Great value for users

KPIs, scorecards and dashboards are a way of communicating data typically used by financial departments. Because it is about prioritizing the most important information and making it available to the user – all parts of the organization can benefit from using it.

If you do it the right way you will also find that KPIs, scorecards, and dashboards will benefit the users in such a way that they will want to access them.

In this way, it can be used widely throughout the organization to create an overview and common understanding. This applies to both challenges and successes that others can benefit from. KPIs, scorecards and dashboards can thus be used as tools to achieve your goals and to constantly get better at creating results.

What is most important for being able to execute the strategy?

54%

Information

50%

Decision rights

26%

Motivational factors

25%

Structure
Source: Neilson, Martin & Powers, Harvard Business Review (2008)

Focus areas

Data is the most important building block for the information that, according to the Harvard Business Review, is needed to execute the strategy. Data that should be used for KPIs – which are included in both scorecards and dashboards.

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KPIs

In Danish, it would be called key figures, but KPI (Key Performance Indicators) is a very popular concept. KPIs describe particularly important goals. This can, for example, be strategic ambitions, customer satisfaction, CO2 emissions or operational efficiency.

KPIs consist of data – but only the most important data.

Using data visualization, KPIs can be made intuitive and easy to understand.

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Scorecards

A scorecard is a simple overview of a handful of carefully selected strategic KPIs.

Scorecards can be developed for an organization, a department or an individual.

All KPIs describe both an objective and an outcome. In this way, you can easily see if you are in line with your goals.

Many scorecards also include some form of weights or scoring of the KPIs. This makes it easier to compare KPIs that are otherwise vastly different.

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Dashboards

Dashboards contain more KPIs than a scorecard. They describe the tactical level with a better opportunity for benchmarking or to get insight into the underlying reasons for the individual KPIs’ results.

Unlike a report or analysis, a dashboard is limited to one page or one screen.

The focus of a dashboard is on conveying just enough information so that users not only know how things are (scorecards) but also understand hey and what they can do.

KPIs

The truth is that no matter what we call them, and no matter what people think of them, KPIs are necessary. Although some use completely different terms such as “OKR” (Objectives and Key Results), there are many factors that we need to measure with KPIs. While some users may have a bad experience with KPIs, the same users typically end up being very satisfied, as long as the KPIs are used properly. twoday kapacity can help you get started with KPIs.

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twoday kapacity’s approach to KPIs

  • Breakdown strategy or overall goals into operational goals
  • Workshop for prioritizing goals
  • Process for selecting the right KPIs
    – Actionable and relevant KPIs
    – Leading and lagging
  • A standard for definition, calculation, and documentation of KPIs
  • Best practices for targets for KPIs
    – Absolute
    – Relative
    – Individual
    – Shared
  • Best practices for using KPIs to create transparency
  • Dialogue about how to drive the right behavior with KPIs
  • Maintenance and governance of KPIs

Scorecards

Scorecards can be used for the selected handful of KPIs that should be memorized. A scorecard is a brief overview of the results of the KPIs’, which also shows whether the target values have been reached. This can be converted to a score (hence the name scorecard) or weighed together into an overall “grade”. The score can be used to compare managers or business areas.

Dashboards

The best dashboards create an overview of larger business areas in a way that would normally fill a longer report. By condensing and visualizing the KPIs, they are presented in such a way that one can immediately see performance challenges that require action.


A dashboard has room for more KPIs than a scorecard and the KPIs show the “raw”, unfiltered performance. Here you can get an overview of everything from goal fulfillment, historical development, future trend, benchmarking and much more. Dashboards provide a better opportunity to understand complex contexts and to avoid focusing too one-sidedly on individual KPIs.

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twoday kapacity's approach to dashboards

  • KPI mapping based on strategic, tactical, and operational goals
  • User mapping – including responsibilities at department or team level
  • Target-setting for dashboards
  • Visualization of KPIs and dashboard designs
  • Design, implementation, and training in follow-up process for dashboards
  • Communication exercise to ensure acceptance with the introduction of dashboards

Do you want to get started? So do we

Do as a large number of the country’s most ambitious companies:
Fill out the form or get in touch with Søren – then we can have a chat about your challenges and dreams.

Søren Toft Joensen

Partner & CCO
stj@kapacity.dk
26 30 90 01