Executive Dashboard Templates: 12 Free Examples for CEOs, CFOs & CROs

Introduction

The best executive dashboards answer your most important questions in 3 seconds.

After building dashboards for 15+ C-suite executives across SaaS, e-commerce, and professional services, I've learned what separates great dashboards from useless ones: Focus.

A great dashboard tracks 5-10 metrics that drive decisions. A bad one tracks 50 metrics that create analysis paralysis.

In this guide, I'll share 12 executive dashboard templates you can copy today, with real examples and best practices.

What Makes a Great Executive Dashboard?

The 3-Second Test

Can you answer your top 3 questions in 3 seconds?

Example for CEO:

1. Are we hitting our revenue target? ✅ Yes, 107% of plan
2. Are we on track to make payroll for 6 months? ✅ Yes, 8 months runway
3. Is the team productive? ⚠️ Engineering velocity down 15%

If your dashboard passes this test, it's good.

The 5 Principles of Executive Dashboards

1. Hierarchy: Most important metrics at the top

2. Context: Show target/benchmark, not just raw numbers

❌ Revenue: $1.2M
✅ Revenue: $1.2M (107% of $1.12M target) ✅

3. Trend: Show direction (up, down, flat)

❌ MRR: $450K
✅ MRR: $450K (+12% MoM) ↗️

4. Action: Red/yellow/green signals drive action

✅ Green: On track, nothing needed
⚠️ Yellow: Watch closely, may need action
🚨 Red: Requires immediate attention

5. Drill-down: Click to see details (dashboard = summary, not full report)

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12 Executive Dashboard Templates

1. CEO Dashboard Template

Purpose: Company health at a glance

Metrics to track:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
COMPANY HEALTH SNAPSHOT
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Revenue
$1.2M (107% of $1.12M target)        ✅
Trend: +15% MoM                      ↗️

Runway
8.2 months                           ⚠️
Target: >6 months

Cash Balance
$1.65M                               ✅
Burn: $201K/month

Team Headcount
47 (target: 50 by Q4)                ✅
Open roles: 3

Customer Health
NPS: 48 (target: >40)                ✅
Churn: 3.2% (target: <5%)            ✅

Product Velocity
Story points: 187 (down 15% vs Q2)   ⚠️

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TOP PRIORITIES THIS WEEK
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🚨 Close Series B (term sheet signed, DD in progress)
⚠️ Hire VP Sales (3 final candidates)
✅ Launch new product tier (on track for Friday)

Sections:

1. Revenue & growth
2. Cash & runway
3. Team & hiring
4. Customer health
5. Product progress
6. Top priorities

Update frequency: Daily (auto-update from systems)

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2. CFO Dashboard Template

Purpose: Financial health and forecasting

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FINANCIAL SNAPSHOT - November 2024
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Revenue
MRR: $450K (+12% MoM)                ✅
ARR: $5.4M (on track for $6.5M EOY)  ✅
New MRR: +$68K
Churn MRR: -$14K
Net New MRR: +$54K

Profitability
Gross Margin: 78%                    ✅
EBITDA Margin: -42%                  (expected at stage)
Burn Multiple: 2.1                   ⚠️ (target <2.0)

Cash Management
Cash: $1.65M                         ✅
Monthly Burn: $201K
Runway: 8.2 months                   ⚠️
Next milestone: $3M ARR (4 months)

Unit Economics
CAC: $4,200                          ✅
LTV: $18,900 (LTV:CAC = 4.5:1)       ✅
Payback: 14 months                   ⚠️ (target <12)

Budget Performance
Revenue: 107% of plan                ✅
OpEx: 98% of budget                  ✅
Headcount: 94% of plan (47/50)       ✅

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BOARD METRICS
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Revenue Growth: 15% MoM              ✅
Net Revenue Retention: 112%          ✅
Gross Retention: 97%                 ✅
Magic Number: 0.85                   ✅

Sections:

1. Revenue metrics (MRR, ARR, churn)
2. Profitability (margins, burn)
3. Cash position and runway
4. Unit economics (CAC, LTV, payback)
5. Budget vs. actuals
6. Board-ready metrics

Update frequency: Daily for revenue/cash, weekly for detailed metrics

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3. CRO/VP Sales Dashboard Template

Purpose: Pipeline, revenue, and sales team performance

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REVENUE DASHBOARD - Week of Nov 18
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Quota Attainment
Month: $412K / $500K (82%)           ⚠️
Quarter: $1.28M / $1.5M (85%)        ⚠️
8 days left in month

Pipeline Health
Total Pipeline: $6.2M                ✅
Coverage Ratio: 4.1x                 ✅ (target 4x)
Weighted Pipeline: $1.86M

This Month's Forecast: $485K         ⚠️ (97% of quota)

Stage Breakdown
Discovery: $2.4M (48 opps)
Qualification: $1.8M (32 opps)
Proposal: $1.2M (18 opps)
Negotiation: $800K (12 opps)         🎯

Win Rate: 18% (target: 20%)          ⚠️
Avg Deal Size: $42K (up from $38K)   ✅
Sales Cycle: 67 days (target: 60)    ⚠️

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TEAM PERFORMANCE (Top 5 / Bottom 3)
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🥇 Sarah Chen      $128K (154% to quota) ✅
🥈 Marcus Kim      $115K (138% to quota) ✅
🥉 Alex Rivera     $98K  (118% to quota) ✅
4. Jamie Foster    $87K  (104% to quota) ✅
5. Taylor Brooks   $82K  (98% to quota)  ⚠️
...
8. Jordan Lee      $45K  (54% to quota)  🚨
9. Casey Morgan    $38K  (46% to quota)  🚨

Team Avg: $76K (91% to quota)        ⚠️

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
KEY DEALS THIS WEEK
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🎯 TechCorp ($125K ARR) - Negotiation
   Close prob: 80% | Expected close: Nov 22

⚠️ GlobalSystems ($95K ARR) - Proposal
   Close prob: 40% | Stalled 2 weeks

✅ StartupCo ($68K ARR) - CLOSED Nov 15

Sections:

1. Quota attainment (month, quarter)
2. Pipeline coverage and health
3. Key sales metrics (win rate, cycle, deal size)
4. Rep leaderboard
5. Key deals

Update frequency: Real-time from CRM

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4. CMO/VP Marketing Dashboard Template

Purpose: Marketing performance and ROI

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MARKETING DASHBOARD - November 2024
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Lead Generation
Total Leads: 1,247                   ✅
MQLs: 342 (27% conversion)           ✅
SQLs: 128 (37% MQL→SQL rate)         ✅
Target: 120 SQLs                     ✅

CAC Performance
Blended CAC: $4,200                  ✅
Paid CAC: $6,800
Organic CAC: $1,200

Channel Performance (by MQLs)
Organic Search: 142 MQLs ($850 CPA)  ✅
Paid Search: 89 MQLs ($4,200 CPA)    ⚠️
Content/SEO: 67 MQLs ($380 CPA)      ✅
Referral: 44 MQLs ($0 CPA)           ✅

Marketing Spend
Budget: $78K
Spent: $74K (95%)                    ✅
Remaining: $4K

Pipeline Contribution
Marketing-sourced: $2.4M (39%)       ✅
Sales-sourced: $3.8M (61%)

Closed Revenue (Marketing-sourced)
This Month: $142K                    ✅
This Quarter: $487K                  ✅
Marketing ROI: 3.8:1                 ✅

Website Traffic
Sessions: 42,500 (+18% MoM)          ✅
Conversion Rate: 2.9% (stable)       ✅
Top Pages: /pricing, /demo, /blog/board-portal

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CAMPAIGNS THIS MONTH
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✅ CFO Webinar Series: 89 MQLs, 12 SQLs
⚠️ LinkedIn Ads: $12K spent, 23 MQLs ($522 CPA - high)
🚀 SEO Content Push: Traffic +28%, MQLs +45%

Sections:

1. Lead volume and conversion
2. CAC by channel
3. Marketing spend
4. Pipeline contribution
5. Revenue attribution
6. Website metrics
7. Campaign performance

Update frequency: Daily for traffic/leads, weekly for ROI

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5. CTO/VP Engineering Dashboard Template

Purpose: Product velocity and technical health

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
ENGINEERING DASHBOARD - Sprint 24
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Sprint Metrics
Story Points Completed: 187          ⚠️
Target: 220 (85% of target)
Velocity Trend: -15% vs avg          ⚠️

Sprint Health
Committed: 220 points
Delivered: 187 points (85%)          ⚠️
Spillover: 33 points (15%)

Sprint Goal: API v2 Launch           ⚠️
Status: 2 days behind, launch moved to Monday

Team Capacity
Planned: 220 points (10 engineers)
PTO Impact: -22 points (2 out)
Unplanned Work: -18 points (bugs)    ⚠️

Product Roadmap
Q4 Milestones: 3/5 complete          ⚠️
✅ Mobile app MVP
✅ SSO integration
🔄 API v2 (85% done)
⬜ Advanced reporting
⬜ Webhooks

Technical Debt
Debt Ratio: 18%                      ⚠️ (target <15%)
P0 Bugs: 3                           🚨
P1 Bugs: 12                          ⚠️

System Health
Uptime: 99.97%                       ✅ (target >99.9%)
API Response Time: 145ms             ✅ (<200ms)
Error Rate: 0.08%                    ✅ (<0.1%)

Deploy Frequency
Deploys This Week: 8                 ✅
Mean Time to Deploy: 12 min          ✅
Rollback Rate: 0%                    ✅

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TOP PRIORITIES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🚨 Fix P0 authentication bug (in progress)
⚠️ Complete API v2 launch (by Monday)
⚠️ Reduce technical debt to <15% (allocate 20% capacity)

Sections:

1. Sprint velocity
2. Roadmap progress
3. Technical debt and bugs
4. System health (uptime, performance)
5. Deploy metrics
6. Team capacity

Update frequency: Real-time for system health, daily for sprint metrics

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6. Customer Success Dashboard Template

Purpose: Customer health and retention

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CUSTOMER SUCCESS DASHBOARD - Nov 2024
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Retention Metrics
Logo Churn: 3.2% monthly             ✅ (target <5%)
Revenue Churn (gross): 4.1%          ✅ (target <5%)
Revenue Retention (net): 112%        ✅ (target >100%)

Expansion: +$68K MRR this month      ✅
Churn: -$14K MRR this month          ✅

Customer Health Score
Healthy (8-10): 127 customers (68%)  ✅
At Risk (5-7): 42 customers (23%)    ⚠️
Churning (0-4): 18 customers (9%)    🚨

NPS Score
Score: 48 (up from 42 last quarter)  ✅
Promoters: 58%
Passives: 32%
Detractors: 10%

Support Metrics
Avg Response Time: 2.3 hours         ✅ (target <4h)
Avg Resolution Time: 8.2 hours       ✅ (target <12h)
CSAT: 4.6 / 5.0                      ✅
Open Tickets: 23                     ✅

Expansion Opportunities
Upsell Pipeline: $245K ARR           ✅
Cross-sell Qualified: 34 accounts
Renewal Risk: $128K ARR              ⚠️

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ACCOUNTS REQUIRING ATTENTION
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🚨 TechCorp ($95K ARR) - Not using product, renewal in 30 days
🚨 GlobalSystems ($68K ARR) - Support escalation, exec call scheduled
⚠️ StartupCo ($42K ARR) - Usage down 40%, check-in needed

Sections:

1. Retention and churn
2. Customer health scores
3. NPS and satisfaction
4. Support performance
5. Expansion pipeline
6. At-risk accounts

Update frequency: Daily for support, weekly for health scores

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7. Board Meeting Dashboard Template

Purpose: High-level metrics for board reporting

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BOARD DASHBOARD - Q3 2024
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Financial Performance
ARR: $5.4M (+35% YoY)                ✅
Revenue Growth: 15% MoM              ✅
Gross Margin: 78%                    ✅

Profitability & Cash
EBITDA Margin: -42%                  (path to profitability: Q2 2025)
Cash: $1.65M
Monthly Burn: $201K
Runway: 8.2 months                   ⚠️

Customer Metrics
Total Customers: 187 (+28% YoY)      ✅
Logo Churn: 3.2% monthly             ✅
Net Revenue Retention: 112%          ✅
NPS: 48                              ✅

Sales & Marketing
New ARR (this quarter): $487K        ✅
Pipeline: $6.2M (4.1x coverage)      ✅
CAC: $4,200
LTV: $18,900 (LTV:CAC = 4.5:1)       ✅
CAC Payback: 14 months               ⚠️

Product & Engineering
Uptime: 99.97%                       ✅
Sprint Velocity: 187 pts (85%)       ⚠️
Roadmap: 60% of Q4 goals complete

Team
Headcount: 47 (plan: 50)             ✅
Open Roles: 3 (VP Sales, 2 engineers)
eNPS: 72                             ✅

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STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
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✅ Launch enterprise tier (completed Oct 15)
🔄 Series B fundraise (term sheet signed, DD in progress)
⚠️ Expand to EMEA (delayed to Q1 2025)

Sections:

1. Revenue and growth
2. Cash and profitability
3. Customer health
4. Sales efficiency
5. Product progress
6. Team metrics
7. Strategic initiatives

Update frequency: Monthly

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8. SaaS Startup Dashboard Template

Purpose: Key metrics for early-stage SaaS

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SAAS STARTUP DASHBOARD
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Growth
MRR: $85K (+22% MoM)                 ✅
ARR: $1.02M                          🎉 (crossed $1M!)
YoY Growth: 285%                     ✅

Unit Economics
CAC: $1,850
LTV: $12,400 (LTV:CAC = 6.7:1)       ✅
Payback: 8 months                    ✅

Activation & Retention
Trial → Paid: 18%                    ⚠️ (target 25%)
Month 1 Retention: 92%               ✅
Month 6 Retention: 78%               ⚠️

Product Usage
Daily Active Users: 847              ✅
Weekly Active: 1,245
DAU/MAU Ratio: 42%                   ✅ (sticky product)

Top Features Used:
1. Dashboard (94% of users)
2. Reports (78%)
3. Integrations (65%)

Runway
Cash: $425K
Burn: $58K/month
Runway: 7.3 months                   ⚠️
Next milestone: $150K MRR (5 months)

Sections:

1. MRR/ARR growth
2. Unit economics
3. Activation and retention
4. Product engagement
5. Runway to next milestone

Update frequency: Weekly

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9. E-commerce Dashboard Template

Purpose: Revenue and customer metrics for online stores

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E-COMMERCE DASHBOARD - November 2024
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Revenue
Total Revenue: $487K                 ✅ (107% of target)
New Customers: $245K (50%)
Returning: $242K (50%)

AOV: $142 (up from $128 last month)  ✅
Orders: 3,430
Conversion Rate: 2.8%                ✅

Customer Acquisition
Traffic: 122,500 sessions
New Customers: 1,725
CAC: $38
LTV: $420 (LTV:CAC = 11:1)           ✅

Retention
Repeat Purchase Rate: 32%            ⚠️ (target 40%)
Avg Orders per Customer: 2.8
Time Between Purchases: 42 days

Product Performance (Top 5)
1. Widget Pro - $142K (29% of revenue)
2. Starter Kit - $98K (20%)
3. Premium Bundle - $87K (18%)
4. Add-on Pack - $65K (13%)
5. Deluxe Set - $52K (11%)

Marketing Channels
Organic: 42% of revenue
Paid Search: 28%
Email: 18%
Social: 12%

Sections:

1. Revenue and orders
2. Customer acquisition
3. Retention metrics
4. Top products
5. Channel performance

Update frequency: Daily

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10. Agency Dashboard Template

Purpose: Client projects and team utilization

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AGENCY DASHBOARD - Week of Nov 18
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Revenue
Monthly Revenue: $245K               ✅ (102% of target)
Outstanding Invoices: $87K
Overdue (>30 days): $12K             ⚠️

Active Projects: 18
On Track: 14 (78%)                   ✅
At Risk: 3 (17%)                     ⚠️
Delayed: 1 (5%)                      🚨

Team Utilization
Billable Hours: 687 / 800 (86%)      ✅
Target: 75%
Non-billable: 113 hours (14%)

Top Performers:
Sarah (Designer): 95% billable
Marcus (Dev): 92% billable
Alex (Strategist): 88% billable

Client Health
NPS: 8.4 / 10                        ✅
Active Clients: 24
Churned This Month: 1
New Clients: 2

Pipeline
Proposals Out: 8 ($142K potential)
Close Rate: 42%
Avg Proposal → Close: 12 days

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PROJECTS NEEDING ATTENTION
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🚨 TechCorp Rebrand (2 weeks overdue, client escalation)
⚠️ StartupCo Website (waiting on content 10 days)
⚠️ GlobalBiz Campaign (scope creep, budget at 95%)

Sections:

1. Revenue and collections
2. Project status
3. Team utilization
4. Client satisfaction
5. Sales pipeline
6. At-risk projects

Update frequency: Daily for utilization, weekly for overall metrics

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11. Nonprofit Dashboard Template

Purpose: Donor, fundraising, and program metrics

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NONPROFIT DASHBOARD - Q4 2024
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Fundraising
YTD Revenue: $1.24M (89% of $1.4M goal) ⚠️
Major Gifts: $780K
Recurring: $285K
Events: $142K
Grants: $33K

Donor Retention
Total Donors: 1,847
New: 342 (19%)
Retained: 1,505 (81%)                ✅
Lapsed: 287                          ⚠️

Avg Gift: $142 (up from $128)        ✅
Recurring Donors: 428 (23%)          ✅

Program Impact
Beneficiaries Served: 2,450          ✅
Program Expenses: $892K (72% of budget)
Admin: $187K (15%)
Fundraising: $161K (13%)

Financial Health
Months of Reserves: 4.2 months       ⚠️ (target 6)
Debt: $0                             ✅
Program Efficiency: 72%              ✅ (target >70%)

Sections:

1. Fundraising progress
2. Donor acquisition and retention
3. Program impact
4. Financial sustainability

Update frequency: Monthly

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12. Product-Led Growth (PLG) Dashboard

Purpose: Freemium/trial conversion and activation

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PLG DASHBOARD - November 2024
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Acquisition
Signups: 2,847                       ✅
Qualified Signups: 1,245 (44%)       ✅
CAC: $42 (organic + paid)

Activation
Day 1 Activation: 68%                ✅
Day 7 Activation: 42%                ⚠️
"Aha Moment" Rate: 38%               ⚠️

Conversion
Free → Paid: 12%                     ⚠️ (target 15%)
Trial → Paid: 28%                    ✅ (target 25%)
Time to Convert: 8 days (median)

Cohort Analysis (Nov signups)
Day 7 Retained: 48%
Day 14 Retained: 32%
Day 30 Retained: 18%

Product Engagement (Paid Users)
DAU: 3,847
MAU: 8,245
DAU/MAU: 47% (sticky)                ✅

Top Features Leading to Conversion:
1. Created 3+ projects (2.8x more likely to convert)
2. Invited team member (3.2x)
3. Used integration (2.1x)

Revenue
MRR: $245K
ARPU: $68
Expansion MRR: +$18K                 ✅
Churn MRR: -$8K

Sections:

1. Signup volume
2. Activation rates
3. Free-to-paid conversion
4. Cohort retention
5. Product engagement
6. Revenue metrics

Update frequency: Daily

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How to Build Your Executive Dashboard

Step 1: Define Your 5 Most Important Questions

Examples by role:

CEO:

1. Are we hitting revenue targets?
2. Do we have enough runway?
3. Are customers happy?
4. Is the team productive?
5. What needs my attention this week?

CFO:

1. What's our cash position?
2. Are we on budget?
3. What's burn rate?
4. Are unit economics healthy?
5. What's our forecast accuracy?

CRO:

1. Will we hit quota this month?
2. Is pipeline healthy?
3. Which reps need help?
4. What are our top deals?
5. Are we improving win rate?

Step 2: Choose the Right Metrics

For each question, pick 1-2 metrics:

Example:

• Question: "Are we hitting revenue targets?"
• Metrics: MRR vs. target, MoM growth rate

Don't track everything. Track what drives decisions.

Step 3: Add Context to Every Metric

Three types of context:

1. Target/benchmark

MRR: $450K (target: $425K) ✅

2. Trend

MRR: $450K (+12% MoM) ↗️

3. Status

MRR: $450K ✅ (green = above target)

Step 4: Choose Your Dashboard Tool

Options:

1. AppDeck Executive Dashboard (recommended)

• Pre-built templates for CEO/CFO/CRO
• Connects to your tools automatically
• Real-time updates
• Share secure link with board
• Pricing: $199/month

Try AppDeck Dashboard

2. Google Sheets/Excel

• Free
• Flexible
• Manual updates required
• Good for starting out

3. BI Tools (Tableau, Looker, Mode)

• Powerful and customizable
• Requires data team
• Expensive ($10K-50K+/year)
• Overkill for most companies <$50M revenue

4. Build in your existing tools

• Salesforce dashboards (sales metrics)
• Stripe dashboard (revenue)
• QuickBooks (financials)

Pro: Already have the tools Con: Need to check multiple places

Step 5: Set Update Frequency

Real-time (auto-update):

• Revenue metrics
• Cash balance
• System uptime
• Sales pipeline

Daily:

• Customer signups
• Support tickets
• Team utilization

Weekly:

• Detailed financial reports
• Team performance
• Project status

Monthly:

• Board metrics
• Strategic initiatives
• Budget vs. actuals

Rule: Update frequency should match decision speed.

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Common Dashboard Mistakes

Mistake #1: Too Many Metrics

Problem: 50 metrics on one dashboard

Result: Can't find what matters, analysis paralysis

Solution: Max 10-12 metrics per dashboard. If you need more, create separate views.

Mistake #2: No Context

Problem: Showing raw numbers without targets

Example:

❌ Revenue: $1.2M
(Is that good? Bad? Better than last month?)

Solution:

✅ Revenue: $1.2M (107% of target, +15% MoM)

Mistake #3: Vanity Metrics

Problem: Tracking metrics that look good but don't drive decisions

Examples:

• Total page views (without conversion context)
• Total customers (without churn context)
• Revenue (without profitability context)

Solution: Track actionable metrics

• Conversion rate (can improve marketing)
• Net revenue retention (shows customer health)
• Gross margin (shows unit economics)

Mistake #4: Static PDFs

Problem: Creating dashboard in Excel, exporting to PDF

Result:

• Outdated immediately
• Can't drill down
• Manual work every update

Solution: Use tools that update automatically from data sources

Mistake #5: Building Once, Never Iterating

Problem: Create dashboard, never review or refine

Solution:

• Review monthly: "Are we using all these metrics?"
• Ask: "What questions came up that dashboard doesn't answer?"
• Iterate based on feedback

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Conclusion

The best executive dashboard is the one you actually use every day.

Key principles:

• Focus on 5-10 metrics that drive decisions
• Add context (targets, trends, status)
• Update automatically when possible
• Review and refine monthly
• Keep it simple

Next steps:

1. Pick the template closest to your role (CEO, CFO, CRO, etc.)
2. Identify your top 5 questions
3. Choose 1-2 metrics per question
4. Set up dashboard (AppDeck recommended)
5. Share with team and iterate

Your dashboard should answer your most important questions in 3 seconds. If it doesn't, simplify it until it does.

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About the Author: Patricia Kim is a former COO and data analytics expert who has built executive dashboards for 15+ C-suite leaders across SaaS, e-commerce, and professional services. She specializes in making complex data simple and actionable.