Dashboards and Data Visualization

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Table of Contents

Introduction Context Visuals Focusing

Attention

Design 3 Dashboards Conclusion

Principles

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CFI Instructors
We stand out from the competition because our teachers are professional educators.

Tim Vipond Justin Sanders Scott Powell

CEO & Instructor Instructor Director & Instructor
Vancouver London Vancouver

Lisa Dorian Ryan Spendelow

Director & Instructor Instructor
New York Hong Kong

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 Objectives

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Session objectives

Harness the power of Understand your audience Design clear and effective,
visual communication and the context charts, graphs & images

Focus your audience’s Apply best practices for

attention on the most design principles Tell the story you want to tell
important points

Build persuasive Design insightful Become a world class

presentations dashboards financial analyst

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 Data Visualization Overview

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What is storytelling with data?

Numbers Language

STORY

Numbers and language combine

to create storytelling with data

We typically work on numbers

and language separately

This course teaches you to combine

the two for effective business communication

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Why focus on visuals?

Majority of the population are “visual learners”

Our brains see words as pictures, not individual letters

Very hard to read financial analysis in

numbers and tables

Charts bring the data to life

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The potential impact is huge

Executive Decision Making

Executives need to make decisions quickly

Good analysts distill large amounts of complex

information into a simple, concise output

Enhanced decision making can lead to significant

value creation at most companies

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Bad charts are everywhere

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Great visuals make such a difference

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Great visuals make such a difference

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 Context

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Session objectives

Know who your Determine what action you Decide how to get them
audience is want them to take to take that action

Know what questions Identify the “big idea” Create a high level
to ask storyboard

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Know your audience
Audience

Internal External

Executives Company-wide Clients Public

Update Win Business

Decision Project Update

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Know your audience

Audience

Live Distributed
(Presented) (Email/Print)

Non-Experts Experts Non-Experts Experts

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Know your audience

Audience

Internal External

Live Distributed

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Tailor your message

Considerations

Use of jargon /
technical
Level of detail Tone
information /
Acronyms

Inform, or What biases does Quantitative vs

persuade? the audience have? qualitative data

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The main idea

“ “Despite significant growth in our company’s top line and

improving EBITDA margins, we require a significant capital
investment next year or we will run out of money.”

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Storyboarding

ISSUE: DEMONSTRATE DEMONSTRATE IDEAS: COMPARISON: RECOMMENDATION:

ISSUE: ISSUE:

Despite growth Positives: Graphs Negatives: Raise equity, raise Show various The optional
and better of revenue, customer metrics, debt, dramatically outcomes, before choice is to raise
margins, we need margins, capital cut capital and after etc. $x of equity
to raise money investment, cash spending
burn, etc.

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 Visuals

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Session objectives

Review the various Match visuals to the Know when to use

visual options situation what type of visual

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Text

+75%
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Table

Revenue Growth
0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0%
- 19.22 23.73 29.09 35.43 42.88
Exit
7.0x 20.85 25.92 31.97 39.13 47.56
Multiple
8.0x 22.47 28.11 34.85 42.83 52.24
9.0x 24.10 30.31 37.72 46.53 56.92
10.0x 25.73 32.50 40.60 50.23 61.60

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Heatmap

Revenue Growth
0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0%
- 19.22 23.73 29.09 35.43 42.88
Exit
7.0x 20.85 25.92 31.97 39.13 47.56
Multiple
8.0x 22.47 28.11 34.85 42.83 52.24
9.0x 24.10 30.31 37.72 46.53 56.92
10.0x 25.73 32.50 40.60 50.23 61.60

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Line chart
7,000,000

6,000,000

5,000,000

4,000,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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 Scatterplot

25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

0
50 100 150 200 250 300

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Column

6,142,426

5,157,469 5,162,564

4,421,729

3,995,126

1,135,541

38,943

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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Bar

0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000 5,000,000 6,000,000 7,000,000

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Column

6,142,426

5,157,469 5,162,564

4,421,729

3,995,126

1,135,541

38,943

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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 Column and line

7,000,000 70%

6,000,000 60%

5,000,000 50%

4,000,000 40%

3,000,000 30%

2,000,000 20%

1,000,000 10%

0 0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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Stacked column

10,000,000

9,000,000

8,000,000

7,000,000

6,000,000

5,000,000

4,000,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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Stacked bar

0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000 5,000,000 6,000,000 7,000,000 8,000,000 9,000,000 10,000,000

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Waterfall

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Tornado

(60) (40) (20) 0 20 40 60

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Gauge

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Bullet

74.0%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

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 What not to do…

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What not to do…
7,000,000.00

6,000,000.00 6,142,426

5,000,000.00 5,157,469 5,162,564

4,421,729
4,000,000.00 3,995,126

3,000,000.00 Series1

2,000,000.00

1,000,000.00 1,135,541

0.00 38,943
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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What not to do…

7,000,000

6,000,000

5,000,000

4,000,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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What not to do…

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

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What not to do…

0
1,000,000
2,000,000
3,000,000
4,000,000
5,000,000
6,000,000
7,000,000

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 Visual Exercise

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In Excel, make at least 6 changes to improve this graph

Sold versus Shipped

160

140

120

100

80

60
Sold Shipped

40

20

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

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Solution
Sold versus Shipped

150

Sold

125

Shipped

100

75

50
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

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 Focusing Attention

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Session objectives

Understand why pre- Learn what each Learn how to incorporate

attentive attributes matter of the attributes are them in charts

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Pre-attentive attributes

A pre-attentive attribute is processed by the brain BEFORE it

enters our consciousness or memory

It’s a survival instinct to highlight changes in our environment

Consists of color, form, movement and positioning

Can be easily incorporated into charts

Dramatically improves the effectiveness by focusing

attention where we want it

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Examples of pre-attentive attributes

Orientation Shape Length

Width Color Enclosure

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Incorporating the attributes with charts

Jan
Jan

Feb
Feb

Mar
Mar

Apr
Apr

May
May

Jun
Jun

Jul
Jul 40

Aug
Aug

Sep
Sep

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

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Incorporating the attributes with charts

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Incorporating the attributes with charts

45 45

40 40

35 35

30 30

25 25

20 20

15 15
Target
10 10

5 5

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

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Incorporating the attributes with charts

45 45
Series1 Series2
40 40

35 35
Comment
30 30

25 25

20 20

15 15

10 10

5 5

0 0
Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan

Series1 Series2

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Incorporating the attributes with charts

45 70

40
60
Threshold
35
50
30

25 40
Series 1
20 30

15
20
10
10 Series 2
5

0 0
Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan

Series1 Series2

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 Focusing Attention Exercise

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In Excel, make at least 6 changes to improve this graph

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Solution

Actual vs Budget

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Actual Budget

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 Design Principles

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Session objectives

Use guides to make Make the information The importance

messages intuitive accessible to all of aesthetics

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Guides

A guide indicates to someone how

something should be used

Use can use guides to clearly illustrate information in charts

Highlight important information

Eliminate distractions

Isolate the key message

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Guides
70

60
Over Budget

50
Budget

40

30
Series 1

20

10
Series 2

0
Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan

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Accessibility

Anyone from any background can understand the information

Keep it clean

Use common language

Remove complexity

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Accessibility
In July we saw a significant
increase in order volume, which
lead to higher-than-expected
Jan revenue

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul 40

Aug

Sep

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

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Aesthetics

Not only are beautiful charts more pleasing to look at,

they are more likely to be accepted as “true”

Be careful with color

Alignment is critical

Use white space intelligently

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Aesthetics
100%

90%

80%

70%
23%

60%
37%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Series1 Series2 Series3 Series4 Series5 Series6 Series7 Series8

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 Dashboards

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Session objectives

Why use dashboards Executive decision making

3 Step by Step
How to build a dashboard
Examples

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Why use dashboards

Quickly digest a large amount of information

Evaluate historical performance

Illustrate a forecasts and scenarios

Output the details of a financial model

Regular company updates

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Executive decision making
© Corporate Finance Institute

My time is extremely limited DASHBOARD TEMPLATE

2018 Net Earnings Waterfall ($000s)

What are the key takeaways?

What should I be worried about?

What should we change?

Cash Flow and Cash Balance ($000s) 2018 Productivity Rate

What is going well? $200

Cash from Operations
Cash from Investing
Cash from Financing Business 1 74.0%
$150

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
$100

What should we do more of? $50

$-
Business 2 87.0%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
$(50)

$(100) Business 3 79.0%

$(150)
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

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How to build a dashboard

Planning Designing

What metrics are most important for this business? Size and orientation

What time periods are most relevant? Charts versus tables, versus text

Who is going to read this? Design principles

What decisions will they make from it? Corporate style guide

Multiple iterations… lots of tinkering

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How to build a dashboard

SWITCH TO EXCEL RECORDING

LIVE DEMONSTRATION

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 Conclusion

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Session objectives

Harness the power of Understand your audience Design clear and effective,
visual communication and the context charts, graphs & images

Focus your audience’s Apply best practices for

attention on the most design principles Tell the story you want to tell
important points

Build persuasive Design insightful Become a world class

presentations dashboards financial analyst

corporatefinanceinstitute.com
Advance your
career
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