Build Dashboards That
Tell You What To Do
Most dashboards describe what already happened. We build a smaller kind: a few numbers that watch your business, work out what changed, and tell you the next move. An agent pings the owner the moment a line breaks.
3 numbers
NOT THIRTY CHARTS
Pings you
WHEN A LINE IS CROSSED
Days
TO FIRST VERSION
Your dashboard should be a call sheet.
Most dashboards are a museum of last week. Twelve charts, three colours, no targets. You open it, nod, close it.
A useful board names the metric, the target, the owner and the next move. When a number breaks a line, it pings the right person before they ask.
The useful bit's the instruction, not the chart.
YESTERDAY'S DASHBOARD
- Twelve charts, three colours, no targets
- Says down 12% without saying so what
- Open in a tab, read by nobody
- Refreshes when someone remembers
- No owner per number
PRESCRIPTIVE DASHBOARD
- Three numbers that change a decision
- Each number paired with a next move
- Pings the owner when it crosses a line
- Refreshes itself, on a schedule
- A name attached to every metric
Every useful board has the same five parts.
Start with the decision, then give it the few parts it needs. Once you can see the parts, you can build them once.
The one number
The metric this board exists for. If it moves, the week is different. Everything else on the page is there to explain it.
Drivers
The handful of inputs that move the one number. So when it moves, you know where to look without scrolling.
Thresholds
Green, amber, red, with the numbers behind them written down. Off isn't a vibe, it's a band someone agreed to.
The next move
When the number is red, what someone is meant to do about it, and who. Written next to the chart, not lost in a Slack thread.
The loop
An AI agent watches the board, pings the owner when a line breaks, logs what they did, and learns which actions actually moved the number next week.
Reporting is only rung one.
Gartner's Analytic Ascendancy Model frames it as four questions. Reporting answers the first. This service is about the fourth.
What happened?
Last month's revenue. Yesterday's tickets. The chart everyone already has. This is most dashboards.
Why did it happen?
Drill into the drop. Which segment, which channel, which week. The dashboard answers a follow-up question without a meeting.
What's about to happen?
Forecast next month from what's already in the pipeline. Spot the cliff before you walk off it, not during the post-mortem.
What should we do?
The board names the move and the owner. An agent watches it, pings on a breach, and learns from what worked. This is where we build.
Framing adapted from Gartner's Analytic Ascendancy Model: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics.
Where we come in.
We start with the decision the board is meant to serve, not the data you happen to have. Then we connect what's already in your stack and launch a first version before the scope sprawls.
No twelve-month BI engagement. Fixed-scope phases, working software you own, the dashboards and the data model.
START A DASHBOARD AUDITDecision audit
A working session with your leadership. We name the three decisions the board needs to support, the one number behind each, and the action that follows a breach. Scope and price up front, no slides.
Model the data
We connect Xero, HubSpot, Stripe, your CRM, your spreadsheets and whatever else holds the truth. One clean model, one source per number, no copy-paste.
Launch the first board
Three numbers, drivers, thresholds, owners and the move per metric. Your team starts using it in the next leadership meeting.
Add the agent on top
An AI watches the metrics on your schedule. When a line breaks, it pings the owner, drafts the diagnosis, and proposes the next move. It logs the outcome and learns which actions actually moved the number.
What it looks like once it's running.
Three common ways a prescriptive board works once the agent is on top of it. The detail differs per business, the pattern doesn't.
Pipeline coverage drops below 3x.
Board flips amber on Monday. The agent pings the sales lead, lists the three stalled deals it thinks are the cause, drafts an outreach plan for each, and books a slot to review.
First-response time creeping up.
Median support response crosses the threshold mid-week. The agent identifies the queue, flags two tickets ageing fast, and proposes a rota tweak for next week.
Runway compresses ahead of plan.
Burn rate moves outside the band. The agent reconciles Xero, names the two cost lines that drove it, and drafts the email to chase the overdue invoices it thinks closed the gap last time.
The ones we get asked first.
Can't we just use Power BI or Tableau?
You can, and sometimes we use them under the hood. The tool isn't the problem. The reason your existing reports don't get acted on is they don't carry a target, an owner or a move. We design the decision first and pick the tool that fits.
Our data is a mess. Do we need to fix that first?
No. We start narrow: three numbers, the data for those, cleaned just enough. A big data clean-up before the first board is how most of these projects die. We get one decision working, then widen.
How long does it take?
First usable board in days, depending on how many systems we have to pull from. The agent on top usually lands in the sprint after. Then it keeps getting better from there.
Can the agent actually do the action, not just propose it?
For some moves, yes. Sending the chase email, opening the ticket, kicking off the rota change, all routine and safe. For anything with a real cost, the agent drafts and a human approves. You decide what's automatic, and what goes for sign-off.
Who owns the code and the data?
You do. Source code, data model, dashboards. We can host it for you, or hand it over to your team. No lock-in, no per-seat licence we control.
How much does it cost?
Priced per phase, fixed before we start. First board is scoped against your source systems. The agent on top is a smaller follow-on phase. We tell you the number up front.
What if our team won't trust an agent's recommendation?
Good. They shouldn't, at first. The agent shows its working: which numbers moved, which rule fired, which past action it's copying. After a few weeks of being right about boring things, it earns its way to the bigger ones.
Ready for a board your team actually opens?
Tell us the three decisions you wish your numbers helped you make. You'll come away with the metrics behind them and a clear view of what we'd build first. Thirty minutes, no slides.