A custom dashboard can be a powerful addition to any organization, revealing critical insights that lead to better decision-making, improved productivity and enhanced performance. But the key is to first understand how dashboards can help identify opportunities to deliver value.
To help with this, we’ve highlighted five questions to consider when creating custom dashboards:
1) What is a custom dashboard and how should it relate to ServiceNow?
A dashboard is a way for you to share data about business activities. The data metrics within the dashboard allow people to diagnose performance trends and predict whether their work is on or off course.
As you begin to build dashboards or while reviewing your existing dashboards, make sure the metrics displayed link back to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) selected for your ServiceNow implementation. This will allow you to ensure you are getting the value you expect from ServiceNow.
In addition, at every platform release, ServiceNow provides general guidance for dashboards. Here you can get the technical details of dashboards and consider many options as you customize data for your team.
2) Who should you design the custom dashboard for?
Design dashboards for team members who oversee ServiceNow and for team members using ServiceNow to manage their business operations more efficiently. These “stakeholders” most likely have titles or responsibilities captured below:
- ServiceNow Platform Owner – This is the individual who oversees ServiceNow and whose team uses ServiceNow to manage business needs
- ServiceNow Executive Sponsor – This is the executive selected to support ServiceNow as it was being introduced into the company
- Service Owners - The role that is accountable for the delivery of a specific IT service
- Process Owners - The role that is responsible for design, change management and continual improvement of the process.
- CIO/ Senior IT Leadership – Business executives responsible for IT vision
These are some of the titles and responsibilities of your ServiceNow stakeholders. Make sure to ask your primary stakeholders if other groups or individuals should be included in stakeholder discussions.
3) How do you decide what to include in a dashboard?
To get started, here are four key steps to take:
ServiceNow has a wealth of technical information and guidance related to creating and using dashboards. Look to see if our guidance can further assist your dashboard creation.
4) What are some examples of information to include and how should I lay out the data?
In the example below a company using ServiceNow is tracking employee engagement of a new digital service installment. The company wants to measure unique visitors, return use and how quickly issues are closed.
Data Layout: Typically, the data are laid out with the most important data at the top and secondary supporting data below.
Also, we recommend keeping the number of metrics per dashboard to between 6-10.
5) What should I consider when delivering dashboards to users?
Your dashboard must reach its intended audience so that all stakeholders have the right information to make informed decisions. To best reach stakeholders, consider the following:
- Frequency of updates – If the dashboard data are updated monthly, consider a monthly push notification.
- Method to inform stakeholders – Which delivery method is best for your organization? Is your company email based or are instant messages (IM) (i.e. Slack) the preferred communication product?
- Do executives or fulfillers need more frequent or less frequent dashboard delivery updates?
We have additional resources should you want to explore dashboards as they relate to KPIs and metrics. Please review our Success Checklist Baseline and Track Performance, Usage KPIs and Metrics
Andrew Marwan, Research Manager, Best Practices Center of Excellence – Customer Success at ServiceNow
3 Comments
