Performance dashboards are powerful analytics tools that allow teams to measure progress toward key objectives and achieve business goals. Many organizations leverage a business intelligence (BI) software vendor to meet internal reporting needs, but with the rise of low-code and no-code software applications, teams can create analytics dashboards without needing a complicated backend data infrastructure or expensive frontend BI application (closer to ad hoc reporting or ad hoc dashboards).
For users of the productivity software Notion, it’s possible to embed a no-code performance dashboard within your team’s existing workspace. Notion is an all-in-one SaaS platform where many companies manage their daily tasks, collaborate, and stay informed on company progress.
Given that many businesses leverage Notion as a centralized repository for team activity, embedding a performance dashboard within existing Notion pages allows employees to analyze progress without having to navigate to a different application.
This article will discuss how to:
The first step in creating a performance dashboard is to identify the key metrics that will help measure your team’s success. Often, teams have key performance indicators (KPIs) that enable managers to proactively identify issues and make business decisions that drive individual contributors toward desired outcomes.
Defining the right metrics for your team can be cumbersome. It can be helpful to start small and consider both long term and short term goals. For example, if a team has a quarterly sales goal of $100,000 in new revenue, consider the number of contributing sales reps, the amount that needs to be sold per month, and brainstorm the types of reports that would be beneficial in tracking progress toward this goal. While this is a simple example, it’s important to keep your reports straightforward and easy to interpret by all members on the team.
While metrics will vary by team and industry, some examples include:
In this article, we will focus on Sales CRM metrics to design a sample performance dashboard in Notion.
With the rise of low-code and no-code software, there are numerous ways to organize critical business data using simple, no-code databases. Even if your organization has a sophisticated data pipeline and data engineering team, a no-code database enables teams to create their own reports without depending on technical engineering teams.
Popular no-code database options include:
While notion is known primarily as a robust documentation and team collaboration tool, Notion can also be used as a database. To do so, simply create a new page and select one of the options in the database section. We recommend using a table, which provides a spreadsheet-like structure to manually enter or import data.
Pros:
Cons:
At its core, Airtable was designed to allow organizations to create databases within a low-code/no-code architecture. Unlike Notion—a content management system that has some database capabilities—Airtable was designed to provide a user-friendly alternative to traditional spreadsheets and backend databases.
Pros:
Cons:
Google Sheets can also be used as a no-code database. For anyone that’s used Microsoft Excel, the platform has a very shallow learning curve. Like Airtable and Notion, Google Sheets takes traditional spreadsheets online and allows for real-time collaboration between teammates.
Pros:
Cons:
After brainstorming key metrics and selecting a database provider, it’s important to consider the layout and design of your performance dashboard. Consider these key questions:
What’s the clearest way to order data visualizations on a dashboard? What visualization types work best for each report? What type of data do you want to include?
Thinking about these questions helps to create a well-thought-out performance dashboard that logically tells a compelling story from your data. To design a clear and consistent performance dashboard consider the following best practices.
While mockups can be intricately designed in front-end user-interface (UI) applications, they can also be as simple as drafting your dashboard design with pen and paper. Start with a lightweight rendering of the types of reports you want on your dashboard and think about the logical order in which they should appear. You can draft and change a mockup as many times as you need. This is simply a starting point to help determine the general layout of your performance dashboard, as well as the types of visualizations that are needed.
Each data visualization type has a purpose and some can be better suited to display certain information over others. Consider the following as a general guide:
A single-value metric should showcase a KPI that is a single, standalone value. These should typically be formatted at the top of a performance dashboard and provide a quick gauge on how the team is progressing. This number is often a percentage (e.g. % toward goal) or a total (e.g. 55 total opportunities). Additionally, color coding these metrics can help users quickly understand team performance. If a single-value metric contains a red value, this universally signifies that a metric is performing below a predetermined expectation. Green, on the other hand, can indicate the team is on track.
Comparison visuals can consist of bar/column charts, pie/donut charts, area charts, ribbon charts, and shape maps. These visualization types make it easy to compare the differences and similarities between values. For example, a column chart that showcases revenue by sales rep can quickly highlight which rep is leading in sales for a designated time period.
After brainstorming your performance dashboard’s design, you’ll need to select a data visualization tool to create reports from your chosen database. While Notion does not have native chart functionality, it’s easy to embed reports from other applications into existing Notion pages.
To embed a report in Notion, simply leverage the ‘/embed’ command in an existing Notion page. Almost any public-facing URL can be embedded within Notion, though the product has supported Embed blocks with the following applications:
sample of embedded visualization created using superchart
Some data visualization options include:
If Google Sheets is serving as your database, the service is an obvious (and free) choice for data visualizations as well. Additionally, Notion has a preconfigured embed block for Google Drive, making it easy to copy a report’s share-URL and embed the data within Notion.
The downside: Google Sheets doesn’t offer the sleekest visualization options. It can take a significant amount of time to format reports and there are limited design options. Charts are only a small portion of Google Sheets’ functionality, so the experience of creating visualizations can be inferior and time-consuming compared to more robust data visualization tools.
Tableau is an extremely robust data visualization tool and the sky's the limit for the types of reports and dashboards that can be configured in the application. Tableau is masterful at processing large amounts of data and dashboards can be customized to meet the look and feel of any organization’s branding.
The downside: A Tableau subscription is expensive and has a steep learning curve for non-technical users. It can certainly be overwhelming, making it inaccessible to many business users, especially in the no code community. There are also compatibility issues with low-code/no-code services; for example, it’s often necessary to use a supported third-party embed block like CodePen to ensure tableau dashboards render properly in Notion.
Superchart is a new data visualization tool that was designed to be embedded in no-code tools like Webflow and Notion. The application integrates with Airtable and Google Sheets to easily import business data. Superchart’s data visualization options include modern, customizable elements that look professional, follow design best practices, and have a fresh appeal. Additionally, changes in base data or chart design update automatically between Superchart and Notion.
The downside: This new product has limited visualization types and database integrations. Their visualization types currently only include tables, pivot tables, bar charts, line charts, and column charts. And their database integrations currently only include Airtable and Google Sheets.
Once your performance dashboard has been embedded into a Notion page, you’ll want to share the dashboard with others. Before sharing broadly, it’s important to audit the dashboard and verify that the data is accurate. It may even be worthwhile to create internal processes by which the data is reviewed, or assign an analyst to provide quality assurance (QA) on the dashboard before it’s released publicly.
Additionally, after putting in the work to create your embedded performance dashboard, you’ll want to ensure processes are in place to leverage the data. Use your performance dashboard in team meetings and standups to establish the data as an integrated part of your daily workflows.
Finally, once the dashboard is ready to share, leverage the ‘Share’ settings in the top right corner of your Notion page. This will allow you to invite new users and dictate relevant access levels for your teammates. You can also share your Notion page publicly by selecting ‘Share to web’. This can allow your performance dashboard to be viewed by applicable parties outside of your organization.
Check out this performance dashboard we made using Superchart!
How to Use Airtable, Superchart, and Notion to Create a Live Performance Dashboard
How to Use Google Sheets, Superchart, and Notion to Create a Live Analytics Dashboard
