Reports That Create Decisions

Management reporting has one job: help people decide. Everything in the report should serve three questions — what happened, why, and what we'll do next.

Structure

• Headline: result vs target in one sentence.
• Drivers: the two or three metrics that explain it.
• Actions: what changes this week, and who owns it.
• Appendix: detail for those who want it.

Automate the numbers, not the thinking

Dashboards should update themselves. The time saved belongs to interpretation — the part no connector can do.