01
Define the metric before building the chart
Ambiguous definitions — what counts as an active customer, when revenue is recognised — are the most common source of disputed dashboards. Write the definition down and attach it to the view.
02
Validate at ingestion
Checks belong at the point data enters the pipeline: schema validation, range checks, duplicate detection and freshness monitoring.
- Reject or quarantine rather than silently coerce bad records
- Track freshness so a stale source is visible on the dashboard itself
- Keep raw data so any transformation can be re-run
03
Design for the decision
A view that nobody acts on is maintenance cost. Start from the recurring decision, then show only what changes it.