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Module 6 of 6Lesson 2 of 3~13 min

A dashboard that serves, a memo that decides

Many dashboards get viewed without ever changing a decision. This lesson shows how to design one that answers specific questions, then how to write a short memo that makes the call, states its limits and plans when to revisit the choice. The PM gets a decision the team and leadership can follow.

Take this lesson: your first course is freeSee the full syllabus

Lesson objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to design a dashboard of five to seven charts tied to questions and definitions, and write a one-page decision memo that states the decision, the data, the alternatives, the limits and the re-evaluation criterion.

Questions this lesson answers

  • How do you build a product dashboard that actually drives decisions?
  • How do you write a data driven decision memo?
  • What sections should a decision memo include to convince a committee?

Topics covered

  • product dashboard
  • decision memo
  • data-driven decision
  • metric definitions

In the glossary

Full glossary

Where it fits

Decide with data

How do I go from a chart to a decision the team can follow, without drawing the wrong conclusion?

Lessons in this module

  1. Interpretation traps, from Simpson to causation
  2. A dashboard that serves, a memo that decides (this lesson)
  3. Final workshop: tracking plan, dashboard and memo for your product

What you will learn in this module

This lesson is part of the course Instrument a product and use data to make decisions

  • Build a product's metrics tree (North Star, input metrics, guardrails) from the decisions to be made, and rule out vanity metrics.
  • Design an implementable tracking plan (events, properties, naming convention, identity and accounts, emitting source, owners).
  • Turn an analysis into a reasoned decision (dashboard, decision memo) while avoiding interpretation traps (vanity, Simpson, correlation, small counts).

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