Analytics Dashboard Checklist

What this checklist is

A checklist to run before you launch a business or product analytics dashboard. It covers purpose and audience, metric definitions, data freshness, correctness checks, performance, access control, accessibility, ownership and adoption, with a severity and a concrete way to verify each check.

It has 9 chapters and 32 checks, each with how to verify it and how much it matters. For analysts and engineers launching dashboards.

Chapter by chapter

1. Purpose and audience (3 checks)

A dashboard without a clear audience and question tries to serve everyone and helps no one. These checks pin down who it is for and what they will decide with it.

2. Metric definitions (4 checks)

Two dashboards that disagree on the same number destroy trust in both. These checks make every metric defined once, in writing, and visible to readers.

3. Data freshness (4 checks)

A dashboard showing last month's data as if it were today's is worse than no dashboard. These checks make staleness visible and loud.

4. Correctness checks (4 checks)

One wrong number found by a senior reader can end a dashboard's credibility. These checks catch errors before your audience does.

5. Performance (3 checks)

People stop opening dashboards that are slow. These checks keep load times short, mostly by showing less data at once.

6. Access and privacy (3 checks)

Dashboards spread data widely by design. These checks make sure each reader sees only what they should.

7. Accessibility (3 checks)

A dashboard that some readers cannot use is not finished. These checks follow the Analysis Function's testing guidance and WCAG 2.2.

8. Ownership and maintenance (4 checks)

Dashboards outlive the projects that created them. These checks make sure someone keeps this one correct, and retires it when it is no longer useful.

9. Adoption (4 checks)

A dashboard nobody opens has no impact. These checks make sure the audience knows about it, can use it, and that you can tell whether they do.

How it works on Sefism

The checklist is one page: each check has a severity (must, should or nice to have) and a concrete way to verify it, and members can tick checks off as they go. The opening chapters are open to everyone. Adding it to your account uses credits, opens every chapter and keeps your progress.

Every claim is checked against the sources listed on the page (8 cited).