Tom Critchlow

After companies adopt business intelligence tools, before they know it, they're swimming through endless seas of dashboard charts. On the surface it might look like these companies are "data-driven," but the data is difficult to act on.Flat metrics dashboards conflate leading and lagging indicators. They don't distinguish between controllable input... See more

McKinsey isn't in the job of getting things right. They're in the job of getting things to be coherent. And to be coherent is to have a worldview that an idea and a proposed course of action align with.

Good dashboards anticipate followups. A good dashboard says, "This dip, right here, which I know sticks out immediately? It was caused by our pricing change." A bad dashboard leaves the user wondering, "What happened then?" A good dashboard makes rates of change — week-over-week, year-over-year — immediately apparent. A bad dashboard leaves the... See more

End users don’t ask for a dashboard because they really use them. They ask for them out of the need for a safety blanket that gives them the (incorrect) belief they will know everything they need to about their business. The noise of a dashboard can be comforting, but it can cause issues when it’s not truly needed (ask doctors about iatrogenic... See more