Any Tom, Dick and Sally can make things complex. It takes guts and clarity to simplify things. That is why I was pleasantly surprised to see this dashboard prepared by Michigan State. You can see it below:
Linda, one of My Excel School students shared this dashboard link with me and asked if I can show how to construct something like this. Here is my version of the dashboard.
[Click here for larger version]
There are 2 parts in construction of a dashboard like this.
- Defining the vision, layout & metrics that you want.
- Creating the dashboard in Excel (or any other tool)
While it does not seem so, it is the Step 1 that takes a lot of time and hard-work.
Step 1: Defining the dashboard metrics, layout & vision
This is the most time consuming part of any dashboard. There is no one way to do this step. So I am going list a set of guidelines for you to follow.
- Speak with your audience & define what they want: For any dashboard, you will have some audience. So speak with them, understand what their information needs are. List down everything they want to know. Some parameters you want to consider are,
- Metrics / KPI they are interested
- Frequency of the need (weekly, monthly or yearly etc.)
- Granularity of the information (example: person level, department level, company level)
- Type of the need (information, analytical, mission critical etc.)
- Understand the sources of data: Another tricky part of a dashboard development is to get right data. In corporate environments, your data sources may be spread across and follow their own formats. So you need to plan ahead for all these differences, otherwise, you will end up doing lots of extra work.
- Prioritize the information: Once you have listed down various metrics, KPIs, information pieces to be used in the dashboard, list them down in the order of priority. Metrics or KPIs that are most important and indicate the overall health of the system (or project, initiative or company) should be on top.
- Remove ruthlessly: Now comes the tricky part. You must remove items, metrics and information that is low on value from the end dashboard. This is where your persuasion, negotiation skills come in handy.
- Make a rough sketch of the dashboard: Even before you make something in Excel, just make a rough sketch using pen and paper (or MS Paint or PowerPoint). This way, you can validate the design with end users and get buy-in early. (related: use excel for screen prototyping)
There are more ideas and tactics you can follow. But if you follow the above guidelines, then 80% of your work is done.
Step 2: Designing Excel Dashboard
This step becomes easier once you have clarity of vision and listed down what you want (and what you dont want). And if you find this difficult, there is always help.
In this, let us learn how to construct the particular dashboard you see above.
- Arrange the data: For a simple dashboard like this, you can arrange the data in this fashion.
- Create Dashboard Layout and Load data: Once the data is in-place, create a blank layout. You can follow any template. I liked the Michigan State Dashboard template and created something like that.
Once the layout is ready, link to the source data (using Copy & Paste as links).
- Use Conditional Formatting & Formulas to Display Icons: Once the data is loaded, next step is to show icons. This can be done easily with Conditional Formatting and simple formulas. (tip: display alerts in dashboards using conditional formatting)
- Format: Now format everything so it looks awesome.
That is all. You are done!
Download Simple KPI Dashboard Workbook
Click here to download the workbook & play with it.
Special thanks to Michigan State website for the inspiration & Linda for sharing the link.
Do you like this dashboard?
I really liked the simplicity of this dashboard. The Michigan state government folks have done fine job of listing down the metrics and carefully capturing them and presenting the outlook in a crisp fashion.
What about you? Do you like the ideas shared in this article? How would you approach a dashboard project? Please share your tips & ideas using comments.
Want to Learn Dashboards? Go thru these resources:
If you want to learn dashboards, then you have come to the right place. Click thru below links to access a ton of information, ideas & material.
- KPI Dashboards in Excel – 6 part tutorial
- Project Management Dashboard in Excel
- Sales Dashboards in Excel
- More on Dashboards
- Join our Excel School Dashboards Program
30 Responses to “Great News: Chandoo becomes MVP”
Congratulations! It's well deserved. 🙂
This is amazing. Hearty congratulations and a rocking new year ahead!!!
Congrats! I have learnt alot from your site... and the most important is learning how to achieve the most with the simplest concepts.
Thanks for the excel calendar. Is it possible to get a simple big fonted calendar printable on an A4 size paper without any distracive notes or visuals? BTW, I have already signed up for your newsletter. With warm regards and
Gratefully yours
50+ year old CHarish.
Hey Chandoo,
Great to hear that. Congratulations! The best new year gift, I would say. Keep it up, u've been doing extraordinary work for the excel users community.
Regards,
Pankaj Verma
Congrats dude... fantastic news!
congratulations! your site is great, this is well deserved
Rich
I recently found your site, I visit many. The tips that you provide are in the top 1% of all the sites I visit. Keep on Excelling.
Arnold
South Africa
Congratulations, Chandoo! That's a great way to start the year and make the PHD even better.
Congratulations, Chandoo.
Your site is one of most useful on the net. Happy new year and lot of ideas you will present for us.
Congrats.
Just read your name in an email from Abhishek. Well deserved.
Congratulations, and Happy New Year.
Greetings from Rio de Janeiro my friend! You trully deserve it!
Nive way to start 2009! Keep up the good work!
FC
That was quite forseeable , so you have now really got your PhD in excel.
Anyways Chandoo you have made excel a real Fun doo
I will like you to write some more on INDEX and MATCH function in near future.
@Hey Chandoo ! Congrates....
Ab to treat mangta hai !
Well deserved Chandoo!!
Congrat's!! Very well deserved 🙂
i always browsed mr.excel and used to see MVP writtne below names of people who used to solve queries in excel forum there......i just used to admire as to what they have special in them that they are MVP......
but now i got my answer...............u deserve it man..........
@All: thanks everyone 🙂
Congratulations Chandoo, nice job!
Chandoo,
A well deserved recognition and a good start to the New Year. Continue your good work.
Subbu
Many Congratulations.
You deserve a Ph.D. 🙂
congrats.....
Congrats dude. Rock on!
[...] charting community in 2007 and has been growing strongly ever since. In year 2009, I have received the MVP award from Microsoft. Just few days back I have become a dad [...]
Respected sir,
I am impressed!.... Good job done.. Keep it up...
Sir, How to be a MVP certified person. What level of knowledge is required for it? send me links if possible.
Please reply...
Regards,
Dipak Khalasi.
Dipak -
The first thing you need to cultivate is the ability to search the web effectively. You could start by Googling "Microsoft MVP".
[...] boy and girl which has been made hectic and incredibly fun ever since to their life.He has been awarded MVP status in 2009 by Microsoft(and renewed in 2010,2011 & 2012).His MVP profile is here.If you want to contact him direct then [...]
Congrats Chandoo!!
[…] Chandoo becomes MVP […]