Why aren’t you using my dashboards or reports?

Stan from Sharp Analytics has a good post on trying to make sense of how dashboards, reports, etc. are used (or not).

I’ve seen this happen a lot as well, especially when there isn’t a full lifecycle of review, support and upkeep associated with dashboards and reports. I recommend frequent review and sign off with stakeholders and audiences after initial release and then at least quarterly once you’ve got something that’s pretty much perfect. Remember, it’ll never stay perfect – and if you let it get stale, outdated or incorrect, you’ll quickly loose your audience and any confidence they had in the dashboard or report in the first place.

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“Why do some reports get used often, while others are viewed only once? Why do some report users login once and never return, while others return often?

Every time I build a report, dashboard, or ad-hoc query environment I wonder if it will ever be used. And every time I setup a user account for a new user, I wonder if they really want and need it. Everyone involved in an IT project from a business standpoint knows that they should need the data, and they devote hours of meetings providing input and money. So why don’t many of them ever return to take a look at the results?”