Which numbers go on a dashboard? The three to five that matter
Go from the decision to the questions and from the questions to the numbers, and leave out every number that doesn't change what someone does.
Free course. Your Maestro, an AI, .
You already have Lucía's purpose sentence: every Monday she decides which site gets the confirmation calls and whether to open extra slots. Now comes the hardest part of any dashboard: saying no to almost every number you could put on it.
Before you go on, test your instincts with this list. Say someone hands you ten possible numbers for Lucía's dashboard:
- Revenue for the week
- No-show rate by site
- Schedule occupancy (scheduled appointments divided by open slots)
- New patients this month
- Average satisfaction rating
- Appointments completed, compared with the previous week
- Number of doctors per site
- Average time in the waiting room, in minutes
- Appointments by specialty for the whole year
- Cancellations with notice
Which ones help Lucía on Monday morning? Pick before you read on.
Check yourself: Which of these numbers does NOT help Lucía decide which site gets the confirmation calls or whether to open extra slots?
The filter: what would they do differently?
For each candidate number, ask one question: if this number changes, what does the person who decides do differently? If there's a concrete answer, the number makes the cut. If the answer is "nothing" or "it'd be nice to know," it stays off this dashboard (maybe it belongs on another one, or in the monthly report).
A candidate number
If it changes, what does Lucía do differently?
Path 1 of 2: nothing concrete
Off this dashboard
to another dashboard or a report
Ends here.
Path 2 of 2: a concrete action
On the dashboard
with its exact definition
Ends here.
After the filter, Lucía's dashboard keeps four numbers:
| Number | If it changes, Lucía... |
|---|---|
| No-show rate by site | sends the confirmation calls to the site with the highest rate |
| Schedule occupancy by site | knows whether there's room to rebook the people who missed, or whether to open extra slots |
| Appointments completed, vs. the previous week | sees how many people went without care, not just a percentage |
| Average time in the waiting room | avoids opening extra slots where the waiting room is already packed |
The others aren't bad numbers. Revenue, new patients and the year's appointments matter to leadership. Satisfaction matters to the quality team. The number of doctors changes maybe twice a year, not every Monday. And cancellations with notice aren't really gone: they live inside the definition of the no-show rate, as you'll see in module 2.
Why three to five?
It's a rule of thumb, not a law. With one or two numbers you almost always lack the context to decide; with ten, the person no longer knows where to look first and goes back to asking for the data by email. If your filter leaves you with seven numbers that really do change decisions, you most likely have two different decisions, and maybe two dashboards.
A four-number dashboard is also easier to maintain: each number has a definition someone owns, and when one looks off, there are only a few places to check.
If a number feels essential even though it doesn't pass the filter, argue it out with your Maestro.
What isn't a dashboard number
Two things tend to sneak in:
- The detail. The list of patients who didn't show isn't a KPI: it's what Lucía looks at after she decides which site gets the calls. It can live on a separate tab or behind a link, not on the first screen.
- Vanity numbers. "4,464 visits this quarter" sounds like an achievement, but it doesn't change what Lucía does on Monday. If a number only exists to make people feel good or bad, it belongs in the quarterly presentation.
Try it
Go back to the purpose sentence you wrote on the previous page. Write down the three to five numbers for your dashboard and, next to each one, what the person who decides would do differently if it went up. Your Maestro will ask about any that don't have a clear action. If you end up with more than five, ask your Maestro to help you cut them down.
Write down the three to five numbers for your dashboard and, for each one, what the person who decides would do differently if it went up.
Check yourself: Write down the three to five numbers for your dashboard and, for each one, what the person who decides would do differently if it went up.
Think of the dashboard or report you use most at work. Which number on it do you look at first, and which one have you never looked at?
Reflect: Think of the dashboard or report you use most at work. Which number on it do you look at first, and which one have you never looked at?
Only you and your Maestro read this. It's kept on your account and deleted with it.