Decide over Dashboard

Dashboards are seductive. They make you feel productive without actually producing anything.

Data exists for one purpose: to make better decisions. If your metrics aren’t changing your behavior, they’re just noise with a nice UI.

What This Means in Practice

• Before tracking anything, ask: “What decision will this inform?”
• Set decision criteria BEFORE looking at the data
• Act on signals — don’t wait for certainty
• Delete metrics that don’t drive action

Common Traps

• Checking dashboards daily without changing anything
• Adding metrics “just in case we need them”
• Waiting for more data when you already have enough to decide
• Using analytics to avoid making hard calls

Remember

“In God we trust. All others must bring data.” — W. Edwards Deming

But data without decisions is just decoration.