Maximizing ROI with Custom Business Intelligence Dashboards.
Dashboards earn their keep when they change a decision — not when they look impressive.
Ian Kessler · Apr 18, 2026 · 6 min read
A dashboard is an argument. Every chart on it should support a decision the reader is about to make. If a tile cannot be tied to an action, delete it; you are paying rent on noise.
The ROI is upstream.
The highest-ROI work is usually upstream: defining the metric, agreeing on the grain, and writing the SQL once — well — so that every surface reads from the same source of truth.
Name the decision the dashboard serves.
Define the metric and the grain in writing.
Model it once, in one place.
Then, and only then, pick a chart.
Treat BI like product.
Versioned, reviewed, and shipped on a cadence. The team that owns the metric owns the outcome — and the fastest way to kill trust in a dashboard is to let two tiles disagree.