Measuring the effectiveness of changes to working methods or the impact of new policies is traditionally a retroactive exercise: evaluations take data about what has happened to show what has changed and then projects that analysis on to future outcomes. If you drove your car this way it would be like trying to work out how fast you’re going or seeing where the next bend in the road is by looking in the rearview mirror. What if you could measure and analyse outcomes as they happen? How effective could you be if you could see what’s really making a difference right now? Just like the dashboard in your car, Get the Data’s dashboards give you all the information you need right now so you can concentrate on where you’re going and not on where you’ve been.
Dashboards track the impact of changes in realtime so you can easily see what’s working, or what isn’t. They allow you to identify exactly what is affecting your outcomes and quickly direct resources to where they are most needed, meaning you can increase efficiency and save time and money. Too often we plan for the future reactively, but a dashboard makes it easy for your organisation to work in an agile fashion and respond to challenges as they happen.
What is a data dashboard?
You’re already familiar with the dashboard in your car. At a glance it lets you see the car’s speed, the engine’s performance, and whether you need to fill up soon, without distracting you from the road ahead. It shows you the car’s key metrics so you can make decisions quickly and efficiently.
A data dashboard works in the same way. It takes realtime data inputs, analyses those data (under the hood), and then returns outputs in a way that’s easy to understand. Outputs can be visual, numerical, or even short verbal reports.
Dashboards in practice
These images are taken from a dashboard that was designed for Housing Justice. They show how realtime information can be visualised in a variety of ways. Here, key metrics are shown graphically and geographical information is displayed on a map. Users don’t need a written report to explain what the data mean: at a glance they can see trends in service provision over time. where resources are located, and where resources need to be directed,.
Visualisations are easy to understand, so they can be used by workers in any role across the organisation. As the data change so do the outputs, which means you don’t need to wait for information from last month before deciding what to do tomorrow.
Get the Data can help you identify what information is important to your organisation, what data to measure, and how your workforce can use the outputs to improve your service. Contact us to learn more.