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 you'll 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:
- Identify what unit a KPI counts: what each row or case represents
- 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.
Identify what unit a KPI counts: what each row or case represents
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.
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
Common questions
- Do I need to know how to code?
- Not for most of the course. In three exercises you run and change a few lines of Python that are already written, and in two you edit a chart's description. Your Maestro helps if something won't run. What you learn works just as well whether your dashboard is built in Excel, Power BI, Looker Studio or by your AI.
- 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.
- Will it help me ask Claude for a dashboard?
- Yes. The last module has a brief you copy and fill in to ask Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot in Excel for a dashboard, plus a checklist for reviewing what comes back before you share it.
- 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 rate that climbs week after week, and two ways of counting no-shows.
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 one question per page, on up to five pages a day.
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've worked with data for about ten years, mostly at mission-driven organizations: policy research first, then education, and now early childhood services. 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)