---
title: "How to Make Dashboards Using a Product Thinking Approach"
description: "The guide presents dashboards as automatically updated collections of visualisations or metrics for monitoring business questions and argues they should be built with a product-thinking approach. It first recommends deciding whether a dashboard is appropriate, then defining one clear goal, a specific audience, and metrics that reflect their needs before sketching the layout with stakeholders. Implementation guidance covers readable and efficient queries, version control, peer review, visual hierarchy, restrained content, business and data context, refresh frequency, technical reviews, and user sign-off. After launch, teams should market the dashboard, make it discoverable, monitor usage and outcomes, iterate when it falls short, and assign ownership for maintenance. The intended outcome is a dashboard that stays useful and delivers business impact by keeping users front and centre."
---

# How to Make Dashboards Using a Product Thinking Approach

[Shopify](https://yomu.fyi/company/shopify) · 2023-10-18 · Jan 28, 2021

**Type:** Tutorial

## Summary

The guide presents dashboards as automatically updated collections of visualisations or metrics for monitoring business questions and argues they should be built with a product-thinking approach. It first recommends deciding whether a dashboard is appropriate, then defining one clear goal, a specific audience, and metrics that reflect their needs before sketching the layout with stakeholders. Implementation guidance covers readable and efficient queries, version control, peer review, visual hierarchy, restrained content, business and data context, refresh frequency, technical reviews, and user sign-off. After launch, teams should market the dashboard, make it discoverable, monitor usage and outcomes, iterate when it falls short, and assign ownership for maintenance. The intended outcome is a dashboard that stays useful and delivers business impact by keeping users front and centre.

## Context

Dashboards can require substantial effort to create and maintain, yet provide little value if users do not consult them. The guide says they are most appropriate for dynamically updated data, interactive exploration, monitoring, answering data-related questions, or information users need to revisit over time; static reports or presentations are better for persuading an audience to take a specific action.

## Approach / What changed

Use product thinking: define a clear audience and goal, select purpose-driven metrics, and align a rough dashboard plan with stakeholders before coding. Build for accuracy and usability with readable, efficient queries, version control, peer review, clear hierarchy, targeted content, and business and data context. After launch, promote the dashboard, monitor its usage and impact, iterate, and maintain it.

## Takeaways

- A dashboard should focus on one clear goal and audience; multiple stated goals, such as anomaly monitoring and performance tracking, may require separate dashboards.
- An inverted-pyramid layout places key metrics first, supporting analysis in the middle, and less vital background information at the bottom, with grouped sections and whitespace improving readability.
- The dashboard should receive at least two technical reviews and intended-user sign-off before shipping; after launch, usage monitoring and assigned maintenance help sustain its value.

**Tags:** [Data Analytics](https://yomu.fyi/topic/data-analytics), [Data Visualization](https://yomu.fyi/topic/data-visualization), [Monitoring](https://yomu.fyi/topic/monitoring)

- Source: [Shopify](https://shopify.engineering/make-dashboards-using-product-thinking-approach)
- Source URL: https://shopify.engineering/make-dashboards-using-product-thinking-approach
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-08-31T01:10:28.759Z

[Read original post](https://shopify.engineering/make-dashboards-using-product-thinking-approach)