Across the UK, dashboards are increasingly becoming a familiar part of the local policy and delivery landscape. From economic performance and business support to skills, regeneration and net zero, most places can point to a dashboard that tracks activity, outputs or outcomes. Too often though, these dashboards look impressive while failing to answer the questions that matter most.

At a time when public resources are constrained and expectations on places to deliver growth are higher than ever, dashboards cannot simply describe what is happening. They need to help leaders, commissioners and delivery teams understand why things are happening, what is changing, and what to do next. At GC Insight, we regularly develop dashboards for clients using a wide range of robust, timely and forward-looking datasets. In this article, we review some of the common pitfalls of data dashboards and what can be done to develop more effective dashboards as tools that drive, not just monitor action.

Are we measuring activity – or progress? 

Many dashboards are built around what is easiest to count rather than what is most useful to know. Programme outputs or high‑level indicators, regularly at a regional level, often dominate because the data already exists or is easy to refresh. The problem is that activity does not equal progress.

A business support dashboard might tell you how many firms were engaged, but not whether productivity, resilience or innovation capability is improving. A labour market dashboard might track skills levels, but not whether people are moving into better paid, more secure work. A place dashboard might show investment flows, but not whether change is reaching the neighbourhoods or sectors most in need. 

When developing dashboards, we need to think hard about what we are trying to achieve. Do we have the tools or the data to adequately inform future decisions, or does new data need collecting? Across our work supporting place strategies, investment cases and Pride in Place‑style programmes, we consistently see stronger results when dashboards and wider analyses are designed backwards from the decisions they are meant to inform – not forwards from the data that happens to be available. We regularly work with clients to support not just the design of dashboards, but also to identify metrics and stronger data collection processes. 

Do our dashboards reflect how the economy actually works locally?

National datasets are essential, but they rarely tell the whole local story.

Many dashboards rely heavily on headline indicators – productivity averages, employment rates or partial business counts – that mask variation within places and sectors. The UK’s productivity challenge, for example, is increasingly driven by differences between firms, sectors and local economies rather than national trends and recognising this is absolutely key to delivering meaningful change.

In projects focused on industrial strategy, cluster development and sector‑based analysis – such as work supporting industrial workforce planning and regional delivery strategies – GC Insight combines national data with local intelligence and business‑level insight. While using national statistics can allow easy comparison, more in-depth data and analysis is often required. For example, we use our proprietary Growth Flag dataset for up-to-date firm level insights into business growth potential and risk, as well as datasets such as The Data City and Lightcast for specific sector insights.

Dashboards that only show where we are right now risk missing where we are heading. More effective dashboards focus on change over time, as well as growth potential – tracking cohorts of businesses or places, identifying leading indicators, and distinguishing between short‑term volatility and longer‑term structural shifts.

Is the insight usable by the people delivering change?

Even well‑designed dashboards can fail if they are built for analysts rather than users. Senior leaders, programme managers and delivery partners all need different perspectives on the same evidence.

The most effective dashboards are those that link directly to strategy and delivery decisions, providing clear interpretation rather than simply presenting charts and tables. Design is key – both in what metrics are used and visual display – and we work with clients closely to ensure dashboards provide meaningful outputs for those that need them.

Across our work, effective dashboards are consistently place‑specific, decision‑led, underpinned by robust evidence, and designed to evolve as priorities and programmes change. We also work with teams to help ensure dashboards are regularly updated to give greater insights, rather than just being static snapshots from a point in time.

GC Insight works with local authorities, combined authorities, investment agencies, and delivery partners across the UK to design dashboards, evidence bases and performance tools that go deeper than surface‑level reporting. From place‑based Power BI dashboards supporting long‑term strategies, to sector‑focused business intelligence tools that inform commissioning and delivery, our approach ensures evidence leads to action.

If your dashboard isn’t answering the questions that matter most, it may be time to ask better questions and clarify its purpose  – not just collect more data. Get in touch with our team for a chat about how we could help.