Power BI has become the standard for business intelligence across Canada and beyond. But building a dashboard that people actually use requires more than dragging a few charts onto a canvas. After building dozens of dashboards for clients in Ottawa and across the country, here are the seven practices that consistently produce the best results.
1. Start with the question, not the data
Before you open Power BI Desktop, write down the three to five questions your dashboard needs to answer. 'How are sales trending by region?' is a question. 'Show all the data' is not. Every visual on your canvas should map directly to a business question. If it does not answer one, remove it.
2. Follow the inverted pyramid layout
Place high-level KPIs and summary cards at the top of the page. Put trend charts and comparisons in the middle. Push detailed tables and filters to the bottom or a separate drill-through page. Executives scan from top to bottom, and this layout matches the way they think.
3. Limit each page to five or six visuals
Cluttered dashboards confuse users and slow performance. A page with five focused visuals always outperforms one with fifteen. If you need more detail, create additional pages or use drill-through actions to keep the main view clean.
4. Use consistent color encoding
Pick one color for each metric or category and stick with it across every page. If revenue is gold and costs are red on page one, they should be gold and red on every page. Inconsistent color forces users to re-read legends, which slows comprehension.
5. Optimize your DAX measures
Slow dashboards get abandoned. Use variables in DAX to avoid recalculating the same expression multiple times. Replace FILTER with KEEPFILTERS where possible. Move complex calculations into measures rather than calculated columns, and test performance with DAX Studio before publishing.
6. Design for mobile from the start
Over 40% of Power BI consumption happens on phones and tablets. Use the mobile layout editor in Power BI Desktop to build a dedicated phone view. Prioritize the top two KPIs and one chart. If a visual does not work at 360 pixels wide, it should not be on the mobile layout.
7. Add context with conditional formatting and annotations
Numbers without context are meaningless. Use conditional formatting to highlight values above or below target. Add text boxes or smart narratives that explain why a metric changed. A dashboard that tells a story is one that drives action.
Putting it into practice
These practices are not theoretical. We apply them in every Power BI engagement at GrowWM, whether it is a single executive dashboard or a full suite of operational reports. If your current dashboards are collecting dust, it might be time for a redesign. Reach out through our contact page and we will take a look at what you have.