Example · Sales
Sales KPI dashboard: from the sales question to the pages
A sales dashboard fails when it is a dump of every column in CRM. It works when it answers a small set of questions: are we on plan, where is margin, which segments are cooling, what needs a call this week.
Business problem
Leadership wants one place to see whether the commercial engine is healthy. The team is tired of spreadsheet KPI drafts that disagree with the CRM export.
Business questions
Typical questions: How does revenue compare to plan this month and year to date? Which products or regions pull margin down? Which customers grew last quarter and which went quiet?
KPIs the dashboard should carry
A tight family: revenue, volume, margin, versus plan, versus last year, plus a short list of accounts that moved. Each KPI needs a definition before DAX — including whether returns are in or out.
Data model sketch
Facts around orders or invoices. Dimensions for customer, product, seller, and date. That star-style shape is what lets region and product filters stay consistent across pages.
DAX and the dashboard
Measures follow the KPI definitions (YTD, vs plan, mix). Pages split the jobs: a monitor page for status, a comparison page for mix, a list page for accounts to work. Power BI is the usual landing file; the same design can be rebuilt from the package in Tableau or Qlik.