The Hidden Complexity Behind Simple Dashboards
From The Dashboard Effect by Brick Thompson, Jon Thompson, Caleb Ochs, Landon Ochs
March 25, 2026 · 10 min · Episode 168
About this episode
This episode discusses the complexities behind creating effective dashboards that appear simple but require intricate data modeling and engineering.
Designing a dashboard might seem straightforward, just add charts, metrics, and a few visualizations. But the dashboards that actually help businesses make decisions often look surprisingly simple. In this episode of The Dashboard Effect, Brick and Landon talk about why the most effective dashboards are usually the simplest to read, and the hardest to build. Behind a clean dashboard is often a lot of complex data modeling, business rules, and engineering work that makes the information accur...
People in this episode
Hosts: Brick Thompson, Landon Ochs
Topics covered
- dashboard design
- data modeling
- business decision making
- visualization
- simplicity in design
Keywords
- dashboards
- data visualization
- business intelligence
- metrics
- design complexity
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