davidgasquez.com
📚 Personal bits of knowledge
📝 Add insights on dashboard dysfunction and alternative approaches
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Dashboards.md
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Dashboards.md
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- The dashboard is always just a snapshot of "what" is happening, but knowing the underlying base level data is always needed to understand "why" it's happening.
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- Usually, answers don't lead to Eureka moments, they lead to follow up questions and follow up questions.
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- Having 20 dashboards means one is always likely to be up or down by a statistically significant amount.
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- [Most dashboards are underutilized, with approximately 75% going unused within weeks](https://www.thdpth.com/p/dashboard-dysfunctorrhea-how-the) - they can separate leaders from business reality, create decision bottlenecks, optimize for measurability over importance, and generate false sense of certainty.
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- Alternative approaches to dashboards:
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- Jeff Bezos uses narrative memos and the "70% rule" for decision-making - if you can't write a 2-page narrative explaining your decision, you don't understand it.
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- Warren Buffett spends 80% of day reading industry reports with minimal dashboard reliance - prioritizing external industry context over internal metrics.
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- Jason Fried uses a simple "Hell Yes" gut check instead of metrics - asking "Would I want to do this again?"
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- Real leadership requires the courage to decide with imperfect information - temporarily ignoring dashboards and developing alternative decision-making proxies can lead to better outcomes.