When is an Executive Dashboard NOT an Executive Dashboard?

Short answer: when it's an analytic application. How can you tell the difference? Well, that's not always so easy. Most often, this is dictated by tool limitations, but also, the answer can be driven by the level of detail that is useful at an executive level. Executive information must be quickly scanned and the point should be readily evident. This group has a need to move quickly and optimize their time spent on any given issue. Too much detail and their eyes will glaze over. Not because they don't have the intellectual horsepower to deal (as much as we like to make fun of our executives, how do yo think they got there in the first place?) but when you start to bog them down too much in a single subject, they have a hard time concentrating, for worrying about all they stuff they have left to do today. So keep it high level and make sure that your visualization of the data makes the point readily apparent.

At the executive level, lots of root-cause analysis is not necessary. That's what they have a staff for. The danger of adding too many dimensions to an executive dashboard is that the deeper (more granular) the data gets, the more familiar you have to be on a day-to-day basis on the inner workings of the operations. Otherwise, the data might look scary, or just wrong, if you are not intimately familiar with the nuances of the deep information.

The bottom line is this: when you start your executive dashboard project, everyone will think they want everything. As the pro leading the development effort, it is your job to guide them so that everyone gets the piece of the overall solution that provides the most value for their role within the organization.