Dashboards: Track Your Organizational Progress
Karl Hedstrom, NTEN
In the interest of full disclosure, let me start by saying that I've always loved numbers. Manipulating data and translating numbers into something others can understand gives me a nerdy sense of joy. It works out well, then, that one of my tasks each week at NTEN is the maintenance of our Organizational Dashboard.
NTEN's Dashboard is a snapshot of our many different program areas and associated goals. By tracking specific data related to our Memberships, Events, Website, and a few other areas, we can use the Dashboard to see at a glance where we ARE, where we WERE, and where we SHOULD BE (and sometimes even where we're GOING).
If your organization hasn't spent much time developing a dashboard, let our experience be your guide.
When I started at NTEN back in 2006 as an AmeriCorps Volunteer, my first task was to sort through a pile of returned mail and fix bad addresses. My second task was to take charge of our Organizational Dashboard. While I'd like to think my address fixing skills were impressive enough to warrant this apparent increase in responsibility, the more likely explanation is that these two projects carried about the same importance to the organization -- which should give you an idea about the perceived value of our Dashboard at the time.
Since then, however, NTEN's Dashboard has seen many improvements. By working with other staff, our board, and even the wider NTEN Community, it is now a document that has a front seat at every staff meeting, no longer to be passed off as busy work to the new, untested employee.
So what did we change?
Determine What To Track
The first step is figuring out what information you should track. We already had organizational goals, of course, and a mission, but they weren't easily quantifiable. So, we backed up and started with the question, "How do we know if our organization is succeeding?" This helped us define a list of measurable goals, and also allowed us to define exactly how those goals would be tracked.
The trick is deciding which metrics will let you know if you're reaching our goals -- turning data into actual intelligence -- and refining both the goals and the metrics over time.
For example, if our mission is to help more nonprofits use technology successfully, we could set a goal of increasing our membership, on the assumption that our Members are more engaged in our overall community. If our goal is to have 5,000 Members by the end of the year, then, we have to define what it means to be a Member. Does this mean 5,000 individuals or 5,000 organizations? Are these paying Members? Are there ways a Member can become a Non-Member? And so on. These are questions we'd need to revisit, at least once a year, as the data comes in.
Along these same lines came figuring out what information NOT to track. Most systems can give you far more data than anyone could ever use, so the trick is filtering out the excess and leaving only what your organization really needs. If there's data that doesn't relate to any of your goals or core program areas, or if no one at your organization is ever going to use it, then it's probably not worth tracking -- especially if it's already saved in one of your other systems.
Determine How To Track
Step two is to figure out exactly what data points and how much detail are required to generate all this information. With more detailed data, it's easier to adjust to changes in your organizational goals. The tradeoff is more time spent gathering the data, and a more cluttered Dashboard.
Going back to the Membership example, if we only track a single number for our Membership Total, it's very quick to gather and record the data, but we lose the option of extracting any additional information in the future. On the other hand, if we track every Membership Package on offer, it might take us 10 times as long to gather and record the data, but we then have much more flexibility in adjusting the type of information we want to look at.
Make It Look Good
The final step in transforming your Dashboard into something beautiful is, well, making it look pretty. As silly as it sounds, this is actually one of the most important steps.
The first part of this is hiding all the raw data and calculations in separate tabs where most staff will never venture. Giving these tabs boring names can help too, as it will discourage people from accidentally navigating away from the pretty charts and potentially getting scared off. Of course, I still make these Data tabs as pretty and organized as I can, but this is more for my own benefit.
The second part is creating the "Front Page." This is where we put all the fancy charts that show at a glance exactly how our organization is doing. It's also the only part of the Dashboard most people will ever look at. If they don't immediately understand what they're seeing or can't find what they're looking for, you've already lost them.
What are the tricks to making this page as useful and unintimidating as possible? Well, keep the amount of data to a minimum. Only the MOST IMPORTANT goals and statistics belong on the front page. The other tricks are more design related and a bit outside my expertise, but the basics are to keep everything big and easy to read, don't require scrolling (if possible), and use a minimum of colors that work together, while also providing visual cues about the data -- i.e., green=good, red=bad.
So now, more than 2 1/2 years after I was first charged with the upkeep of NTEN's Dashboard, and after countless small revisions and improvements, it has firmly established itself as the official record of NTEN's many programs. However, even though this version be immortalized in the NTEN Connect Archives, the real Dashboard will continue its evolution.
It's this ability to change along with the organization that is at the heart of any good Dashboard.
