How to Start a Reporting Project
Building a new dashboard? Pause for a second.
The difference between a dashboard that drives action and one that collects dust often comes down to what happens before any data is touched.
Before a single chart is built, the most successful reporting projects start with something much simpler: clarity.
Clarity about what matters, who needs to know it, and how the insight will be used.
At Flock, we often see reporting initiatives stall not because of technology — but because the brief is vague, the goals are unclear, or the data isn’t tied to a specific decision. That’s why we use a structured approach to scoping use cases, built around five key questions.
1. What’s the priority right now?
Not everything is equally urgent. Before jumping into design, we work with teams to identify their current priorities — whether it's improving sales pipeline visibility, tracking service SLAs, or giving execs a clearer view of performance.
Focusing on a few high-impact questions helps ensure momentum, value, and adoption early on.
2. What’s the user story behind this report?
We frame every insight as a user story — a short, natural-language statement of what the user wants to know and why.
For example:
“As a sales manager, I want to see gross profit by region and year, so I can compare performance.”
This helps align the dashboard with real-world decisions and keeps technical development user-centred.
3. What measures and dimensions are involved?
Each user story should translate into:
Measures (e.g. Gross Profit, Conversion Rate)
Dimensions (e.g. Region, Time, Product Category)
This step ensures the request is analysis-ready and that everyone agrees on how the numbers will be cut and filtered.
4. Where is the data coming from?
Early in the scoping process, we identify the relevant data sources — so we can assess quality, integration effort, and access requirements. Whether it’s a CRM, ERP, spreadsheet or data warehouse, this avoids surprises later on.
5. What outcome are we supporting?
Finally, we ask:
“What will this help someone do differently?”
Maybe it's enabling proactive customer engagement, reducing reporting bottlenecks, or highlighting operational risk earlier. Tying insight to action keeps the focus on value — not just visualisation.
Want a structured way to get started?
Download our free User Stories Scoping Template to guide your next reporting initiative.