Using dashboards to manage better

What is a dashboard?

A “dashboard” is a set of performance measures that gives the management a clear snapshot of progress on Washington State's most critical performance objectives. Data dashboards have been used by businesses around the world for many years. However, the concept is still relatively new to state government.

Why do we use it?

When you say dashboard, most people think of their car dashboard. Much like state government, cars have a lot of parts that have to work together to get you from your home to work and vice versa. In a single glance, your car dashboard gives you all the important information you need to know about how your car is working. That is the power of the dashboard.

Like cars, our dashboards do not measure everything. We use dashboards in performance reports to give executives and citizens a snapshot of what is working well and what is not, and what requires action to get the results that matter to citizens.

Where do measures for dashboards come from?

How do you pick what measures go into a dashboard?

Here are some of the criteria we use to determine what performance measures go on a dashboard.

  • Relevant: helps determine if we are achieving our high level goals.
  • Clear and meaningful: to each other and to the citizens we serve.
  • Influence: agency can influence the results.
  • Alignment: with Governor’s priorities and clearly tied to key strategies to achieve those priorities.
  • Significant: close to the core mission of the agency with significant dollars invested.
  • Feasible: the data is on hand or the agency can collect it.
  • Reliable: there is confidence in how the data is collected and reported.
  • Useful: the agency already uses the data to make management decisions (or would find it useful).
  • Frequent: the data can be tracked on a monthly or quarterly basis.

To learn more about data dashboards