Stop Building Dashboards - Why Your Stakeholders Still Want to Download the Data to a Spreadsheet
What’s in the Box?
It’s my niece’s 5th birthday. On the table, there’s a huge pile of presents. Those are only the small ones that would fit on the table. There’s also a bigger one standing next to it. Of course this is the best day of my niece’s life: it’s all about her and she gets to unwrap a lot of boxes with new toys just for her. She marvels at all of them, each more shiny and fancy than the previous one. A doll with a variety of colourful accessories, a kids computer with a range of different buttons. And then the big one: a playing house, big enough to fit a 5-year-old, to be put in the garden.
Just an hour later, all the new toys are lying around, on the table, on the floor. And where is my niece? She’s playing with the big box that contained the playing house.
Why is she playing with that simple, cheap and boring box, and not with the huge amount of colourful and expensive toys? Why did she wish for them in the first place if she’s obviously not interested in them that much? And what does that have to do with dashboards?
Be Careful What You Wish For
Similar to a kid and toys, stakeholders love to wish for new fancy dashboards. They want a variety of visualisations to show their multiple KPIs in different and colourful ways. Ideally, they are able to slice and dice the data presented with a multitude of filters.
Just like a kid on their birthday, they are in awe when the data analyst presents the new all-problem-solving tool, after having spent months figuring out how to transform the data in exactly the right way and including every single feature from the wishlist.
And just like my niece, after a few weeks, the utilisation rate of the new dashboard is at almost zero - the most used feature is the button to download the data into a spreadsheet.
The question is again: Why do stakeholders prefer to work with simple and boring spreadsheets instead of the fancy dashboard? Which stakeholders explicitly asked for!
Simple is Beautiful - and Usable
The answer is exactly there: because spreadsheets are simple.
Nowadays, most people know how to use spreadsheets in order to tweak the data and answer the most urgent business questions. They don’t need to have a degree in statistics or computer science, they don’t have to have spent hours learning how to use an expensive visualisation tool like Tableau or PowerBI.
This simplicity offers another benefit: flexibility.
To play with a box is not just simple, it offers a wide range of possibilities. It only requires imagination and a box can be anything to a kid: a dream castle, a dark cave or the tunnel connecting to another wondrous world.
Spreadsheets offer more flexibility in comparison to dashboards too. They can serve multiple different use cases, which can easily be combined. A single file can contain a database, a project timeline, a report. It can be used as a communication tool. Have you ever tried communicating with your colleagues via a Tableau dashboard?
Dashboards are Dead! - Dashboards are Dead?
Not quite yet.
To summarise, the benefits of spreadsheets are:
Almost every person, including non-analysts, are able to use them nowadays.
They are simple to use.
They can be used for a variety of purposes.
They deliver quick results.
They are flexible and adjustments can easily be made by anyone.
These benefits don’t come without downsides:
As anyone can use them, the results, especially when it comes to analysis, are prone to errors.
More complex functionalities, especially with respect to analysis and reports, are limited or only achievable with a lot of work.
Loading times increase when the amount of data grows too large.
Recurring processes, e.g. reports, require a lot of manual work and are difficult to be automated within spreadsheets.
Data visualisation tools like Tableau or PowerBI solve exactly those issues.
So dashboards are the solution after all. Why all those words for that outcome?
Choose Your Path Wisely
Dashboards are the solution when those issues occur. They should not be used preventively, “just in case those issues may occur some time in the future”.
A dashboard takes more time to develop than a simple spreadsheet report. That means the development takes longer and the effort is higher. Analysts and stakeholders should make sure that the time is well spent and that they have the time to wait for the result.
Otherwise, a spreadsheet as a quick solution or an MVP is the way to go. It can also serve as a prototype to find out if it does solve the stakeholders’ problem.
Through testing and continuous feedback, the spreadsheet solution can be further developed and improved.
After a while, 1 of 3 situations may happen:
The stakeholders’ needs for solving the specific problem have been met and they realise that they needed the information only once - basically, they only needed an analysis. Thankfully you didn’t invest a lot of time in building a complex dashboard! Let’s move on to solving the next problem!
The stakeholders’ needs for solving the specific problem have been met and they require this solution as a regular report. Investing the time into automating the report has been proven valuable, so go ahead!
The stakeholders’ problem has not been solved. Take this as a learning opportunity, get together again and redefine the requirements.
Conclusion
Even though shiny and fancy tools sell themselves better, the simple and boring solutions often solve the problem faster. In order to evaluate if it’s worth investing a lot of resources into a complex solution, talk to your stakeholders first, understand their problem thoroughly and start with a simple solution.
Hi, I'm Nadine. I empower people through comprehensive training and coaching in data analysis and mathematical modelling, equipping them with the tools and knowledge to excel professionally. If you’re interested in finding out how I can support you in your learning journey, book a free 30-minutes introduction call with me right here, or send an email to nadine@mathemalytics.com.