If you’re on a go-to-market team, you know the pain of opening ten different tabs just to answer one question about product usage or sales performance. The promise of “custom dashboards” is they pull your key numbers into one place. The reality? Most tools are either too basic, too clunky, or so complicated you’ll need a PhD to make sense of them.
This guide is for anyone who wants to actually use June.so dashboards—June.so—to make decisions, not just impress the execs with another chart. I’ll walk you through building a useful dashboard, what’s worth tracking, and what to skip. No fluff, no jargon, and definitely no “north star metric” lectures.
Step 1: Know What Your Team Really Needs (Not What Looks Good)
Before you even open June.so, talk to your go-to-market team (sales, marketing, CS, whoever’s in the trenches). Ask them two things:
- What questions do you get asked all the time?
- What are you constantly looking up or guessing about?
Write down the actual questions. Stuff like: - “Which accounts are most active this week?” - “Are free users hitting the upgrade triggers?” - “What’s our churn looking like month over month?”
Pro tip: Don’t just list every metric you can think of. Too many dashboards end up as data graveyards—full of charts, but nobody looks at them. Focus on 3–5 must-have questions.
Step 2: Map Your Sources—What Data Do You Actually Have?
June.so lives on product data—it plugs into your product analytics tools (Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude, etc.) and sometimes your CRM. Before you start, check:
- What event tracking do you already have?
- Are your events named in a way that makes sense? (“User Signed Up” vs “signup_v2”)
- Do you have clean properties on users and accounts (like plan, region, sales owner)?
If your data’s a mess, don’t expect magic from any dashboard tool. Garbage in, garbage out.
What works: June.so is best when your events are already sensible and you don’t need wild custom logic. If you’re trying to join three databases or write SQL, you’ll hit limits fast.
Step 3: Connect June.so to Your Stack
Assuming your data’s in shape, connecting June.so is pretty quick:
- Sign up or log in. Obviously.
- Choose your data source. Most folks connect Segment, but June.so also supports direct integrations with Mixpanel, Amplitude, and a handful of others.
- Follow the prompts. You’ll need API keys or to authorize your analytics account.
- Check data is flowing. Open the Events page—do you see events in roughly real time? If not, troubleshoot now, not after you’ve spent an hour building charts that’ll never update.
Heads up: If your team uses custom events or weird tracking, you may need to clean things up first. Don’t let this step be a surprise.
Step 4: Start Simple—Pick Your First Dashboard
Don’t try to build a “master dashboard” right away. Start with one team or one use case. A classic go-to-market dashboard might include:
- Activation rate: What percent of new signups complete key actions?
- Top accounts by usage: Which customers are most active this week?
- Upgrade funnel: How many users move from free to paid, and where do they drop?
- Churn/retention: Who’s slipping away?
To create a dashboard in June.so:
- Hit “New Dashboard.”
- Name it clearly. e.g., “Sales Key Accounts – Q2” or “Self-Serve Funnel.”
- Choose your metrics. June.so has templates for things like “Activation” and “Retention”—they’re pretty good, but don’t just accept defaults. Customize the filters to match your actual business (like plan = “Pro” or signup source = “LinkedIn campaign”).
- Add charts one at a time. For each, ask: Will somebody actually use this to make a decision?
What to ignore: Resist the urge to add a dozen vanity metrics (pageviews, NPS score, etc.) unless your team really needs them. More charts = more noise.
Step 5: Customize—But Don’t Overcomplicate
June.so lets you tweak most dashboard widgets:
- Filter by segment. Show data for a specific region, plan, or sales owner.
- Time windows. Look at this week, last 30 days, custom ranges.
- Breakdowns. Slice by company size, industry, or whatever user property you have.
What works: June.so’s UI is simple—good for non-technical folks. You can get most basic segmentations without writing code.
What doesn’t: If you want to do advanced cohort analysis or build custom formulas, June.so is limited. It’s not a full-blown BI tool. If your team needs crazy custom reports, you may need to export data or use something more flexible (like Looker or Tableau).
Pro tip: Always add a short description to each chart. Explain, in plain English, what the number means and why it matters. Future you (and your team) will thank you.
Step 6: Share and Automate (But Don’t Spam)
Once your dashboard’s ready, get it in front of the right people:
- Invite teammates. June.so lets you add users and set permissions.
- Set up email or Slack reports. You can automate weekly (or daily) updates. Just… don’t overdo it. Nobody wants a daily email they ignore.
- Pin dashboards. Make them easy to find—especially for new hires or execs who get lost easily.
What works: June.so’s sharing is dead-simple. Links work, permissions are straightforward.
What doesn’t: Don’t expect deep access controls or fancy SSO—this isn’t an enterprise-level admin panel (yet).
Step 7: Review, Prune, and Iterate
This is where most dashboards die—they get built, then ignored. Every month or so:
- Ask: Who actually used this dashboard?
- What questions went unanswered?
- What’s out of date or irrelevant?
Delete or archive what doesn’t help. Add what’s missing. Keep it lean.
Pro tip: Set a calendar reminder to review dashboards with your team once a quarter. If nobody can explain why a chart is there, kill it.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What works:
- June.so is great for quickly visualizing product usage, especially for SaaS and PLG teams.
- Non-technical folks can actually build and edit dashboards without bugging engineers.
- Templates for common SaaS metrics (activation, retention, etc.) are solid out of the box.
What doesn’t:
- Custom logic, SQL, or multi-source joins—forget it.
- If your tracking is messy, June.so will surface those problems, not fix them.
- Enterprise security, complex permissions, or advanced visualization—use a true BI tool for that.
What to ignore:
- Don’t chase every new metric or chart. Most teams only need a handful of numbers to run their business.
- Avoid building dashboards “just in case.” If nobody’s asking for it, skip it.
Keep It Simple, Review Often
Custom dashboards should answer real questions, not just look pretty. With June.so, it’s easy to get something up and running fast—if you keep things focused and clean. Don’t be afraid to throw out what isn’t working. Start small, get feedback, and iterate. The best dashboards are the ones your team actually uses.