Pick the right metrics
Fewer is better. A dashboard with 30 metrics is noise; a dashboard with 6-8 is signal. Pick the metrics that actually drive decisions. If a metric changes and you would not act on it, do not include it.
Different metrics for different audiences. The CEO dashboard has different metrics than the board dashboard than the team dashboard. Do not force one set of metrics to serve all audiences. Build different views with appropriate metrics for each.
Leading indicators alongside lagging indicators. Revenue is lagging, by the time it moves, the cause happened months ago. Pipeline, lead velocity, and customer engagement are leading, they signal where revenue is headed. A good dashboard has both.
For SaaS companies
Revenue metrics: MRR, ARR, net new MRR. Retention metrics: gross retention, net retention, logo churn. Unit economics: CAC, LTV, payback period. Pipeline metrics: qualified pipeline, win rate, average deal size. Product metrics: active users, engagement, feature adoption.
Connect them. Revenue growth is a function of new MRR and retention. New MRR is a function of pipeline and conversion. Retention is a function of product engagement. When the dashboard shows the chain, you can see which link is weakest.
Cohort analysis is the single most valuable addition for SaaS. How do recent cohorts compare to prior cohorts? Is retention improving or worsening? Is expansion accelerating? The trend across cohorts is often more informative than the current aggregate numbers.
For service businesses
Revenue metrics: billed revenue, recognized revenue, recurring vs project. Client metrics: active clients, client retention, average client value, client tenure. Operational metrics: utilization, project margin, backlog. Sales metrics: pipeline, close rate, new client acquisition.
Utilization is often the most important leading indicator. High utilization means revenue is coming. Low utilization means revenue is at risk. Daily or weekly visibility to utilization lets management act before revenue suffers.
Client concentration is a risk metric that belongs on the dashboard. Top client as percentage of revenue. Top 5 clients as percentage of revenue. When concentration grows, diversification needs to accelerate. When it shrinks, the business is getting more durable.
Presentation matters
Trends over points. A single number is a point; 12 months of trend is the story. Charts almost always beat tables for trends. Tables are better for point-in-time comparisons (this month vs plan).
Threshold alerts on key metrics. Color-coding for "within plan" vs "attention needed" vs "urgent" lets the viewer scan quickly. When everything is green, the business is on track. When red appears, attention goes there.
Real-time refresh when possible. A dashboard that updates weekly is more useful than one that updates monthly. One that updates daily is more useful than weekly. Modern BI tools make real-time dashboards achievable; the bottleneck is usually the underlying data pipeline, not the visualization.