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Suhail Doshi: Your Dashboard Has 30 Panels and Zero Answers. Pick One Number.

By Suhail Doshi · Leadership · 2 min read

I had a dashboard with 30 panes on it. Mission control. It didn't work. It was really hard to run the company that way. When you build your team, it's confusing — which one do I need to care about? Humans just need to simplify things.

Key Points

The biggest mistake in analytics: being too complicated, tracking too many cohorts, 30-pane dashboards
Pick one North Star metric — if it goes south, you deserve to die. If it goes up, you've made a dent in the universe.
Your first metric will probably be wrong. Commit to it for six months anyway, then change it.

Pick one North Star metric. If that number goes south, you deserve to die. If it goes up, you will have made a huge dent in the universe.

The 30-Panel Dashboard That Didn't Work

Doshi: One of the biggest mistakes people make with analytics is being really over-complicated. Thinking they need to be super sophisticated, track all kinds of crazy cohorts, have a dashboard with 30 panes on it that all load — like mission control.

I don't think that is necessary. I had that. It didn't work. It was really hard to run the company that way. And when you build your team, it will be confusing — which one do I need to care about? Humans just need to simplify things.

I had the 30-pane mission control dashboard. It didn't work. It was really hard to run the company that way.

One North Star Metric

Doshi: Pick one North Star metric. What is a number that you're willing to bet the company on? If that number goes south, you deserve to die. And if that number goes up, you will have made a huge dent in the universe.

I'm not saying you need to choose that metric forever. But choose it for six months. Commit some time to it. Your first choice will probably be wrong — your metrics are usually wrong the first time. Then you can change it. But commit again for another six months.

If that number goes south, you deserve to die. If it goes up, you've made a huge dent in the universe.

Print It Out and Put It Around the Office

Doshi: If what you have to do at the beginning is just print it out and put it all around the office — do it. Because people will start to be maniacally focused on it. They'll show up to meetings and go: yeah, but that number is down — what are we going to do?

Where you can get really complex is discovering why the number is down or why it's going up. That's when you can get sophisticated — slice and dice it, figure out retention, measure a funnel. But keep things really simple. Then pick three to five other things to monitor. Less is more.

Print it out. Put it around the office. People will show up to meetings asking: that number is down — what are we going to do?