If you’re running revenue operations, you probably spend too much time cobbling together numbers from scattered reports, Excel sheets, and dashboards that never quite fit what you need. If your team uses Aviso, you can save yourself a lot of hassle by building custom dashboards that actually show you what matters. This guide is for revenue ops folks who want a no-nonsense walkthrough to create, tweak, and manage dashboards in Aviso—without getting lost in all the options, or worse, making dashboards nobody ever looks at.
Why Custom Dashboards Matter (and When They Don’t)
Before we get into the how-to, let’s get real about dashboards. Custom dashboards can be fantastic for:
- Spotting risks early: See pipeline gaps, stuck deals, and quota issues at a glance.
- Cutting through noise: Focus on the metrics your team cares about, not a wall of irrelevant charts.
- Reporting up (and across): Give execs, reps, and other teams tailored views—without sharing your whole data kitchen sink.
But dashboards aren’t magic. If your data’s a mess, or if no one actually uses the dashboard, it’s just another tab people ignore. So, before you dive in, ask yourself: what specific questions do you want this dashboard to answer? If you can’t answer that, stop and figure it out first.
Step 1: Get Set Up in Aviso
First things first: make sure you have the right permissions in Aviso. Depending on your org, you might need admin or “dashboard creator” access. If you don’t see the dashboard options below, talk to whoever runs Aviso for your team.
- Log into Aviso.
- Find the “Dashboards” tab or module in the main menu. (Naming might shift based on your company’s settings, but it’s usually called “Dashboards,” “Analytics,” or “Insights.”)
- Click through to see existing dashboards. Get a feel for what’s already there—no use reinventing the wheel.
Pro Tip: If you’re new to Aviso, poke around the sample dashboards first. It’ll save you a lot of head-scratching later.
Step 2: Decide What You Actually Need
Don’t start with the software—start with the problem. Ask yourself:
- Who is this dashboard for? (Sales leaders, reps, RevOps, C-suite?)
- What decisions should this dashboard help them make?
- Which metrics actually matter? (Be ruthless here. Less is more.)
Write these down. Seriously. Otherwise, you’ll get lost in the weeds of widget options and end up with dashboard soup.
What to skip: Avoid the temptation to cram every metric onto one screen. People tune out dashboards that feel like airplane cockpits.
Step 3: Create a New Dashboard
Once you know why you’re building the dashboard, it’s time to make one.
- Hit “Create Dashboard” (usually a big button at the top right).
- Name it something obvious. “Q2 Pipeline Health – Managers” beats “Dashboard 5.”
- Add a description. Explain what the dashboard’s for and who should use it. This helps others know if they’re in the right place.
Some orgs let you set sharing permissions right away. Choose whether the dashboard is private (just for you), shared with specific people/roles, or public to the whole org.
Pro Tip: Keep new dashboards private while you’re tinkering. Go public only when you’re happy with it.
Step 4: Add and Configure Widgets
Widgets are the building blocks—charts, tables, graphs, and lists. Here’s how to use them without getting overwhelmed:
- Click “Add Widget” or “Add Visualization.”
- Pick your widget type. Aviso offers charts (bar, pie, line), tables, scorecards, and sometimes more advanced stuff (heatmaps, scatter plots).
- Choose your data source. Most revenue dashboards pull from opportunities, pipeline, forecast, or activity data.
- Set filters. This is where you control what shows up—by team, deal stage, date range, rep, etc.
- Configure metrics. Be specific: “Total pipeline value for Q2 by region” is better than “Pipeline stuff.”
- Preview as you go. In Aviso, you can usually see how the widget will look before saving. If it’s unreadable or confusing, fix it now.
Widget Tips That Actually Matter
- Start simple: One or two widgets per dashboard section is plenty to start.
- Label everything: Use clear, plain-English labels. “Won Deals by Rep (Last 90 Days)” beats “Metric 12.”
- Don’t chase fancy graphs: If a table works, use a table. Pie charts almost never help.
What to avoid: Don’t add a widget just because it looks cool. Every chart should answer a question you wrote down in Step 2.
Step 5: Arrange, Format, and Tweak
Now you’ve got your widgets—time to make it usable.
- Drag and drop widgets to arrange them in a logical order (top = most important, bottom = nice-to-have).
- Resize as needed so the key metrics stand out.
- Group similar widgets (forecast stuff together, activity stuff together).
- Set default filters if Aviso allows—so people see the right time frame or team by default.
- Check on mobile if your team uses dashboards on phones or tablets. Some layouts look terrible on small screens.
Pro Tip: Show your draft dashboard to a teammate who wasn’t involved. If they don’t “get it” in 10 seconds, it’s too complicated.
Step 6: Share and Control Access
Don’t just build a dashboard—make sure the right people can see (and not edit) it.
- Set sharing settings: Aviso usually lets you share dashboards by individual, team, or role.
- Choose view or edit access: Most people only need view rights. Only give edit access to fellow RevOps folks you trust.
- Communicate: When you roll out a new dashboard, tell people where it is and what it’s for. (A quick Slack message beats hoping they just find it.)
What to ignore: Don’t bother sharing dashboards with people who never look at them. Focus on your core audience.
Step 7: Iterate—Don’t “Set and Forget”
Here’s the honest truth: your dashboard will probably need tweaks once people start using it.
- Ask for feedback: Find out what’s confusing, missing, or overkill.
- Check usage: Aviso sometimes tracks dashboard views. If nobody’s looking, something’s off.
- Update filters and widgets as your process or pipeline changes. Don’t let dashboards get stale.
- Archive or delete dashboards that no one uses. Less clutter helps everyone.
Pro Tip: Schedule a 10-minute review every quarter to clean up or improve your dashboards. Future-you will thank you.
What Works, What Doesn’t (And Common Mistakes)
Works well: - Focusing a dashboard on just one audience and use case. - Using clear, actionable metric names. - Keeping the number of widgets low.
Doesn’t work: - Building dashboards “for everyone”—they end up working for no one. - Overcomplicating with filters and drilldowns no one uses. - Relying on dashboards to fix bad data or broken processes. (Garbage in, garbage out.)
Ignore this: - Overly flashy visualizations—if you can’t explain it in a sentence, it’s too much. - “Set it and forget it”—dashboards need maintenance, just like your pipeline.
Keep it Simple, Keep it Useful
Custom dashboards in Aviso can save your team a lot of time and headaches—but only if you keep things simple and focused. Start small, solve one problem at a time, and don’t be afraid to ditch what’s not working. You’ll get more value from an ugly dashboard people actually use than a flashy one that sits ignored.
Now go build something your team will actually thank you for.