If you’re responsible for go-to-market (GTM) performance—think marketing, sales, or revenue ops—you know dashboards can be both a blessing and a curse. Good ones cut through the noise; bad ones, well, they just make meetings longer. If you’re looking to build better custom dashboards in Powerin to track GTM metrics, this guide is for you. We’ll get practical on what actually works, what to skip, and how to avoid dashboard bloat.
1. Nail Down Your GTM Goals First
Before you even open Powerin, get crystal clear on what you want to measure and why.
- Start with business questions, not charts. What decisions are these dashboards supposed to help with? “How are we tracking toward our pipeline goal?” is a real question. “Can I make a heatmap of everything?” is not.
- Limit your focus. Trying to track every metric under the sun just leads to noise. Pick 3-5 KPIs that actually matter for GTM: pipeline, conversion rates, lead sources, deal velocity, and maybe sales cycle length.
Pro tip: If you can’t explain to a colleague why a metric matters, it probably doesn’t.
2. Plan Your Data Model Before Building
A dashboard is only as good as the data behind it. Powerin gives you plenty of flexibility, but that means it’s easy to get messy, fast.
- Map your data sources. Are you pulling from Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Analytics, spreadsheets? Know what’s available and, more important, what’s reliable.
- Clean up your fields. Garbage in, garbage out. Make sure source fields (like “Deal Stage” or “Lead Source”) are standardized and don’t have a dozen weird variants.
- Don’t try to automate everything at first. Manual uploads or exports are fine to start. Get your structure right; you can automate later.
3. Build With the End-User in Mind
The best dashboards aren’t for the builder—they’re for the people who need to act on them.
- Ask who’s looking at this. Execs? SDRs? Marketers? Each group needs different views. A CMO cares about pipeline health; a sales rep wants to know their own numbers.
- Keep it simple. One clear chart beats four cluttered ones. If someone needs to squint to understand, you’ve lost them.
- Use plain language. Skip the jargon. Call things what they are: “Deals Closed” instead of “Aggregate Success Rate by Vertical Segment.”
- Mobile matters. If your team checks dashboards on their phone, test for readability. Powerin is decent on mobile, but complex layouts get ugly fast.
4. Use Powerin’s Features—But Don’t Get Distracted
Powerin offers a lot of visualization and integration options. Use what helps. Ignore the rest (for now).
- Pick the right chart type. Bar/line charts for trends, tables for lists, funnels for conversion. Don’t use a donut chart just because it looks pretty.
- Set up filters and drilldowns. Give users control to slice by region, rep, or product line, but keep defaults simple.
- Schedule reports for sanity. Powerin lets you email dashboards on a schedule. Use this to cut back on “Can you send me the latest numbers?” requests.
- Be wary of advanced formulas. Sometimes, less is more. If your formula needs a paragraph of explanation, rethink it.
5. Avoid Dashboard Bloat
It’s tempting to cram everything into one dashboard. Resist.
- Less is more. If a widget isn’t driving action, kill it.
- Group by purpose. Create separate dashboards for different teams or goals—don’t mix marketing attribution and sales forecasting in one place.
- Review regularly. Set a calendar reminder to prune old dashboards. If nobody used it in the last quarter, archive or delete.
6. Test, Share, and Get Feedback
Don’t build in a vacuum. The first version will never be perfect.
- Share early. Show rough drafts to end users before it’s “done.” You’ll catch blind spots fast.
- Watch how people use it. Sit with a user and have them talk through what they see. What’s confusing? What’s useful?
- Iterate. Tweak based on feedback. It’s fine to launch ugly—just fix it as you go.
7. Track Adoption and Real-World Results
A dashboard nobody looks at is just digital wallpaper.
- Monitor usage. Powerin lets you see who’s viewing what. If adoption’s low, find out why.
- Tie metrics to actions. If people aren’t making decisions from your dashboard, it’s probably too complicated or not relevant.
- Don’t be afraid to sunset stuff. If a dashboard isn’t helping, shut it down and focus on what works.
What to Ignore (at Least for Now)
- Overly fancy visualizations. 3D pie charts? Animated scatterplots? Skip ‘em unless you have a really good reason.
- Tracking every possible metric. Focus on decision-driving numbers. The rest is noise.
- Automating everything on day one. Start manual, automate what’s painful and repetitive later.
- “Best practices” that don’t fit your team. Take advice (even this article) with a grain of salt—what matters is what works for your org.
Summary: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Custom dashboards in Powerin can actually make your life easier, but only if you keep them straightforward, focused, and actionable. Start with the real business questions, build for the people who need them, and don’t be afraid to cull what doesn’t work. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches—and maybe even a few meetings—by keeping it simple and making small improvements over time.