Reporting and Dashboard Specification Template

Limit the default dashboard to 5-7 metrics that answer the most common questions from your primary persona. Interview users and ask "What is the first thing you check every Monday morning?" and "What data do you pull manually today?" Those answers become your default metrics. Additional metrics can live on secondary tabs or custom dashboards. For help choosing the right [product metrics](/glossary/aarrr-pirate-metrics), see the glossary.

It depends on the use case. Operational dashboards (task status, support queue, active incidents) benefit from real-time or near-real-time data. Strategic dashboards (monthly velocity trends, quarterly revenue) need daily refresh at most. Building real-time dashboards is significantly more expensive in infrastructure and engineering time. Default to daily unless users can articulate a specific workflow that requires fresher data.

Normalize metrics where possible. Show "tasks completed per person" alongside "total tasks completed" so a team of 3 is not unfairly compared to a team of 12. Avoid leaderboard-style rankings unless the customer explicitly requests them. Comparative views should default to team-level (not individual) to reduce toxic competition dynamics.

Ship 2-3 pre-built dashboards that cover the most common use cases (team performance, project health, individual workload). Then add a "custom dashboard" builder as a premium feature. The builder should support drag-and-drop chart placement, metric selection, and saved views. Pre-built dashboards serve 80% of users. Custom dashboards serve power users and enterprise customers who will pay more for them. The [PRD Template](/templates/prd-template) is the right format for scoping a custom dashboard builder. ---