When done correctly, dashboards allow every person to contribute insights
“Dashboards are not just tools for data discovery, they are also for facilitating communication among people.” – Clare Harvey
Clare Harvey floated this concept out on LinkedIn in her review of a data visualization book in late 2024, and it brought back memories of Jonah Berger’s book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” from 2013 (I still have my copy on the bookshelf next to my desk). His thesis was that popularity, or virality, comes from STEPPS:
- Social Currency: people share things that make them look good or enhance their social status. (remarkable, novel, entertaining)
- Triggers: stimuli that prompt people to think about related things.
- Emotion: positive or negative
- Public: making products/behaviors more visible encourages imitation.
- Practical Value: people share useful information. (tips, how-tos)
- Stories: people don’t just share information, they tell stories.
Historically, dashboards were one-way communicators. They provided analysis/insights on data and told users “how they did” and “what they should do next”.
What we are doing at Marcus Thomas | Ecosystems with our PowerBI evolution, is creating two-way communicators. Dashboards that can receive input from users and answer questions in real time. But where we go in the future (very near, I hope) is a three(+)-way communication tool, which brings me back to Jonah’s STEPPS. We are approaching dashboard design in a way that encourages each user to be a sharer.
Our role as analysts is evolving. We aren’t here to tell you what to think, or what to decide, but to make sure you have the self-service data you need to develop your analytical social currency.
A popular topic in the data world is that “dashboards are dead.” I would argue that reporting dashboards are evolving into something more.
Dashboards can be like strategic plans, you create them and then they sit on a shelf unused. In reality, dashboards should be the ultimate empowerment tool in a company, allowing every person to bring insights to the board room. #DataDemocracy
Elizabeth Connor
Elizabeth is a skilled data analyst who believes that data is only actionable when it’s told in context. She is certified in Google Analytics and Power BI with training in AI, machine learning, and data modeling. Her work centers on presenting and visualizing data within business stories that lead to exciting next chapters. She was educated at Carnegie Mellon and Columbia University and is a prolific writer and thought leader.