Dashboard Spy readers know my passion for dashboards and their growing role in presenting corporate metrics and KPIs. After all, I’ve collected and blogged about over a thousand dashboard examples. I truly believe that the dashboard is the new face of business intelligence. Their ease of use and user-centered design really makes information digestible and actionable.
Dashboards are rapidly becoming ubiquitous throughout the enterprise.
However, even I will admit that there are some places we should not take dashboard technology, no matter how strongly we want to promote the role of dashboards in business technology.
Startled by this claim? So, am I. Until a recent visit to one of the world’s top financial firms, I was convinced that dashboards should be distributed to every nook and cranny of the enterprise. There shouldn’t be a single spot in the building that employees can’t check on their metrics, right?
Well, let’s start off with this snapshot I took. It starts off innocently enough. I spotted this clever physical, real-world dashboard in the hallway near the break room. It’s a collection of sheets summarizing the performance of various business units. The pages are set into plastic containers so that you help yourself to a report of interest to you:
Not so strange. Kind of nice actually. As you walk by, you can grab a page to view the metrics you are interested in. As you see, there are 2 spots that contained content more popular than the rest. That’s interesting feedback.
Turns out, however, that this isn’t the only place one finds these dashboards. Take a look at these photos:
The reason I went down this particular hallway was that I was looking for a very important place. Once I got there, this is what I saw:
Yes, indeed. If you notice the plumbing, you’ll see that these corporate metrics are delivered via a unique distribution channel!
Of course, with my interest peaked, I checked to see if the dashboards would appear where I would expect they should:
Talk about being on the hot seat when the dashboard shows a red alert for one of your metrics! Look at the picture closely and you can see a problem that physical, real-life dashboards have that digital dashboards don’t. The right side metrics portlet is missing. You can see the velcro mount, but the actual sheet is gone. Gee, I wonder if some dashboard user got really upset and flushed it away!
Here is one last look. Note the placement of this portlet. Some usabilty expert must have done a study and their heatmap must have shown that the most frequently looked at spot was near the latch. Nice work!
I won’t go on, but I think you’ll agree with me that there are some places that you do NOT want to bring a dashboard. I love dashboards as much as the next business intelligence practitioner, but this is just too much.
BTW, I apologize if I’ve offended the more sensitive among you dashboard team members. I’m sorry you had to view pictures of such an unsavory place. BUT, as you know, dashboarding ain’t always pretty. The Dashboard Spy is dedicated to keeping BI real, and this is about as real as it gets.
Just kidding, we’ll get back to real dashboards soon. Thanks The Dashboard Spy.
Tags: Ubiquity of BI Dashboards, Enteprise dashboard spreads throughout the enterprise, executive dashboards in the workplace, Bathroom dashboard, restroom dashboard, hallway dashboard, physical real-world dashboards
Interesting… This is called workaholic!! I think someone in this company should have a brain rest and maybe go to psychiatrist or anybody “not from branch” to talk to.
I actually think this is a GREAT place to display metrics. Business metrics are to be seen if they are to be acted on. We should “push” them rather than waiting for them to be “pulled.” Email them and they get lost in the minutia of the day-to-day. Post them in a break room and many will see them, but most will not take the time to study them. You can put them on the intranet and hope that people go take a look, but hope is not a good strategy. However, put them in the restroom and everyone will see them several times a day. Additionally, they will generally be undistracted while they view them for a period of time which may actually allow some decent analysis. This is better than reading the sports page and certainly better than talking on a cell phone!
Sorry Cobrandy, I have to disagree. You are correct the end-goal is to have your metrics acted on, but they need to be “seen” in a quality environment.
If you’re afraid of cognitive dissonance disrupting your communication, I wonder how much of an effect (dare I coin the term) continence dissonance has on the impact of your message?
Post metrics in areas where the reader’s mind can focus specifically on your dashboard, and more importantly is in a position to act on them.
Once they’ve committed to an action based on your metrics, their next step should be to further that action, not reach for the toilet paper.
I think this is both hilarious and fantastic. I’m not one who spends very much time on the throne or at the porceline ATM, but all the better way to test your metric presentation. I mean, at a glance it should be clear what you’re trying to present. Well, standing there staring at the wall for the 24 seconds I may spend there, I should have been able to get a good idea as to what is being presented. And heck, if it’s good enough for restaraunt bathrooms and advertisers to put not only bulletin boards but actual video SCREENS in that realestate space, then why not an effective dashboard. Kudos for the creative marketing campaign. …just don’t ask ME to be the guy to take the old ones down.