Dashboards: From Performance Art to Decision Support

Interview with Neil Hoyne, Chief Measurement Strategist at Google

Dashboards are a common tool for managers to monitor a company’s performance, and since the COVID-19 pandemic they have gained popularity among even broader audiences. But what is the real use of these dashboards? Is it just performance art or is it a tool that provides managers with the information they need? It may be slightly astonishing that Google employee Neil Hoyne is no fan of dashboards, but he believes they can be toxic when taken out of context. In this interview, he explains his skepticism of monitoring the same KPIs quarter after quarter and suggests different ways to make dashboards more strategically useful to companies. In his view, dashboards should inspire questions and curiosity, reflect market context and align toward specific business initiatives. He also suggests a more professional use of data and favors the scientific inquiry of the relationship between marketing measures and business outcomes.