Design a report around the decision
Start with the question management needs to answer, then choose the right measures.
Name the decision
A report for pricing a job needs a different view from one for monitoring weekly cash. Write down the decision, the user, and how often the information is needed. This prevents a single dashboard from becoming a collection of unrelated measures.
Define the data
Specify the source, owner, calculation, and reporting period for each metric. Make actual results visibly distinct from budgets and forecasts. Reconcile the report to the underlying records where appropriate and make assumptions easy to inspect.
Make exceptions visible
Highlight changes that deserve a discussion and provide enough context to interpret them. Avoid presenting every variance as an emergency. A concise commentary and a clear next question can be more useful than adding another chart.
Ask a question
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