13.1 Planning: Audience, Questions and KPIs
A dashboard fails most often before anyone opens Excel – because nobody decided who it is for and which questions it must answer.
Steps (on paper first)
- Audience: who opens it, and how often? (Example: Ravindra Bagale, Pune city manager – every morning at 9:00 IST.)
- Questions: write 4–6 business questions. "How much did we sell yesterday and this month?", "Which city and area is behind target?", "Are deliveries getting slower?", "Which category drives sales?"
- KPIs: turn each question into one number with a clear definition (numerator, denominator, filter). Write the definitions on a
Notessheet. - Comparison: a number alone means nothing. Decide what each KPI is compared against – target, last month, or same day last week.
- Granularity and filters: what should the user be able to slice by? (Month, City, Platform, Category.)
- Sketch the layout on paper: KPI cards at the top, trend in the middle, breakdowns below, slicers on the left.
Worked example – KPI definition sheet.
| KPI | Definition | Compared with | Good direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Sales | Sum of Amount, Status = Delivered | Monthly target ₹48,00,000 | ↑ |
| AOV | Net Sales ÷ Delivered Orders | Last month ₹362 | ↑ |
| Cancellation Rate | Cancelled ÷ Total Orders | Target ≤ 5% | ↓ |
| Avg Delivery Time | Average Delivery Mins, Delivered | Promise 12 min | ↓ |
Against target, March Net Sales is ₹49,50,000 ÷ ₹48,00,000 = 103.1% – on track.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
Many students start building charts straight away, and then the dashboard has 12 charts but doesn't answer a single question. First, write down on paper 4–6 questions and the definition of every KPI – its numerator and denominator. If you don't decide first whether "Sales" means Delivered orders or all orders, two people's numbers will never match.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – मराठी
बरेच students थेट charts बनवायला सुरू करतात आणि मग dashboard वर 12 charts होतात पण एकाही प्रश्नाचं उत्तर मिळत नाही. आधी कागदावर 4–6 प्रश्न आणि प्रत्येक KPI ची definition – numerator (अंश) आणि denominator (छेद) – लिहून काढा. "Sales" म्हणजे Delivered की सगळे orders – हे आधी ठरवलं नाही तर दोन लोकांचा आकडा कधीच match होणार नाही.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip – हिंदी
बहुत से students सीधे charts बनाना शुरू कर देते हैं और फिर dashboard पर 12 charts होते हैं पर एक भी सवाल का जवाब नहीं मिलता. पहले काग़ज़ पर 4–6 सवाल और हर KPI की definition – numerator (अंश) और denominator (हर) – लिख लो. "Sales" का मतलब Delivered है या सारे orders – यह पहले तय नहीं किया तो दो लोगों के आँकड़े कभी match नहीं होंगे.
Practice task
For a Nashik store manager, write five business questions and turn them into KPIs with a definition, a comparison and a good direction (↑ or ↓), in a table on a Notes sheet.