess how many support requests are received and how quickly they are resolved.
• Development: Monitors Lead Time and Cycle Time to evaluate how fast the development team is working from project start to finish.

With real-time updates, executives can navigate complex business situations. As a result, decisions are backed by solid data and aligned with company objectives.

Marketing dashboards

Effective marketing dashboards should track metrics that measure the impact of marketing activities. Start by integrating key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure outcomes directly tied to business objectives, such as website traffic, lead generation, conversion rates, and social media engagement. 

For example, your marketing director might notice a sudden decrease in website traffic through the web analytics metrics displayed on the dashboard. This observation could lead them to discover an issue with the recent changes to the website layout or marketing campaign strategies. 

To harness the full potential of your marketing dashboard, make sure that it displays these crucial marketing metrics:

• Leads and conversion rates: Measures how effectively prospects are converted to customers.
• Web analytics: Monitors page views, sessions, users, bounce rate, and average session duration.
• Social media performance: Evaluate engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments.
• Email marketing effectiveness: Assesses open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates from email campaigns.
• ROI metrics: Calculates return on ad spend (ROAS) and cost per click (CPC) for paid campaigns.

Sales dashboard

Sales dashboards provide a comprehensive, real-time view of your sales team's performance. They’re highly useful for sales managers and reps to monitor their performance daily and adjust their strategies as needed.

Below are a couple of metrics that reflect key aspects of the sales process:

• Revenue and sales volume: Monitors financial performance and sales trends.
• Sales funnel metrics: Tracks conversion rates and stages in the sales cycle.
• Individual performance: Evaluates each salesperson’s contributions to team goals.
• Territory and regional performance: Analyzes sales results by location to identify strong and weak areas.

Let's say you have a sales dashboard that shows you the number of units sold for each product. As you monitor this dashboard daily, you notice that a particular product outsells the others consistently. With this insight, you can allocate more resources and focus on promoting that specific product, leading to increased sales and revenue for your business.

Supply chain dashboard

A supply chain dashboard is a powerful tool designed to give you a clear view of your operations. With it, you can spot where delays or bottlenecks happen and make changes to speed things up. Not only does this make your business run more smoothly, but it also boosts customer satisfaction since you can provide more accurate information about when products will be available or delivered.

Here are some examples of KPIs and metrics in a supply chain dashboard:

• Inventory levels: Track the inventory quantity to prevent overstocking or stockouts.
• Order fulfillment rates: Measure how quickly and accurately orders are being filled to ensure customer satisfaction.
• Supplier performance: Evaluate your suppliers on their ability to deliver goods on time and in the correct quantities.
• Transportation costs: Monitor costs associated with moving goods to identify savings opportunities.
• Cycle time: Track the time it takes to complete a process from start to finish, helping to identify delays in your supply chain.
• Demand forecasting accuracy: Measure how closely actual demand matches your forecasts to adjust production plans and reduce waste.

Customer support dashboard

In any business, it’s important to keep track of customer satisfaction, especially when it comes to how well you and your employees serve your clients. Customer support dashboards do just that by providing real-time insights into your customer support operations, helping you deliver better service and enhance customer relationships. 

This way, you can make sure every customer interaction is as effective as possible!

Examples of key metrics to track on customer support dashboards include:

• Average Response Time: The Average Response Time measures how quickly support agents respond to customer inquiries, highlighting the efficiency of the support team.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): CSAT captures how satisfied customers are with the service they receive, providing direct feedback on their experience.
• First Contact Resolution (FCR): Tracks the percentage of issues resolved on the first interaction. The FCR metric is critical for customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

HR dashboard

Aside from tracking your sales, marketing, and supply chain data, it’s also important to track employee-related data. An HR dashboard allows business owners to oversee workforce metrics easily, making sure that human resources efforts are aligned with the business goals.

Here are four HR metrics that you should be monitoring:

• Employee Turnover Rate: The employee turnover rate shows how often employees leave the company. It helps business owners understand if they have a problem keeping their workers happy.
• Average Time to Hire: This measures the average time it takes to fill a job position from when the job is posted to when someone is hired. It helps see how effective the hiring process is.
• Employee Satisfaction: Often gathered through surveys, this metric helps understand how happy employees are with their jobs and the workplace.

Cost Per Hire: This calculates how much money is spent on hiring a new employee, including advertising job positions, interviewing, and training. The cost per hire metric helps in budgeting and understanding the cost-effectiveness of the recruitment process.

Common mistakes when creating KPI dashboards

Aside from knowing the best practices for setting up a KPI dashboard, you should also know what to avoid. Here are five common mistakes to steer clear of:

Overloading with data

Including too many KPIs can lead to information overload. When a dashboard is overloaded with data, it becomes difficult for users to find the information that matters most.

Select only the metrics that provide real value, are actionable, and improve the efficiency of decision-making processes, as users may need to sift through irrelevant data to get to the actionable insights.

Ignoring user feedback

Feedback from users who interact with the dashboard daily is invaluable. Users who regularly engage with the dashboard often have insights into what works well and what doesn’t, which can be crucial for optimizing the dashboard’s design and functionality. Ignoring this can result in a tool that no one actually uses.

Not aligning with goals

Every KPI on your dashboard should align with your company's strategic goals. If they don't, it could lead to misguided decisions.

KPIs that once were relevant may no longer serve their purpose as business strategies evolve. Monitor your dashboard to make sure that every KPI remains a trusted map of where you want your business to go.

Failing to provide context

KPIs without context can be misleading. Without proper context, users may misinterpret what the metrics are indicating, which can lead to incorrect conclusions and actions. Provide clear definitions and explanatory notes to help users understand what the data means.

Using outdated data

A dashboard driven by outdated data can lead to poor decision-making. If the dashboard is not updated regularly, the decisions made based on its data may be based on outdated information, potentially leading to costly mistakes. Setting up automatic data refreshes can help maintain the accuracy and relevance of the information displayed.

Transform data into success

A well-designed KPI dashboard is a powerful tool in your arsenal for managing performance and achieving business goals. Maximize the effectiveness of your dashboards by following best practices and avoiding the common mistakes associated with creating and maintaining them.

Make creating and analyzing KPI dashboards a breeze with PowerMetrics. With our tool, you can define all your metrics in one place, connect them to your cloud data sources, and bring everyone together with a centralized catalog of trusted metrics.

Whether you’re a team leader or a business analyst, Klipfolio offers streamlined, metric-centric analytics that confidently empowers self-service business intelligence.