Are we just Dashboard Monkeys?

Solving dashboard ownership and creation once and for all

Jul 11, 2024

👋 Hey, Toni from Growblocks here! Welcome to another Revenue Letter! Every week, I share cases, personal stories and frameworks for GTM leaders and RevOps.

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Think about all the dashboards you created across Marketing, Sales, and CS.

Every ultra-specific request by your CEO for a thing for the board (that you probably haven’t thought twice about since).

Every out-of-control dashboard that you know the requester maybe only uses 20% of.

Every dashboard that had “maximum-ASAP-hyper-urgency” on it, and still wasn't viewed 2 weeks after you delivered it.

And everything in between.

So are we maybe just Dashboard Monkeys?

As RevOps we are in that position a lot. We end up creating all of those dashboards because the other folks keep selecting the wrong Opp-Created Date, or they don’t realize that they need to exclude Renewal Opps from the Pipeline chart they want to create.

I see 2 problems with this:

How are you going to quality control all the dashboards you created? Because they have your initials on them, you’re responsible for their accuracy.
Why does it have to be you who is creating all of them in the first place?

First, the solution to this many times is simple: RevOps is trying to clamp down on more and more dashboards being created.

But while I get the problem, limiting access to data is just also not the solution.

If you want people to use data? Let them.

But how can you manage QA and have everyone self-create their dashboards?

Sounds like a pretty impossible problem to solve.

The Dashboard is not the problem

Every time I run into a problem that I can’t easily solve, I try to force myself to think about it with a “First Principles” mindset.

If you do this with Dashboards, you quickly realize that it's not Dashboards that are the problem.

It’s really the metrics on it that are.

You don’t really care about what colors the data is presented or if it's a bar or line graph.

You care about a tile being labeled “Pipeline” and then actually showing what you know is “Pipeline”.

So, what if you were to create a central place to store all of your Metrics?

Like a Metric Library.

All of your funnel metrics, efficiency metrics, investor metrics, and your-anything metrics.

You focus on managing the library.

Make sure that every metric stays up-to-date.

If things change, you get in there and adjust it.

Once it’s changed there, it’s pushed to all Dashboards, including that metric.

Yes, your VP Sales can build Dashboards

Now that you have all the metrics you need in one spot and full control over them…

I can bet with you that even your VP Sales could go in, pick a metric from the list, and push it on a dashboard.

Does she need to come to you to make sure that metric is correct?

Does she need to tell you the arrangement of the tiles?

Do you need to worry about those dashboards for quality assurance reasons?

No.

Once you focus on the real problem, the Metric, all the downstream problems disappear.

Now, I could tell you that we recently released a Metric Library including all the metrics you might need and a simple Dashboarding solution in Growblocks. Ping me if you want to know more.

But self-promotion is lame.

So instead here is a way to try and manage the status quo for a little bit longer:

1. Define clear objectives for each Dashboard

Before creating a dashboard, ask who will be using it and why. A VP of Sales might need a high-level overview of pipeline health, while a sales manager might need detailed metrics on individual rep performance.

Then, ask what decision or action the dashboard should empower? For example, a content marketing dashboard should help track the performance of various content pieces which helps them see what’s working and what isn’t/

2. Standardize Metrics and Definitions

If you’re not already doing this, start it now. Every stakeholder needs to agree on definitions for key metrics (e.g., what constitutes a "lead" or "opportunity"). The “classics” we see is either no or 5 MQL definitions. Keep an eye out and tackle this proactively.

3. Know where your data is coming from

Clearly state from which tool you are pulling the data
Give links to see the source data so people can cross-check easily

4. Keep them up to date

Regularly review dashboards to ensure they remain relevant and accurate. This might mean updating data sources, revising metrics, or even retiring outdated dashboards.

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