How do CEOs and leaders of large organizations maintain an effective grasp of business progress? Chances are, they are using similar techniques to those described below. A business dashboard is a one-page report that summarizes the key performance indicators that a business leader may find important in understanding the current situation and trends. However, dashboards are useful throughout an entire organization, and even in personal life situations too. This article will teach you the basics of dashboardology — the science of summing it up.

Every entity has goals it is trying to achieve. It’s important to revisit the second letter of the acronym, SMART goals, for which the M stands for measurable. Each goal needs to be measurable. If it is, success is a much more likely outcome. It’s very often, that people confuse tasks with goals, and try to make their measurement as a percentage of task completion. Unfortunately, experience dictates that task completion is not equivalent to business success. Try to tie each project or task into a metric that is related to the success of your business.

Typically, when I’m faced with putting together a dashboard, I’m dealing with web or sales data that is collected into a relational database. My dashboards tend to show time-series trends (which are usually best shown in simple line graphs), and top 5 lists (like top 5 clients), or worst 5 lists (worst 5 ad campaigns). I’m able to work with IT to export this data, or even better to have it presented in a visually digestible manner.

My family recently doubled in size with the birth of our twins. Taking care of twins is a lot of work. Per our hospital’s suggestion, we keep a log of each of their feeding intake, diaper changes, vitamins, and any other items of interest. However, to get a sense of how much they are eating and growing, it takes quite a bit of flipping through the logs. Even then, it is not easy to spot any trend, because each meal is logged, and trends are usually seen in aggregate (ie, daily intake growth, since meal size varies a lot throughout the day). Furthermore, when we visit the doctor, the data is not in a format that’s easy for him to digest.

First Step: Mockup The Dashboard
I decided I wanted to look at their feed intake as the primary measurement on the dashboard. I also wanted to highlight other measures, such as weight, length, and head circumference growth. However, those measurements aren’t taken with any frequency. I also reserved some sections with some important information, like the doctor’s phone number, and their medical record numbers.

Second Step: Creating your Database
I decided to use Microsoft Excel to make the dashboard, and it also made sense to use it as the database. I setup a worksheet as the “data sheet” with days across the top row, and the measures down the first column. Then, I entered the data from our log sheets. It took about 20 minutes to enter all of the data in, and it takes a few minutes every few days whenever I update it.

Third Step: Charting Your Data
An important part of this step, is also cleaning your data (adjusting the scale or converting the units). For example, we measure per-meal intake in milliliters, but I wanted the daily graph to be in ounces (which makes more sense in terms of the scale). Another part of cleaning the data is deciding how to handle absent data. For example, we only have their weight information from the days they have visited the doctor. Microsoft Excel can handle charting this cleanly by leaving the days we don’t have the data for as =NA().

Fourth Step: Making Your Dashboard Visually Pleasing
For this step, I defer to the experts such as Stephen Few and Edward Tufte. Use visual elements to summarize your data, but don’t over-do it with 3D graphs. Unfortunately, Microsoft Excel makes it quite challenging to make a very visually pleasing dashboard, or so I thought, until I came across this e-book by Charley Kyd which explained some critical techniques for layout, formatting and data selection.

The result (this is only a partial snapshot because their is personal information on it):

Snippet of the dashboard

This is what I read to learn how to make my dashboard in Excel. If you’re like me, you don’t want to spend your valuable time digging through data to find trends and meaning. Invest a few hours up front, and save countless hours in the future by setting up your dashboard today.

I sold my car in 5 hours. I think you can too. Here’s what I did:

Looked up my blue book value on kbb.com. You need to find a fair selling price. Of course, you’d like to sell your car for as much as possible, but be realistic. The blue book values will help keep you in line. Keep this in mind: the higher you list at, the more negotiation may be involved, and more people will be deterred from contacting you. The more time you spend negotiating with people, the greater the opportunity cost of selling your car yourself would be.

Posted a listing on Craigslist. Include all information including: reason for selling, clean title, miles, any damage or previous accidents, and contact info. I recommend taking pictures of your car from various angles, as well as an interior shot. Best of all, it’s free.

Wash or detail your car. I received two emails within 10 minutes of posting my ad. My car was a mess, so I knew I had to clean it out quickly if I was going to show it. I headed to the local car wash where I paid extra to get the supreme detail (interior and exterior wash, wax, etc…). The money was very well spent. Bring your iPhone or Blackberry when you hit the car wash, because you may be receiving inquiries by now.

Fielding the inquiries. Response quickly — if someone emails you, chances are they are sitting at their computer so a quick email back will result in another response. I answered any questions and made it clear that my asking price was not highly negotiable. My first caller wanted 25% off my asking price. I politely declined and it didn’t waste any of my time. One of my next callers was interested in seeing it, and not scared off by my saying that the price was not negotiable.

Showing the car. Safety first! If you’re meeting a stranger, show them the car in a public place. My preferred used car sales strategy is to apply no pressure. Show them the interior. Pop the hood. Start the engine. Show them your service records. If they are interested, they may make an offer.

Making the deal. You should pre-print two copies of a Bill of Sale, and have your title on hand as well. Each state may have different regulations, so follow the regulations of your state. One thing I learned, is do not accept a cashier’s or bank check (apparently, they are quite easy to forge these days). So if you do strike a deal, have them bring cash, or go to the bank with them, and get a cashier’s check directly from the teller. Once your done, don’t forget to inform the appropriate authorities that you’ve sold the car (such as the DMV and your insurance company).

If this article helps you out at all in selling your car, please let me know. I listed my car at 11:30 am, and sold it by 4:30pm the same day. Good luck with your car sale!

Here is a presentation I made about the idea generation process.  It is targeted at students looking to start entrepreneurial ventures. It goes over 3 basic steps:

1) Idea generation – brainstorming.
2) Defining the results of your brainstorm more clearly.
3) Rating/prioritizing them so you can better decide which idea to pursue.

In this post, I’ll discuss how to break down desired results into repeatable processes that are easy to manage and possible to train others to do.  This exercises starts with identifying the desired results.  Remember the acronym, S.M.A.R.T. when it comes to picking your desired results (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-boxed).  In a previous article, I discussed the importance of defining your capabilities.  You must figure out which capabilities are required to achieve your goals.  Capabilities help do two things:

1)  Identify and Prioritize the tasks to be done (experience powers ability to identify tasks with the most impact).

2)  Develop skills and efficiency in completing tasks (which improves productivity).

So, I will use a basic example… Let’s say you want to drive SEO traffic to your site for the keyword phrase hip hop beats.  You’ve defined your desired result:  top 20 rankings in the SERPs (search engine results pages) within 60 days.  Now, we work backwards.  You have a general sense that the general skill/capability is SEO knowledge.

After doing some research, you find there are two ways to optimize: (a) onsite, and (b) offsite.  Your research tells you that offsite has a much larger impact, but your intuition tells you that the onsite optimization is much more in your control.  You make a list of the tasks you think need to be completed for each.  You notice that some tasks are repeating themselves.  For example, for each page of your site, you have to write unique title and meta description tags.  Aha!  You’ve identified a process, that you can map out, explain, and teach someone else to do.  But writing unique title and meta description tags alone are only part of the process.  You realize you have a CMS, and you can grant access to your employee so that they can implement them as well.

You end up with some little instructional guide that someone can follow to help them do their job effectively.  It might look like this (abbreviated for this example):

1. Search google for keyword phrase and review top 5 results titles and descriptions.

2. Write a compelling title and description incorporating the keyword phrase.

3. Login to the CMS with your user/pass.

4. Edit the Title and Meta Description fields appropriately, and click Publish.

This is an example of a small process, which is part of the bigger, much more complex process of SEO.  It enables managers to leverage resources who are not expert in SEO to get results by having very clear instructions.

Now, for your exercise:

1) Pick a goal.

2) Figure out the required skills to achieve it.

3) List all tasks.

4) Identify the processes and create a training guide for each.

In a future article, I’ll talk about managing for success using the agile Scrum methodology.

Business is competitive.  Stay ahead of the curve by becoming a better student and teacher.  But before you can start learning or teaching, you need to decide which topics you want to study.  This decision has tremendous strategic impact on both you and your organization.  It will determine your core capabilities; which in turn will shape how your organization faces challenges.

These are some questions you should ask yourself as you think about which topics you want to focus on:

• What capabilities do my competitors have?
• What areas do I want to beat them in?
• How do I develop our capabilities?
• How do I build a sustainable advantage?

By becoming a better teacher, you can facilitate growth.  But remember, before you can become a better teacher, you need to decide what you are going to teach (and learn).

I have found that a quick way to define capabilities quickly is to follow this process.

1. Brainstorm – jot down as many capabilities as you can think of.  I like to use a mindmap style of brainstorming so that I can relate the ideas via branches and lines.  Remember: the key to a brainstorm session is that you put your mental sensor on hold.  All “bad” ideas should be written down.

2. Organize – now, you may have a complete mess of a list.  If you’ve mindmapped it, you may be partially along this path already — which capabilities are related to each other?  Can you form them into a hierarchy?

3.  Consolidate your list.   Is there overlap?  Can you roll some up into a group?  For example, if you have “sorting papers, filing, stapling, collating” you may be able to roll them up into “paperwork organization”.  At this point, do not toss your old lists out, because you’re going to need to break down each capability down the road.

4. Prioritize your list.  Which capabilities are the most important?  I have two quick ways to do this:  you could list relative benefits of each capability, create a weighting scale, etc… or, the easier, HAVE/HAVE-NOT comparison:  You ask yourself (or others in your strategic steering committee) what would the impact be of being the best in this capability? What would the impact be of being average in that capability?  Select from three possible answers for each question:  Huge Impact; Maybe?; No impact.  Compare both columns.

5. Select your top 3 strategic capabilities, and write a statement that can be used to communicate to your investors and employees the importance of focusing on those.  For example, “By leading in market research, copywriting, and conversion optimization, Adam Enterprises workforce will provide competitive advantage to our clients.”  Why 3 things?  Well, you can chunk them up and down, but it is hard to focus on more than 1 thing at a time (3 is my limit).

Did this exercise help you? What did you think of this article?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Content Management Systems (CMS) rank highly on my list of top business process time savers.  Can you think of the last time you wanted to make a website text change?  Add an extra page?  Link them together?  How many people need to be involved to do that?

If your website has more than 10 pages, you should be using a content management system.  They enable people like you and me to easily make changes, create new content, and modify the navigation of the website.  It also sets a good foundation for some great site-wide testing.

Content management systems should be easy to use.  I like WordPress (this site is powered by it).  I could bumble around in it and figure things out.  When I got stuck, there are plenty of resources online to help me out.  And best yet, there are thousands of developers familiar with it, who can write skins, themes and plugins to customize the look, feel, and functionality of the system at a pretty reasonable cost.

If you ever want to localize your content, having it stored in a CMS is a great way to start.  You can easily export your content to translators in a format they can use to get started with their translations.

If you’re not yet sold on the benefits of using a CMS, consider the following side-by-side example.  Imagine you received a letter from Widget Co’s Legal Department, and they are asking you to cease and desist using the phrase “Widgets are the bomb” on your website.

The old way of doing things:

1. You search through each page of your website, and note the location of each appearance of the phrase.
2. You make a request to your web designer / developer / or html department.
3. You wait.
4. You bug your boss.
5. You wait some more.
6. You review the changes on a staging server.
7. You approve it.
8. You wait for deployment.

The new way of doing things with a CMS:

1. You search your content and make note of all pages where the phrase appears.
2. You edit each page with the CMS tool.
3. You’re finished; check it on the live website to confirm.

You see, there are less humans involved.  Less humans means less chance for errors, and a whole lot shorter time-to-live.  If you’re still doing things the old way, consider refreshing by using a CMS.

A CMS is not for every project.  There are some things better off done manually.  Look for my other posts on CMS to learn more about what CMS versus manual html coding is good for.

Here I am: raising money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation at Fight Gone Bad 2008.

My blog is alive.

Adam