How to give your Board a clear view of business health
Board decks are meant to inform and align, not confuse.
But too often, they do the latter: slides crammed with copy-pasted spreadsheets, raw CRM dashboards that look great in a browser but turn into pixel soup when dropped into a deck. Rows upon rows of numbers, colors, and charts that require more decoding than clarity.
While the intent to “show the data” is good, the problem is that no one walks away feeling confident about what it is showing.
The challenge
Board members needed to see a clearer, consistent snapshot of performance — something that could quickly show where things were tracking well, where they weren’t, and how performance metrics compared to targets. But the data lived across multiple systems and tools (GA4, Looker Studio, Marketo, Salesforce, PowerBI), each with its own format, filters, and quirks.
Previous decks relied on screenshots and spreadsheet exports across multiple slides, making data feel cluttered and disconnected. Instead of focusing on insight, the audience spent time trying to orient themselves.
The approach
The goal was to make the data tell a story on its own, even without narration. A custom dashboard slide was built that made data simple to understand.
Key moves:
Streamlined visual hierarchy: Performance grouped logically by top-of-funnel, demand capture, and revenue KPIs.
Consistent visuals: Simple color-coded design and chart types to indicate performance at a glance.
Context built in: QoQ improvement and target indicators to make it clear where progress stood versus goals, removing the need for lengthy explanations.
The outcome
The result was a one-slide snapshot that gave the board what they needed to know — a quick, intuitive view of marketing health. Instead of bogging down the meeting with “let me walk you through this chart,” conversations shifted to “here’s the progress we’ve made and here’s what we’re doing next.”
Note: Certain data points have been adjusted for confidentiality.
