Decision-Ready Dashboard Glossary
A Decision-Ready Dashboard is a structured dashboard designed to support action under pressure, not just display data.
This glossary explains the core terms behind Decision-Ready Dashboards. Use it to align vocabulary before a workshop, diagnosis, or redesign — and to clarify what we mean by triggers, thresholds, cadence, and KPI load. It is not a how-to guide; it is a shared language for judgment.
FAQ
What is the difference between a KPI dashboard and a decision-ready dashboard?
Why do most dashboards fail to support decisions?
Start with these concepts
These terms appear most often in Decision Guides and Symptoms. If you only have a few minutes, start here.
How this glossary is organized
Terms are grouped by the part of the decision they shape: structure, triggers and thresholds, causes and actions, and the cadence and load of information.
Decision Structure
How dashboards are framed so that judgment has a clear path instead of a flat wall of KPIs.
- Decision-Ready Dashboard
- Decision Structure
- Decision Breakdown
- Decision Flow
- Judgment Signals
- North Star Metric
Triggers & Thresholds
When attention should shift, and how we decide that a change in the data is serious enough to act on.
Causes & Actions
How dashboards connect patterns in the data to likely causes and to the next reasonable step.
Cadence & Load
The rhythm and weight of information: how often we look, and how much data we show without exhausting judgment.
This glossary is part of the Decision-Ready Dashboard framework, which explains how dashboards support judgment under pressure. To feel these ideas in context, start from a Symptom or Decision Guide, then come back here if a term feels unclear.