You already know how to create your own Excel table.
But is it professional enough?
What exactly is a professional dashboard?
Define the Components of a Professional Dashboard
A dashboard is a decision-making tool. A good dashboard helps the user to use data to address a specific problem.
A dashboard brings together tables and chart-based indicators, and should be:
concise: ideally it should fit onto one screen, and no more than three.
an overview: don't add too many indicators, or use a font that is difficult to read.
easy to analyze: by someone who doesn't know the subject or source data.
objective: demonstrating strengths and weaknesses of the current situation without judgment.
Discover Your Brief: Produce a Sales Dashboard
You are the new Assistant to the European Sales Director of Zarigual, a company well-known for its competitively priced clothing.
Your boss asks you to analyze a sales file that he has just received.
He tells you:
I’ve got hold of a file which should answer Zarigual’s burning questions, such as:
How have our Western European sales been going since 2019? I’d like it broken down by garment and on a quarterly basis.
Are our 2018 collection pants selling better than the 2020 collection ones?
I’ve got to present the results to my colleagues as soon as possible, in a relevant, smart and presentable format. I need a professional dashboard!
In this course, your brief is to produce this sales dashboard for the Sales Director. Don’t worry, I’ll provide you with step-by-step support so that you can fulfill this task for your colleague.
Ready to go? Let’s get started!
Let’s Recap!
A professional dashboard is:
concise and objective, provides an overview, and can be analyzed.
a key business tool to aid decision-making.
You now know what your brief is. Let’s move on to the next chapter on how to format data in an Excel file!
