How to Create Performance Dashboards for Strategy Tracking

Sustainability starts with visibility. Here's a framework you can apply that will improve the long-term success of any solutions or ideas you implement. As Directive scaled, I found that I was constantly rebuilding or retrying good ideas from the past that I just did not properly execute, sustain, or integrate into the fabric of the business or a specific department. And, when I compared my ideas that worked vs. the ones that didn't (over the last 11 years) a simple trend arose. When I developed, integrated, and sustained visibility systems for tracking the problem I wanted to solve BEFORE I built the solution, my success skyrocketed. Here's my process for launching + sustaining new initiatives and ideas: 1. State Your Hypothesis I want to clearly state why I am doing this initiative, what problem/opportunity am I solving for, how long do I believe it will take to work, what cost am I forecasting, and how will I evaluate it's success. 2. Determine a Leading and Lagging KPI For example, if I wanted to improve bookings at Directive I would set a goal for proposals held (leading) and a goal for closed won bookings (lagging). By having both a leading and lagging KPI it's much easier to simplify my evaluation of success. More KPIs does not equal higher chances of success. 3. Build the Visibility System Now that I have my hypothesis documented and KPIs established it's time for me to track my success. Here's the basics of a strong visibility system: a. Where you build your dashboard does not matter (salesforce, g sheets, notion, whatever). The key is that you have a dashboard that's publicly available and that the data is automated + accurate. b. You backdate the data. If you are trying to solve for a problem, expanding your time horizon is critical. You want to be able to see year over year, not just month over month. Your team hates doing this admin work, but getting your historical data accurate is crucial for evaluating the success and impact of your idea/solution. c. You need to integrate the visibility system into your weekly meeting around the initiative. The odds of success for my ideas has always skyrocketed when I host a weekly meeting explicitly dedicated to the implementation and optimization of my idea/solution. 4. Host a Weekly Meeting As mentioned above, meetings are critical for success. There's a lot of talking heads on here with small to negligible size teams who act like meetings are a nuisance. This could not be further from the truth, by staying close to your initiatives and prioritizing them weekly your chances of success skyrocket. You are not micro-managing, you are being a high-performing executive. 5. Never Let Doubt Creep In You can do it. You will do it. Doing it doesn't mean it works, but nothing is worse then a great idea paired with lazy execution. Have you done something different from above that has improved the impact + sustainability of your solutions/ideas?

Every brand has data. But not every brand knows how to interpret their data. To solve this, I combined media buying with Power BI so my clients can understand and take action on their data (instead of letting it collect dust). Here’s how I break up my data visualization inside of Power BI: Dashboard #1: Review This is a granular view of the day-to-day performance across brands, platforms, and sub-platforms. The goal is to highlight the most important metrics at the top, like web revenue and web roas. A daily calendar allows for clear transparency between our agency and our brands. Compare raw and calculated metrics to find day-over-day anomalies. Dashboard #2: Platform Being fluent in 1 platform will cost you. But being fluent in multi-platforms will give you a birds eye view of your data. A deeper understanding of the multi-platform allocation is great because you can use filters. All charts, tables, and calendars crossfilter to tell a deeper story. For example, I can compare Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok ads day over day for the entire month and see how they contribute to the total revenue, conversion rate, and roas - all in one place. Dashboard #3: Compare and Project I can look at multi-performance with the ability to forecast and project, based on data from previous events, months and years. It’s like a zoomed out view of what’s actually happening inside of your business. When you’re able to see this data quickly and consistently, you can make more strategic decisions - quickly and consistently. Why data visualization matters: • You can back your strategy with real numbers and not shoot in the dark • Clear visualizations are 1000x more effective for understanding data compared to a pivot table • You get data FAST, and the quicker you interpret the data, the faster you can make impactful decisions. Media buying + data visualization is a game changer.

Are you running an agency, or is the agency running you? Steal these 2 powerful techniques I’ve used to help agency owners reclaim their time and sanity 👇 — Here are 2 strategies I’m using to help one of our agency operator clients: Reclaim his time Supercharge his agency’s growth Let’s get into it… — The Power of a Centralized Performance Dashboard: “What we pay attention to increases, what we track increases exponentially.” — When we started working with this client, he had no central location to track client performance. Data was scattered across various platforms, making it nearly impossible to get a clear picture of what was really going on. — So, we built them a centralized dashboard to track all performance metrics. This included: -Client KPIs -Team productivity metrics -Revenue and profitability data — But here's the real magic: we didn't just track current performance… We benchmarked everything against specific goals. This simple change allowed the agency owner to spot trends, identify issues, and capitalize on opportunities faster than ever before. — Supercharging Accountability with Operations Meetings: With the dashboard in place, the next step was to put that data to work. We implemented weekly operations meetings with a clear structure: — #1: Team members report to the head of operations #2: Review targeted performance vs. actual performance #3: Deep dive into any areas falling short of goals — These meetings aren't about pointing fingers. They’re for helping understand challenges, sharing insights, and collaboratively finding solutions. The result? A culture of proactive problem-solving and continuous improvement. — The Impact: By implementing these two strategies, our client saw: -Improved team performance -Faster identification and resolution of issues -More strategic decision-making based on real-time data -A significant boost in overall agency productivity — Most importantly, the agency owner is getting more and more time back from day-to-day operations… And can now devote more time to focus on strategic growth. — Are You Running Your Agency, or Is Your Agency Running You? Unfortunately, most agency owners are: — -Constantly putting out fires instead of focusing on strategic growth -Feeling chained to your desk, unable to step away without things falling apart -Dreaming of the freedom to work on your business, not just in it — At 8 Figure Agency, we get it. We've helped 100s of agency owners just like you reclaim their time, and regain control of their businesses. Our team of experts can help you: — -Implement systems that give you clear visibility without micromanaging -Create accountability structures that run smoothly without your constant input -Free up your mental bandwidth to focus on high-level strategy and growth [Continued in Comments]