Products Solutions Templates Pricing Resources

Dashboard design and KPI selection

Home / Everything About / Everything About Analytics / Dashboard design and KPI selection

You have fifty analytics metrics. Revenue. Conversion rate. Cart abandonment. Customer lifetime value. Traffic. Bounce rate. Click-through rate. All important. All need attention. But you cannot watch fifty metrics. You need a dashboard. A dashboard shows your health at a glance. Like a car dashboard shows fuel, speed, temperature. An analytics dashboard shows revenue, conversion, retention. Dashboard design reveals what matters. This article explains how to design dashboards and select key performance indicators.

Understanding KPIs and what to track

What a KPI is and why metrics are not KPIs

KPI is key performance indicator. Key means it drives business. Performance means it measures results. Indicator means it tells you the story. Revenue is a KPI. It is key. It measures performance. It indicates health. Page views is a metric not a KPI. It does not drive business. It does not measure performance. It is noise. Use KPIs not metrics.

The difference between vanity metrics and real metrics

Vanity metrics make you feel good. Traffic is up. Followers are up. Page views are up. But revenue is flat. Conversions flat. Customer lifetime value flat. Vanity metrics hide failure. Real metrics measure what matters. Revenue, conversion, retention. Use real metrics.

Selecting KPIs for your business

Revenue and profitability KPIs

Revenue is key. Gross revenue shows volume. Net revenue shows after discounts. Profit shows after costs. All three matter. Revenue alone hides profitability. Track all three.

Customer acquisition and retention KPIs

Customer acquisition cost shows spending efficiency. Customer lifetime value shows earning potential. Retention rate shows loyalty. All three together show customer health. Acquisition without retention is broken. Track all three.

KPI targets and benchmarking

Setting realistic targets

Target should be ambitious but achievable. Current conversion four percent. Target five percent is realistic. Target ten percent is fantasy. Set realistic targets. Beat them. Set new targets. Build momentum.

Comparing to industry benchmarks

Know your industry conversion rate. Competitor benchmarks. Industry averages. Your target should be above average. If average is four percent and you target four percent, you are average. Target five or six percent. Be better than average.

Dashboard design principles

One page tells the story

Dashboard should fit on one screen. No scrolling. No clicking. All KPIs visible at once. If it does not fit, you have too many. Remove the weakest KPIs. Keep the strongest five to seven.

Visual design and readability

Use charts not tables. Red for bad. Green for good. Color matters. Big numbers for big metrics. Small numbers for small metrics. Design for quick understanding. Executive should understand in five seconds.

Building executive dashboards

What executives need to see

Executives care about revenue, profit, growth. Customer acquisition cost. Customer lifetime value. Market share. Competitor position. Show these. Hide details. Executives do not care about bounce rate. They care about revenue.

Hiding details, showing summaries

Executive dashboard is summary. Operations dashboard is details. Executive sees revenue up twenty percent. Does not see which product drove it. Operations sees which product. Executive summary. Operations detail.

Building operational dashboards

What operations teams need

Operations teams care about daily metrics. Conversion rate today. Revenue today. Customer acquisition today. Issues today. Show daily. Show weekly. Show trends.

Daily metrics and quick diagnostics

Operations needs to spot problems fast. Conversion dropped. Why. Traffic was up but conversions flat. Check checkout. Check product pages. Dashboard should help diagnose.