How do I ask Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot for a dashboard? Write a brief
Copy a brief template, fill it in with what you've learned, and ask Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot for the dashboard without leaving anything to chance.
Free course. Your Maestro, an AI, .
Lucía knows what dashboard she wants. Now she wants her AI to build it. Here's how her first attempt went.
Illustrative scenario: written for this course, not a real response from any AI.
Lucía uploads the appointments file and types: "Make me a dashboard with this data." She gets back a dashboard with eight charts. At the top, in big type: "Quarterly revenue: $2,261,450." Then a pie chart of revenue by specialty, appointments by week, slots by site. The no-show rate shows up at the very bottom, on a small card: "10.2%."
None of those numbers is wrong. Revenue is the total for the quarter, and 10.2% is the no-show rate for all thirteen weeks combined. But Lucía decides every Monday based on last week, and the dashboard tells her nothing about last week. The AI did what it could with what it was given: it didn't know who would open it, what they decide, which period matters or how a no-show is counted. It filled the gaps with reasonable assumptions, and reasonable isn't what Lucía needs.
Check yourself: What was missing from the request "Make me a dashboard with this data"?
A brief is the whole course, on one page
A brief is the instruction sheet you'd hand to someone who's going to build the dashboard for you and can't ask you anything. Everything you did in the earlier modules goes in it:
- the purpose sentence (module 1),
- the numbers with their definition sheets and grain, and what they're compared against (module 2),
- one chart per question, in reading order (module 3).
Three parts are new. The data context: what each row is and what the columns that matter mean, because the AI sees the column names, not what your team means by them. What you don't want, because AI tends to pile things on. And how you'll check it: you ask for the totals and formulas it used, so you can verify them on the next page.
Copy the template and fill it in. Replace whatever is in brackets.
# Dashboard brief## 1. Context and data- Organization and topic: [...]- File: [name]. Each row is [a week, a site, a customer...].- Columns that matter and what they mean: [...]- The data is aggregated or synthetic: no names or personal data.## 2. Who reads it and what they decideEvery [when], [who] uses this dashboard to decide [what].They open it on: [laptop, phone].## 3. Numbers (3 to 5), each with its definition- [Name] = [numerator] / [denominator]. Grain: [what it counts]. Target: [...].- For totals: add up the counts and divide at the end. Don't average rates or averages.## 4. Comparisons- Each number against [the previous period] and against [the target].- The difference between two rates, in percentage points.## 5. Charts and order- Top: the numbers from section 3, with their comparisons.- [Question] -> [chart that answers it].- [Question] -> [chart that answers it].## 6. Period- [The latest full week, last month...], stated in the title.## 7. Format- [One page, an Excel sheet, an image...]. It should read in one column.## 8. What I don't want- [Numbers that don't change the decision, pie charts, filters at the top...]## 9. How I'll check it- Before the dashboard, give me a table with the numerators and denominators you used, by [group], plus a total row.- Write out the formula for each number.- Tell me which rows or dates you left out and why.- If something in this brief can't be done with the data, tell me instead of assuming.Before you paste your data
Your work data may include names, phone numbers or diagnoses. Don't paste them into an AI just because it's convenient. Give it an aggregated table (by week and site, like the clinic's) or synthetic data with the same columns, and check what your company allows. For a dashboard you almost never need to know who each person is; you need to count them. If your company won't let you upload data to an AI, ask your Maestro what your options are.
Where you paste it
The template works the same in any assistant. What changes is where the dashboard shows up and what the assistant does with your file. Pick the one you use:
In Claude, a dashboard usually shows up as an artifact: a panel next to the conversation where you see the result and can ask for changes.
Anthropic's help article on artifacts says an artifact can be a document, code, a single-page website, a diagram, a dashboard or a small interactive tool, and that artifacts are available on the Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. For Claude to run code and create files, the Cloud code execution and file creation option has to be turned on in Settings > Capabilities (on Team and Enterprise, in Organization settings > Capabilities).
Attach your file, paste the whole brief and ask for the table from section 9 first. Check that table before you ask for the dashboard.
OpenAI has a help page on data analysis with ChatGPT. Read it before you upload anything: what ChatGPT offers changes over time and depends on your account, and this course promises nothing beyond what that page says.
The brief stays the same. Attach the file, paste the whole brief in the same message and ask for the table from section 9 first, with the formula for each number. If ChatGPT shows you the code it used, review it; if it doesn't, ask for it. What you'll check on the next page is the table and the formulas, not the tool.
Copilot in Excel works on the data in your sheet. Microsoft's help page (in Spanish) says "Describa el gráfico que quiera y Copilot lo generará" (describe the chart you want and Copilot will create it), and that Copilot can build a PivotTable without the manual steps; the more detail you give it, the better. It also asks you to review, edit and double-check everything Copilot creates.
Use the brief as a script: first ask for a PivotTable with the numerators and denominators from section 9, then one chart for each question in section 5, with its number's definition.
Lucía's brief
Worked example · 5 steps
Fill in the template for Lucía's Monday dashboard, using Clínica Alba's appointments file.
Work out the next step yourself, then open it to compare.
What Lucía's brief leaves out teaches something too: it says nothing about colors or fonts, and it never asks the AI to "act like an expert." Everything it does say is something the AI couldn't have known.
Try it
Fill in the template for the dashboard behind your purpose sentence, the one you wrote in module 1. If you don't have a dashboard of your own, use Lucía's with one change: now it's read by the clinic's director, who decides every month which site gets one more hire. The sentence, the numbers and the period all change. When you're done, paste it to your Maestro and ask which part still leaves something to chance. If you're not sure what goes under "What I don't want," ask.
Write out your filled-in brief, or at least three sections: who reads it and what they decide (2), your numbers with their formulas (3), and how you'll check it (9).