Simon Gebauer, CCO, Observer and AMEC European Chapter Co-Chair

In marketing it feels like dashboards have been around forever. In communications and PR they are becoming more and more of a thing. I have come across quite a few comms-professionals that are literally obsessed with dashboards. And they have their reasons: Dashboards are simple, beautiful, colourful, digital, dynamic, interactive, responsive, in realtime, mobile and affordable. Providers of SaaS-Tools for monitoring and analytics are flooding the market with dashboards promising to deliver the solution to all measurement problems.

A dashboard in general is an interface that visualizes data. And that is exactly what dashboards are really good in. They can merge huge amounts of datasets and visualize the data points. That way they are able to cut down complex correlations to simple charts. This can facilitate process management within an organization.  However it might be a trap to rely on the colourful charts of a dashboard only. Here are some hints that you should keep in mind when planning and designing a dashboard:

-A dashboard is only as good as the data behind it. Simplification can be a risk as one tends to miss the details. The quality of the data that are integrated into a dashboard are crucial. If it is clippings, social-links, media metrics or survey-data – it is always worth having a closer look at the raw data and checking if they are correct and relevant.

-A dashboard itself is not an analysis or a report. It is the visualization of data. It needs human intelligence to interpret the data and explain the charts.

-Dashboards are good at giving concise and fast answers to questions that need a quick response and that can be answered by visualizing data. However, for more complex issues or different requirements other forms of reportings might be more useful. In a crisis situation, for example, it might be more useful to get real-time email alerts instead of checking a line chart in a dashboard.

-Dashboards do not fit the workflow of all users. Always have in mind who is confronted with measurement results on an individual basis. In order to inform the c-suite about communication activities it might be more useful to present and explain the charts as part of a face-to-face briefing e.g.

-Before setting up the dashboard be aware of your communication goals and make sure, these are reflected in the dashboard. Ask yourself the relevant questions: What are my goals? How can I measure them? What data are available? What data are relevant to measure my goals? How can I visualize these data? The Barcelona Principles 3.0. are very helpful and should always be reviewed when setting up a dashboard.

In a nutshell: Dashboards are a helpful visualization instrument when used in a mindful and smart way.