Thank you Noah Lorang for such an insightful piece!

Although I agree with all your points, especially those that tell us to focus on deltas rather than raw values, I feel the article should be titled “Dashboards can be misleading” rather than imply most of them are harmful. You’ve listed a great set of reasons for being careful and diligent about what you place as a dashboard but there are qualitative benefits to having a dashboard as well.

Digital products are abstract entities that live through personal data, interaction, and state-fulness. Dashboards provide a real time pulse to an otherwise incomprehensible collection of features, ideas, and iterations. They allow employees, many who are disconnected from the data and users, to feel as those they are closer to those who are actually using the product. Not everyone can be involved in user studies nor can be connected to target customers. Dashboards can make products feel alive and not made in a black box.

Like you said, many dashboards, especially those that focus on vanity metrics, can be misleading and potentially even harmful and should of course be evaluated and improved. However, almost all dashboards provide another dimension for employees to understand their product in real-time and how users have responded.

Thanks again for the article, looking forward to reading more.