Best Data Practices for Leaders
- Silverton, Colorado, September 2025
A few weeks ago, I asked you to imagine a world without reports. That question forces you to think about what reports you really need, and what reports must go.
Here’s an example of one nobody needs. My friend leads a team of claims agents at a major health insurance company. The latest report handed down from his management ranks people based on the number of calls they answer per hour. People stopped paying attention to the numbers on these dashboards a long time ago. Now they just look for the red or green highlights.
That’s precisely the doom loop that many companies get stuck in. Reports that measure people with metrics don’t inspire much analysis, and they lead to a graveyard of unused dashboards when executives change their minds about what to measure.
You can escape this trap. Instead of building dashboards to measure performance, you can manage most of your business with a single report that inspires people to analyze data.
Does Your Data Have a Heartbeat?
Legendary management guru W.E. Deming says, “People [who] are measured by counting are deprived of pride of workmanship.”
That’s exactly how my friend felt. Deming’s insight helps explain what makes a good report: Instead of defining categories for performance, it shows you the data. A good report helps everyone see what’s happening without dictating solutions. I call this a “pulse” report.
A heart rate monitor next to a hospital bed illustrates this kind of report. The screen displays the data from the system (the patient’s heart rate), nothing more, nothing less, and no judgment. You see the green line going up and down as it scrolls by, right-to-left. It makes a sound.
I’ve seen lots of pulse reports in action:
New orders. Almost every semiconductor company reports this daily.
- Student enrollment. Universities use this as the denominator for many other measurements.
- Theme park attendance (Disneyland). The number ticked up every time someone walked through a turnstile.
- Monthly recurring revenue. SaaS companies measure this, and I measure it for Common Ground Surf, the non-profit I help manage. The data helps us focus on long-term supporters.
The pulse report simply shows people the data from the systems. That’s the starting point— and the baseline for analytics.
Beyond the Pulse
A report focused on the pulse of your business creates these advantages:
Accuracy. It displays the current grand total values for key datasets, giving analysts confidence that the numbers they present to decision-makers align with the data the executives already understand. It helps analysts know they can explore data without getting lost.
Timing. A good pulse report sets a clear rhythm for the people using your data by eliminating debates about what time of day the data is “as of.”
I’ve found a surprising amount of confusion in data practices about the timing of reporting data. One company was loading sales order data to its reporting platform on the first Monday of each month. Sometimes that day was six days after the end of the previous month. Business data users often forgot about this timing and asked each other why the data was wrong.
Context. A daily pulse report creates an easy reference point for comparisons. When an executive looks at data, they often compare what they saw yesterday, in the previous period, or in the original plan.
Reliability. It helps the data team identify data issues sooner and focus on reliability. Delivering data on a daily cadence means you have 365 opportunities a year to refine the process.
How many reports do you need to run your company? With good analytic data that everyone can access, you can eliminate most reports.
You’ll just need a good pulse report.
To help remind you of these concepts, I’m now adding a hit 80s song to theFrictionless Data Spotify playlist each week. This week, enjoy We Got The Beat by The Go-Go’s.