𝗔 𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆
“Why do we have three dashboards showing revenue?”
My manager asked this during a Monday review.
I opened Power BI.
Dashboard one showed ₹10.2 Cr.
Dashboard two showed ₹9.8 Cr.
Dashboard three showed ₹10.1 Cr.
All three had the same company logo.
All three looked official.
That was the problem.
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗦𝗛𝗕𝗢𝗔𝗥𝗗 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗢𝗔𝗗
The problem wasn't that we had bad dashboards.
We had too many good ones.
I call this dashboard overload.
Every new question became a new report.
Every new stakeholder got a new page.
Every new definition got another measure.
Eventually, the analyst becomes the person maintaining 17 versions of the same answer.
And nobody knows which one to open.
𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗜𝗧 𝗞𝗘𝗘𝗣𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚
Creating a dashboard feels productive.
Deleting one feels like admitting failure.
So analysts keep adding.
A sales manager wants one filter.
Finance wants another definition.
Leadership wants a different view.
Instead of fixing the underlying metric, we create another dashboard.
The dashboard count goes up.
Clarity goes down.
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞
𝘙𝘜𝘓𝘌 𝟭: 𝘖𝘕𝘌 𝘘𝘜𝘌𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘖𝘕, 𝘖𝘕𝘌 𝘋𝘈𝘚𝘏𝘉𝘖𝘈𝘙𝘋
“Write the business question this dashboard is supposed to answer.”
Before, the dashboard started with charts.
After, it starts with a decision.
If you cannot write the question in one sentence, the dashboard probably has too many jobs.
𝘙𝘜𝘓𝘌 𝟮: 𝘍𝘐𝘕𝘋 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘖𝘓𝘋 𝘝𝘌𝘙𝘚𝘐𝘖𝘕
“Before creating a new dashboard, find every existing report answering the same question.”
Before, I created another revenue report.
After, I found four existing ones.
Two were duplicates.
One was outdated.
The fourth became the source of truth.
𝘙𝘜𝘓𝘌 𝟯: 𝘋𝘌𝘍𝘐𝘕𝘌 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘕𝘜𝘔𝘉𝘌𝘙
“Document exactly what this metric includes, excludes, and when it refreshes.”
₹10.2 Cr sounds precise.
It means nothing if Finance calculates revenue differently.
The fix is not another visual.
The fix is agreeing on the definition.
𝘙𝘜𝘓𝘌 𝟰: 𝘔𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘜𝘙𝘌 𝘜𝘚𝘌, 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘗𝘈𝘎𝘌 𝘊𝘖𝘜𝘕𝘛
“Delete or merge any page that does not change a decision.”
This is uncomfortable.
A 12-page dashboard can become six pages.
Then three.
And sometimes one.
The goal isn't to show everything.
The goal is to make the next decision easier.
𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚
Don't turn “fewer dashboards” into another vanity metric.
Some teams genuinely need different operational views.
The fix: remove duplication, not useful context.
𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞
✅ List every Power BI dashboard your team owns.
✅ Mark reports answering the same business question.
✅ Pick one duplicated metric and document its exact definition.
𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚
I went back to those three revenue dashboards.
We kept one.
The other two were archived.
Nobody complained.
Nobody even noticed.
That was probably the best feedback the dashboard could get.
Your value isn't measured by how many dashboards you build.
It's measured by how much confusion you remove.
𝗥𝗘𝗣𝗟𝗬 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗:
OVERLOAD if your team has too many dashboards.
CLEANUP if you're ready to delete a few.
BUILDING if you're still creating dashboards from scratch.
I reply to every single one.
