Interactive guide
Report on What Matters
Two failures, and most teams have both. The first is the report nobody asked a question of: requested, built, looked at on Monday, and no decision has ever changed because of it. It is not wrong. It is inert.
The second is worse, because it produces action. The population is not what the title says. The denominator quietly excludes the records that would change the answer. A segment average rests on a handful of records. A two-point difference is described as double. Every one of those is arithmetically correct, every one will move a decision the wrong way, and none of them looks like an error from inside the report. You will build a Metric Dictionary and Reporting Brief. The lab saves your progress in your browser.
Start with a broken answer
Ask a Business Question, Not for a Dashboard
Chapter 1 of 9 · 12 min
The learning path
The first half is about what the number is made of, and it is where most reports have already gone wrong before anybody opens a tool. The second half is about the person reading it: what they will conclude, what the report is not telling them, and how they check it against a record.
What the report is about
- 01Ask a Business Question, Not for a DashboardA question with a decision behind it, and one named reader.12 min · exercise
- 02Choose the Right Population and DenominatorState what the number is about, what it leaves out, and which way that bends the answer.14 min · exercise
- 03Separate Volume, Speed, Quality, Cost, and OutcomeA metric set that answers different questions rather than five versions of one.14 min · exercise
- 04Compare Trends and Useful SegmentsReport the level and the direction, and cut only the segments somebody can act on.12 min · exercise
- 05Use Leading and Lagging IndicatorsPair them, state the lag, and write what would prove the relationship wrong.12 min · exercise
Honesty, and the reader
- 06Show Sample Size, Missing Data, and Blind SpotsPrint the thing next to the number that stops it being misread.14 min · exercise
- 07Connect Summary Metrics to the RecordsEvery summary opens, and one of them gets read on purpose.12 min · exercise
- 08Design for the Person Using the ReportOne audience, decomposed composites, and the anecdote doing its own job.12 min · exercise
- 09Capstone: Build a Reporting BriefRead the assembled brief four ways, validate it, and approve version 1.0.16 min · exercise