A Dashboard People Actually Use (and How to Ask Your AI for One)
By the end you can say who a dashboard is for and what it helps them decide, define each number so two people calculate the same thing, build a three-chart dashboard, and ask your AI for one with a brief that leaves nothing to chance.
You go at your own pace, with your Maestro beside you, 1:1, through the whole course: ask it anything, and it asks you questions too.
14 skills · 4 modules
What will you be able to do?
Each box is a skill. The base is at the bottom, recognizing and explaining, and you work your way up to building something of your own and judging what works and why. Hover over a box to see what it builds on. Click it to see where I teach it and how your Maestro checks it.
- Evaluate
- Synthesize
- Apply
- Understand
Evaluate
Critique a dashboard and fix what keeps its reader from deciding
Where I teach it: From number to screen · How do I review a misleading dashboard? Fix one with four questions
Builds on:
- Lay out a dashboard so the reading order follows the decision
- Match a chart to each question a dashboard answers
Your Maestro asks you to judge when it fits and why and saves it as evidence when you do.
Check every number on a dashboard against the data before sharing it
Where I teach it: Ask your AI and check what comes back · How do I know if the numbers my AI gave me are right? Check them before you share
Builds on:
- Write a KPI definition with numerator, denominator, unit and period
- Calculate a rate or an average across groups from their totals, without averaging averages
Your Maestro asks you to judge when it fits and why and saves it as evidence when you do.
Review a dashboard an AI made against its brief, with a checklist
Where I teach it: Ask your AI and check what comes back · Is my dashboard ready to share? Review it with five questions
Builds on:
- Write a brief for an AI to build a dashboard
- Check every number on a dashboard against the data before sharing it
Your Maestro asks you to judge when it fits and why and saves it as evidence when you do.
Synthesize
Lay out a dashboard so the reading order follows the decision
Where I teach it: From number to screen · What goes at the top of a dashboard? Lay it out in reading order
Builds on:
- Match a chart to each question a dashboard answers
Your Maestro asks you to build something of your own with it and saves it as evidence when you do.
Write a brief for an AI to build a dashboard
Where I teach it: Ask your AI and check what comes back · How do I ask Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot for a dashboard? Write a brief
Builds on:
- Lay out a dashboard so the reading order follows the decision
- Write a KPI definition with numerator, denominator, unit and period
Your Maestro asks you to build something of your own with it and saves it as evidence when you do.
Apply
Write a dashboard's purpose: who opens it, how often and what they decide
Where I teach it: Who it's for and why · What is a dashboard for? Who opens it and what they decide with it
Builds on:
- Explain why a dashboard should serve a decision someone makes often
Your Maestro asks you to use it on a new case and saves it as evidence when you do.
Choose the three to five numbers that help make a decision
Where I teach it: Who it's for and why · Which numbers go on a dashboard? The three to five that matter
Builds on:
- Write a dashboard's purpose: who opens it, how often and what they decide
Your Maestro asks you to use it on a new case and saves it as evidence when you do.
Write a KPI definition with numerator, denominator, unit and period
Where I teach it: Numbers that mean one thing · How do you define a KPI? Write its definition sheet
Builds on:
- Distinguish what one data row represents from the unit counted by a metric
- Choose the three to five numbers that help make a decision
Your Maestro asks you to use it on a new case and saves it as evidence when you do.
Calculate a rate or an average across groups from their totals, without averaging averages
Where I teach it: Numbers that mean one thing · Can you average percentages? Why the average of averages lies
Builds on:
- Write a KPI definition with numerator, denominator, unit and period
Your Maestro asks you to use it on a new case and saves it as evidence when you do.
Give a number context: against the previous period and against the target
Where I teach it: Numbers that mean one thing · What do you compare a KPI against? The target, last week and the trend
Builds on:
- Write a KPI definition with numerator, denominator, unit and period
Your Maestro asks you to use it on a new case and saves it as evidence when you do.
Match a chart to each question a dashboard answers
Where I teach it: From number to screen · Which charts go on a dashboard? One chart per question
Builds on:
- Choose the three to five numbers that help make a decision
Your Maestro asks you to use it on a new case and saves it as evidence when you do.
Understand
Explain why a dashboard should serve a decision someone makes often
Where I teach it: Who it's for and why · What is a dashboard for? Who opens it and what they decide with it
Your Maestro asks you to explain it in your own words and saves it as evidence when you do.
Distinguish what one data row represents from the unit counted by a metric
Where I teach it: Numbers that mean one thing · How do you define a KPI? Write its definition sheet
Your Maestro asks you to explain it in your own words and saves it as evidence when you do.
Who is this course for?
For anyone who builds or requests dashboards at work and wants people to check them every week. What you learn works in Excel, Power BI, Looker Studio or with Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot. You need very little coding: in three exercises, you change a few lines of Python that are already written, and your Maestro helps if something doesn't run.
Ask your Maestro
Your Maestro is an AI that knows this course. Ask it about the first page and it answers right here, free.
You: Where do I start?
Your Maestro: From what you already know. Tell me what you've done with data, and I'll start this page from there.
Asking about: Answers from the page "How do I build a dashboard people actually use? Start here"
Only this browser keeps what you ask here. How it works
What we'll cover
Who it's for and why
Numbers that mean one thing
From number to screen
Ask your AI and check what comes back
How long does it take?
1 to 1.8 hours
A guide: you go at your own pace, and the course waits where you left off.
Common questions
- How do I build a dashboard people actually use?
- Start with who reads it and what they decide with it. Then define every number so two people calculate the same thing, use one chart per question, and order them the way people read. Three well-thought charts get used more than fifteen. The course walks you through it step by step.
- Do I need to code for this course?
- Not for most of it. There are three exercises where you change a few lines of Python that are already written, and two where you edit a chart description. Your Maestro helps if something does not run. What you learn works the same in Excel, Power BI, Looker Studio or with your AI.
- Do I need a course, or can I learn this on my own?
- You can learn it on your own, and many people do. A course gives you the order: what to practice first, ready-to-use data, and exercises that show where you go wrong before it happens at work. This course is free, and your Maestro answers questions as you go. If you prefer going solo, the method still works.
- Is it free? Do I need an account?
- It's free. You can read every page without an account. With a free account you enroll with one tap, run the exercises and ask your Maestro about your own dashboard.
- How do I ask Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot for a dashboard?
- With a brief that leaves nothing to chance: who reads it, what decision they make, what each number means and how many charts you want. The last module has a brief to copy and fill in, and a checklist to review what comes back before you share it. It works the same in Excel.
- Is the data real?
- No. The clinic's appointments in this course are synthetic data, made up so the cases that trip people up in real life show up: a small site with a high rate, a week with a rising rate, and two ways of counting no-shows.
How do I check what AI does? I teach it in Your AI and Your Data: Don't Let It Make Up the Number and Check what AI gives you in three steps.
What you get
- 4 modules and 13 pages, open whenever you want them.
Open to everyone: read all of it, and your Maestro, an AI, answers your questions on every page.
With a free account: your Maestro for the whole course, always on the page you're on, and the exercises run with nothing to install.
Words you'll meet
In the lessons, tap one to see what it means, or ask your Maestro about it.
Who's teaching you
Sergio Sánchez
I'm Sergio, chekos online. I'm a data architect, and I've spent more than ten years working with data in the Bay Area, mostly at mission-driven organizations: policy research first, then education, and now early childhood services. I grew up in Tijuana. In 2018 I started tacosdedatos to share what I was learning, and since then it's been a blog, a podcast, courses, guides, and a community. These days I spend a lot of my time building with AI agents and writing about how I organize my work around them. I share what I've learned; you take what's useful and make it yours.
See you in the course
A Dashboard People Actually Use (and How to Ask Your AI for One)