While visiting a client recently, I received this question: Of all the dashboards that must be created for a development operation, what is the best order of creation? In other words, how does one get management reports up and running as quickly as possible?
Off the cuff, I gave three choices:
- Build them in the order as directed by the chief executive, who is in charge, after all.
- Build them top down – major gifts, then annual giving, then engagement and stewardship and other needed programs.
- Build them according the largest number of users or prospects involved. In other words, engagement programs reach out to all constituents and therefore need first access to the program’s dashboards.
In other words, I do not have an opinion beyond asserting that the plan must follow an order that both management and staff can depend on. A schema must be designed, as Eran Levy writes in this Data Science Central Blog [link: http://www.analyticbridge.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-plan-your-next-bi-project]: “After all, it makes sense that before you dive into schemas, calculations and charts, the first thing you’ll want to do is actually understand what the business hopes to achieve. This might sound bafflingly obvious….”
What dashboards did you design first?