Why You Need More Than Just Dashboards

Analytics
July 15, 2021
2 minute read

Andie Smith

Content Marketer
at
Yaguara
Andie is a digital storyteller of written and visual forms. She is interested in the intersections of generational consumption in eCommerce and contextualizing the business industry with history.
This is our long-winded way of saying that when you elevate your analytic tool beyond just dashboards, you get the Tesla of data tools. 

Why You Need More Than Just Dashboards

There are a lot of data aggregation tools out there, and while it may not be the sexiest, most stimulating, or flashy platform to be in business for, we know this: 90% of running your eCommerce business is not an Instagram highlight reel, it’s real people doing real things, day in and day out. The other 10% is the fun stuff. 

We’re in the business of empowering eCommerce companies' data to function better and make forward-thinking decisions that will impact the health and success of their brand for years to come. The emphasis here lands squarely on decision making. While there are a lot of analytical tools out there, all serve the purpose of solely data aggregation. There is an enormous lack of context. It’s like the Rosetta Stone without the accompanying stones in other languages. So with just one or two metrics on a dashboard, it is extremely difficult to make informed decisions for your business. The success of your eCommerce company is contingent on multiple layers and moving parts. It’s a complex machine with various levers to pull and push. How can you make informed projections with just looking at customer purchases over time? 

This is why you need more than just dashboards: you could be the most intelligent, entrepreneurial, and innovative founder out there, but you don’t have the time or the brain power to sit in front of your data dashboard and make the right moves on the board to scale – especially if you made 10 new hires during COVID, you’re making the switch to a different head of sales, and you’ve got a newborn at home that’s diminishing your opportunity to sleep. We built our product to elevate your data beyond the factory default setting, and it’s all about automating those processes that would be taking you hours on your own. 

Retroactive vs. Active 

Keep in mind that we do love dashboards. If anything, they aggregate and curate your data in a streamlined format so that you can compare important metrics together.

Yet, all these dashboard tools are a fluffy display facade: they’re retroactive and contain only non-actionable metrics. Dashboards operate day-to-day, and can’t tell you what needs to be fixed, pulled, or pushed for more proactive decision-making. What you need is actionable metrics and active features in your analytic tool. 

Let’s say you’re driving your 2005 Honda Civic on a road trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. There’s nothing wrong with your car. It drives well, and it gets you from Point A to Point B. The dashboard in front of your wheel tells you your mph – how fast you’re going – and you can make an educated guess at what time you will arrive in Las Vegas. 

But wait: a car pulls ahead of you, driven by your rival founder at another eCommerce company, and he’s whipping the brand new Tesla Model S. Your competitor has a much more evolved and innovative dashboard in front of his self-driving wheel. It tells him how long it will take him to arrive, when he will need to charge up again, where the next charging station is, and how long he should charge to allow him to reach his next destination of Salt Lake City by his desired ETA. This is our long-winded way of saying that when you elevate your analytic tool beyond just dashboards, you get the Tesla of data tools. 

Forget Dashboards, Meet the Rest of Your Cast 

Our platform helps you be more proactive on long term goals. With some of our unique integrations and features, we empower your data and provide projections, suggestions, and real-time goal setting for you and your team. 

First, we have our OKRs. Objectives and Key Results track your daily averages for your set goals and tell you if you are behind or on-track of those goals. Furthermore, shared objectives allow you to view the rest of your team’s performance and goals, as well as your own. This allows you the ability to set personal, team, departmental, and company wide goals for ample company transparency.

Second, we have Insights. This feature is where the magic happens, and it tracks both Anomalies and Patterns within your data and integrations. You have the ability to set certain metrics against the standard deviation from the norm, and our platform can make suggestions based on those deviations. Patterns look at significant metrics and compare them in a 360 degree fashion, empowering you by doing the legwork of analyzing dashboards and displaying the conclusions for actionable insights. 

While our most recent launch, Reports, may not take into account data aggregation, it does allow you to present that significant team building demonstration straight from one platform, keeping your data tools all in one seamless destination. 

Work Smarter, Not Harder

The reality of our chaotic present has bestowed us the opportunity to slow down a bit. Working remote, traveling less, and spending more time at home has meant less of a societal push on productivity levels and that relentless hustle. We are big advocates of both improving productivity by working smarter – not harder – and practicing more effective goal-tracking through OKRs. 

While you may feel on-top of your business, with your finger on the pulse of what’s going on in your eCommerce world, we only hope to automate those manual processes even further by empowering your data and transcending the default with the inclusion of more than just dashboards. 


This is our long-winded way of saying that when you elevate your analytic tool beyond just dashboards, you get the Tesla of data tools. 

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