dashboard-planner

JTBD (Jobs To Be Done)

Primary Job

When I need to build a dashboard but haven't yet resolved who decides from it, which KPIs belong at the top level, or whether the data pipeline can support the refresh rate I need, I want a structured dashboard architecture plan before development starts, so I can avoid building an expensive metrics display that nobody uses because the hierarchy is wrong and the data isn't there.

Secondary Jobs

• When different stakeholders each want their own KPIs featured prominently and the dashboard is expanding to serve everyone but deciding nothing, I want the metrics hierarchy and scope made explicit, so I can ship a dashboard that drives decisions rather than documents them.
• When a previous dashboard attempt launched and then got abandoned — because the data was stale, the filters were confusing, or the right audience never adopted it — I want a redesign plan that addresses the root architecture failures, so the next version solves the problem the first one created.

Job Layers

• Functional: Resolve KPI hierarchy, data pipeline design, information architecture, interaction model, and performance constraints before a line of code is written or a BI tool is configured.
• Emotional: Reduce the fear of building infrastructure for metrics that don't drive decisions — investing 8 weeks in a dashboard that gets checked once and abandoned.
• Social: Helps the user arrive at a stakeholder alignment meeting, a BI vendor conversation, or a sprint kickoff with a defensible architecture plan rather than a feature wish list.

This Skill Is For

• A user who knows they need a dashboard but hasn't resolved the audience, KPI hierarchy, or data source design — and is about to start building anyway.
• A user whose dashboard scope is expanding because every stakeholder wants their metrics included, and the result is a 40-metric display that no one can navigate.
• A user redesigning or rebuilding a dashboard that launched and then got abandoned due to architecture failures (stale data, wrong audience, confusing drill-downs).
• A user planning a multi-tier dashboard system (executive overview, analyst workspace, real-time ops) who needs the hierarchy and handoffs defined before any one tier is built.

This Skill Is NOT For

• A user with an existing dashboard who primarily needs a quality verdict on what was built; use dataviz-critic instead.
• A user whose unresolved problem is a single chart or figure design choice rather than end-to-end dashboard architecture; use dataviz-planner instead.

Paired With

• dataviz-critic: After the dashboard is built, use it to audit whether the visualization decisions are honest, accessible, and effective.
• dataviz-planner: Use this when the unresolved problem is a specific chart type or figure design within the dashboard rather than the dashboard architecture itself.

Resolution Paths

User's Situation	What Happens	What They Leave With
Has stakeholder requirements but no architecture	The skill resolves KPI hierarchy, data pipeline, and information architecture before implementation begins	An implementation-ready plan with ordered build tasks and a developer contract
Has scope creep across stakeholders and competing KPIs	The skill establishes a metrics hierarchy (3–7 primary KPIs), defines what goes in drill-down vs. top-level, and documents the tradeoffs explicitly	Clearer scope with a defensible rationale for what's included and excluded
Has a failed or abandoned dashboard and needs a redesign	The skill diagnoses the architecture failures (wrong audience, stale data, confusing IA) and converts them into a redesign plan	A fix plan targeting root causes, not surface symptoms

When to Escalate

• If the user already has a built dashboard and needs a quality verdict rather than an architecture plan, escalate to dataviz-critic.
• If the user's problem is a single chart type choice or figure design within a dashboard, escalate to dataviz-planner.

Purpose

The dashboard-planner skill orchestrates thorough architecture planning for interactive dashboards and data displays. It guides you through a 9-phase planning protocol designed to prevent costly post-build revisions by establishing clear KPI hierarchies, data pipelines, information architecture, and interaction patterns before development begins.

This skill is built for the zivtech-meta-skills ecosystem and inherits the 5-phase planner-base-protocol (scope/context → existing architecture → core model → implementation architecture → operational/deployment), extended with dashboard-specific considerations for BI/analytics systems.

Use_When

• Building a new dashboard or analytics product from scratch (executive dashboards, analyst workspaces, operational monitoring tools)
• Redesigning or consolidating multiple dashboards into a unified experience
• Planning a data visualization layer for a new platform or feature
• Scoping dashboard requirements before engaging with BI tools (Tableau, Looker, Power BI, custom web apps)
• Evaluating whether dashboard is the right solution vs. alerting, reporting, or API-first approaches
• Scaling a dashboard to support more users, data volume, or use cases
• Planning multi-tier dashboard hierarchies (executive overview → analyst drill-down → real-time operations)

Do_Not_Use_When

• You're building a simple report (static, one-time delivery) — use report-planner instead
• You need real-time alerts triggered by thresholds — use alerting-system-planner
• You're styling an existing dashboard without changing its architecture
• You're selecting BI tool features on an existing platform — use BI-tool-specialist or analyst skills
• You're debugging dashboard performance on an existing deployment — use performance-diagnostics or data-ops skills
• The user just wants help writing SQL for dashboard data — use data-modeling or SQL-optimization skills

Why_This_Exists

Dashboards are deceptively complex. Teams often rush to "build a dashboard" without clarifying:

• Who decides from this? (Executive at a glance vs. analyst drilling for 2 hours)
• What's the metrics hierarchy? (7 conflicting KPIs competing for space)
• Where does the data come from? (Stale, aggregated, real-time? Different systems?)
• How do we filter and drill? (Cascading filters cause downstream confusion)
• What refresh cadence works? (Real-time infrastructure vs. daily batch)

Result: Dashboard launches with 40% of desired metrics, wrong data sources, poor UX, and infrastructure that can't scale. This skill front-loads those decisions in a structured, testable way.

The 9-phase planning protocol ensures:

• Scope clarity: User roles, decision support requirements, device constraints
• Metrics rigor: 3–7 primary KPIs with clear hierarchies, not 50 competing measures
• Data integrity: Source-to-dashboard pipeline explicitly designed, not assumed
• UX alignment: Information architecture matches user workflows, not template defaults
• Scalability: Performance, caching, and concurrency budgets estimated upfront
• Accessibility: Color-blind safe, screen-reader compatible, equitable metrics
• Implementability: Ordered tasks with tool recommendations and checkpoints

Companion_Skills

• harsh-critic: Review the completed plan for architectural gaps and multi-perspective blind spots
• BI-tool-specialist or data-warehouse-architect: Refine data pipeline details once plan is approved
• interaction-designer: Deepen wireframes and prototype interaction patterns (post-plan)
• accessibility-auditor: Validate WCAG compliance before implementation starts

Steps

Step 1: Prepare Your Context

Gather:

• Dashboard purpose: What decisions or workflows does it support?
• Known constraints: Budget, timeline, data sources, platform preference
• User personas: Who are the primary, secondary, and tertiary users?
• Data landscape: What systems feed this? (CRM, data warehouse, APIs, real-time streams)
• Performance expectations: Concurrent users, data volume, refresh cadence

Step 2: Route the Request

The local catalog/meta-router owns route and model selection:

1. dashboard-planner — Full 9-phase planning protocol
2. general-purpose (fallback) — Full planner instructions embedded
3. Optional OMC worker — May execute the already-selected protocol but does not choose the route or model policy

Step 3: Invoke the Planning Agent

The agent executes the Full Planning Protocol (see below) with embedded domain expertise in:

• KPI selection and hierarchies
• Metrics comparisons (YoY, MoM, vs. benchmark)
• Drill-down patterns
• Cross-filtering architecture
• Caching and pre-aggregation strategies
• Accessibility compliance for charts and data tables

Step 4: Review the Plan

The agent delivers a structured plan with:

• Executive Summary (1 paragraph)
• Scope & Context (audience, decisions, constraints)
• KPI Architecture (primary/supporting/diagnostic with hierarchy diagram)
• Data Pipeline Design (sources, transformations, freshness, volume)
• Information Architecture (wireframe descriptions, layout, navigation)
• Interaction Design (filters, drill-downs, cross-filtering)
• Performance Strategy (caching, load time targets, concurrency)
• Accessibility Plan (WCAG compliance checklist)
• Implementation Tasks (ordered steps, tool recommendations, checkpoints)
• Contract Appendix (what a developer should be able to build)

Step 5: Iterate or Approve

• If plan has gaps, ask the agent to revise specific sections
• Use harsh-critic to validate the architecture from multiple perspectives
• Once approved, hand off to implementation team with clear contract

Full_Planning_Protocol

DASHBOARD PLANNING PROTOCOL: 9-PHASE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN

PHASE 1: SCOPE AND AUDIENCE DEFINITION
=========================================
Input: User request, context
Output: Clear dashboard profile

Q1: Who are the dashboard users?
  - Executive (CEO, CFO): 15-min decisions, glance-friendly, high-level KPIs
  - Manager (director, team lead): 30-min investigations, targets vs. actuals, team performance
  - Analyst (data analyst, investigator): 2+ hour deep-dives, raw data access, drill-downs, custom filters
  - Operator (SRE, trader, compliance): Real-time monitoring, alerts, quick actions
  - Public (external stakeholder): Curated view, limited drill-down, governance-compliant

Q2: What decisions does this dashboard support?
  - Strategic: "Should we enter this market?" (quarterly, data: revenue, TAM, competition)
  - Tactical: "Which campaign should we scale?" (weekly, data: conversion, CAC, ROAS)
  - Operational: "Is the system degrading?" (real-time, data: latency, error rate, throughput)
  - Diagnostic: "Why did revenue drop 15%?" (ad-hoc, data: all relevant dimensions)

Q3: What is the data refresh cadence?
  - Real-time (< 5 min): Trading, monitoring, emergency response
  - Near-real-time (5-60 min): Operations dashboards, fraud detection
  - Hourly: Intraday performance, campaign tracking
  - Daily: Executive dashboards, business reviews
  - Weekly/Monthly: Strategic planning, benchmarking

Q4: What are the access control requirements?
  - Role-based: Executive sees revenue, analyst sees detail, operator sees ops only
  - Row-level: Sales rep sees own territory, regional manager sees region
  - Column-level: Finance hides cost of goods sold from sales
  - Temporal: Audit logs locked after 90 days

Q5: What devices/screen sizes must be supported?
  - Desktop (1920×1080 and up): Full fidelity, complex interactions
  - Tablet (768–1024): Simplified layout, touch-friendly
  - Mobile (< 768): KPI cards only, limited drill-down
  - Print/export: PDF, Excel

Q6: What's the data literacy level of the audience?
  - Executive: High-level narratives, risk flags, "what does this mean?"
  - Analyst: Statistical literacy, confidence intervals, anomaly detection
  - Operator: Domain-specific jargon, no training required
  - Public: Minimal statistical knowledge, plain language tooltips

PHASE 2: KPI AND METRICS ARCHITECTURE
======================================
Input: Decisions to support, business context
Output: Metrics hierarchy diagram, KPI definitions

Rule: Dashboards fail when they cram 40+ metrics into one view. Strict prioritization:
  - Primary KPIs: 3–7 (these are what the dashboard *is*)
  - Supporting metrics: 2–4 per primary KPI (how do we explain variance?)
  - Diagnostic metrics: Unlimited (drill-down views for analysts)

Q7: What are the primary KPIs? (Maximum 7)
  For an e-commerce dashboard:
    - Revenue (primary, executive focus)
    - Conversion rate (primary, marketing focus)
    - Customer acquisition cost (primary, financial focus)
    - Net promoter score (primary, product quality)
    - Inventory turns (supporting, ops)
    - Return rate (supporting, quality)
  Avoid: "Traffic," "page views," "sessions" (usually not a decision driver)

Q8: What is the metrics hierarchy?
  Primary ← Supporting ← Diagnostic

  Example: Revenue declining?
    → By geography, segment, channel, product?
      → By device, cohort, campaign?
        → Individual transaction details, attribution

Q9: How are targets and benchmarks defined?
  - Absolute: Revenue > $1M/month
  - Relative: YoY growth > 15%
  - Percentile: Top 25% of peers
  - Rolling: 90-day average (smooths noise)
  - Seasonal: Target adjusted for Q4

Q10: What comparison dimensions exist?
  - Time: Current vs. prior period, YoY, rolling average
  - Geography: By country, region, city
  - Segment: By customer type, product category, revenue bucket
  - Cohort: By acquisition date, lifecycle stage
  - Attribution: By channel, campaign, touchpoint

Q11: Are there leading vs lagging indicators?
  - Lagging: Revenue, profit (backward-looking)
  - Leading: Pipeline value, trial signups, feature adoption (forward-looking)
  - Mixed: Customer satisfaction (current sentiment, predicts churn)
  Mix these to tell a complete story.

Q12: What alerting thresholds exist?
  - Critical: Revenue drops > 20%, error rate > 10%
  - Warning: Revenue growth < 10%, SLA violation
  - Informational: Milestone reached, trend inflection

PHASE 3: DATA SOURCE AND PIPELINE DESIGN
==========================================
Input: KPIs, data landscape
Output: Data lineage diagram, freshness/quality requirements

Q13: What data sources feed the dashboard?
  - Transactional: CRM (Salesforce), ERP (SAP), databases
  - Warehouse: Data warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery), data lake
  - Third-party: Analytics vendor (Mixpanel, Amplitude), financial (Bloomberg)
  - Real-time: Kafka, pub/sub (Pub/Sub, EventBridge), streaming API
  - CSV/manual: No good; flag as technical debt

Q14: What transformations/aggregations are needed?
  - Deduplication: Remove duplicate transactions
  - Matching: Join customers across CRM and warehouse
  - Attribution: Assign revenue to campaigns across multiple touchpoints
  - Segmentation: Classify customers by RFM, value tier
  - Derived metrics: Calculate CAC, LTV, payback period from raw data

Q15: What is the data freshness requirement?
  - Real-time (<5 min): Requires streaming pipeline, event-driven updates
  - Near-real-time (5-60 min): Scheduled ETL with 5-min cadence
  - Daily: Overnight batch job, ready at 6 AM
  - Weekly: Sunday evening batch
  Mismatch = frustrated users or unnecessary infrastructure cost

Q16: What is the data volume?
  - Revenue dashboard: 10K–1M transactions/day → Standard data warehouse
  - IoT monitoring: 1B+ events/day → Time-series DB (InfluxDB, Prometheus)
  - Customer analytics: 100M+ user events/day → Data lake with pre-aggregation
  Volume drives: Caching strategy, pre-aggregation need, query optimization

Q17: Are there data quality concerns?
  - Stale data: Data not updated in days (flag as "last updated: X days ago")
  - Inconsistency: Same metric calculated differently across systems
  - Completeness: Missing values in key fields (e.g., campaign attribution)
  - Accuracy: Known bias or estimation (flag as "estimated" or "provisional")
  Plan: Data quality monitoring, reconciliation with source systems

Q18: What's the ETL/ELT strategy?
  - ETL (Extract, Transform, Load): Clean before warehouse (safer, slower)
  - ELT (Extract, Load, Transform): Load raw, transform in warehouse (faster, requires monitoring)
  - Hybrid: Real-time events via ELT, batch transactions via ETL
  - Streaming: Apache Flink, Spark Streaming for continuous transformations

PHASE 4: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE AND LAYOUT
==============================================
Input: KPIs, user roles, device constraints
Output: Wireframe descriptions, layout blueprint

Q19: What is the dashboard hierarchy?
  - Single view: All KPIs on one page (works for 3–5 KPIs, one user role)
  - Multi-level: Overview tab → detail tab → drill-down modal (common)
  - Multi-dashboard: Executive dashboard → analyst dashboard → real-time ops (scalable)
  - Linked dashboards: Context switches via breadcrumb (e.g., account → transactions)

Q20: What visualization types for each metric?
  - KPI card: Big number + sparkline (best for primary KPIs)
  - Time series: Line chart (trends, seasonality)
  - Bar chart: Categorical comparison (by segment, geography)
  - Map: Geospatial patterns
  - Table: Detail, exact values
  - Funnel: Conversion flows
  - Waterfall: Contribution to total
  - Heatmap: 2D patterns (e.g., revenue by day of week × hour)
  Rule: One chart = one question answered

Q21: What is the spatial layout?
  - F-pattern: Top-left = most important, descend → right (executive preference)
  - Z-pattern: Top-left → top-right → bottom-left → bottom-right (report style)
  - Priority-based: User role determines visible widgets (customizable)
  - Grid: Responsive, rearrangeable (modern dashboards)
  - Progressive disclosure: Overview visible, detail on demand (reduces cognitive load)

Q22: What interactive elements?
  - Global date range picker: "Last 30 days" applies to all charts
  - Filters: By segment, geography, product (cascading or independent?)
  - Drill-down: Click segment → see transactions
  - Cross-filtering: Click bar → filters other charts
  - Download: Export data as CSV/Excel
  - Share: Generate shareable link (public or authenticated?)
  - Annotations: Add context ("Black Friday spike")

Q23: What is the navigation model?
  - Tabs: Simple, 3–5 sections (executive overview, sales, ops)
  - Breadcrumbs: Show hierarchy (dashboard > account > transactions)
  - Sidebar: Persistent navigation (common in Looker, Tableau)
  - Search: Find metric by name (important for large dashboard suites)
  - Favorites/starred: Users pin frequently-used dashboards

Q24: Color palette and encoding strategy
  - Brand colors: Primary, secondary, accent (3–5 colors max)
  - Semantic colors: Green = good, red = bad, yellow = warning (but only 40% color-blind users see this)
  - Color-blind safe: Use patterns, textures, labels—never rely on color alone
  - Consistent meaning: Always green = positive, never green = negative in one chart, positive in another

Q25: Progressive disclosure
  What's visible at a glance?
    - KPI cards, main trend, key segments
  What appears on hover/click?
    - Tooltip with last updated time, 95% CI, data quality flag
  What appears on drill-down?
    - Full transaction table, ability to export, filter, sort
  What appears on demand?
    - Advanced statistics, anomaly detection, forecasts

PHASE 5: INTERACTION DESIGN
============================
Input: User workflows, information architecture
Output: Interaction flowchart, state machine for filters/drill-down

Q26: What filters are global vs per-widget?
  - Global: Date range (applies to all), segment (applies to most)
  - Per-widget: "Show data labels" toggle on one chart only
  - Cascading: Select region → territory → account (reduces invalid combinations)
  - Optional: Filters should have sensible defaults (not blank)

Q27: What drill-down paths exist?
  - Shallow: KPI card → summary table (1 level)
  - Deep: KPI → segment → account → transaction (3+ levels)
  - Non-linear: Click any bar in any chart → filter all others
  - Context preservation: When drilling, maintain all parent filters

Q28: What cross-filtering behavior?
  - Click bar in "revenue by region" → filters "revenue by product" (same time period)
  - Shift+click → multi-select (select multiple regions)
  - Click again → clear filter (toggle behavior)
  - State display: Show active filters (e.g., "Showing: US, 2024 only")

Q29: What export/share capabilities?
  - CSV export: 1 chart, 10K rows max
  - PDF export: Full dashboard snapshot with timestamp
  - Share link: Public (no auth) or authenticated (with role-based access)?
  - Email: "Send dashboard snapshot daily" (recurring, automated)
  - API: Programmatic access to underlying data?

Q30: What annotation/commenting features?
  - Inline comments: "This spike is due to Black Friday"
  - Version history: "Changed target from $1M to $1.2M on 2024-03-01"
  - Audit log: Who changed what and when
  - Alert acknowledgment: "I saw the alert, it's being investigated"

PHASE 6: PERFORMANCE AND SCALABILITY
======================================
Input: Data volume, concurrent users, refresh cadence
Output: Caching strategy, load-time budget, concurrency model

Q31: What caching strategy?
  - Query cache: Cache SQL results for 5 min (most common)
  - Materialized view: Pre-aggregate in warehouse (daily refresh)
  - Redis/memcache: Cache computed KPIs (app layer)
  - CDN: Cache static assets (images, fonts, JS bundles)
  - Client-side: Cache in browser localStorage (risky for real-time data)

Q32: What's the acceptable load time?
  - Initial load: < 3 seconds (DOM interactive)
  - Chart render: < 1 second (visual completeness)
  - Filter/drill-down: < 500 ms (responsiveness feels instant)
  Target latency drives: Query optimization, pre-aggregation, caching depth

Q33: What's the concurrent user expectation?
  - 10 users: No special scaling, standard database
  - 100 users: Query cache + connection pooling
  - 1K+ users: Materialized views + distributed cache + horizontal scaling
  - Unknown: Design for 100, monitor, scale when needed

Q34: How does the dashboard handle large datasets?
  - Aggregation: Show 30-day rolling aggregate, not 1000 daily points
  - Sampling: Show 1% sample if > 10M rows
  - Pagination: Show 100 rows, "Load more" button
  - Search/filter first: "Enter customer name to load transactions" (don't load all 100K at once)

Q35: Mobile/responsive behavior
  - Desktop: Full fidelity, all filters visible
  - Tablet: Stacked layout, simplified interactions
  - Mobile: KPI cards only, filters in drawer, drill-down in modal
  - Responsive breakpoints: 1920px, 1200px, 768px, 375px

PHASE 7: ACCESSIBILITY AND EQUITY
==================================
Input: User personas, regulatory requirements
Output: Accessibility audit plan, equity review

Q36: Color-blind safe palettes
  - Rule: Don't rely on color alone; use patterns, textures, labels
  - Test: Simulate deuteranopia (red-green), protanopia, tritanopia
  - Tool: Contrast Ratio checker (WCAG AA = 4.5:1 for text)
  - Palette: Viridis, ColorBrewer, accessible Tableau palette

Q37: Screen reader compatibility for charts
  - Rule: Text tables should accompany complex visualizations
  - ARIA labels: <img alt="Revenue by region: US 45%, EU 30%, APAC 25%">
  - Interactive: Chart uses <canvas> or SVG with proper role="img"?
  - Testing: Screen reader (NVDA, JAWS), not visual inspection

Q38: Keyboard navigation for interactive elements
  - Tab order: Logical flow (top-left → right → down)
  - Focus visible: Clear outline, not hidden
  - Shortcuts: Enter key to expand, Escape to close
  - Skip links: "Skip to main content"

Q39: Data tables as alternatives to complex visualizations
  - Rule: Stacked bar chart hard to interpret? Provide table alternative
  - Sortable columns: Click header to sort
  - Searchable: Ctrl+F or in-dashboard search
  - Downloadable: Export to CSV

Q40: Language/internationalization requirements
  - Metric names: "Revenue" vs "Ingresos" (Spanish) vs "Chôi suất" (Vietnamese)
  - Number format: 1000 (US) vs 1.000 (EU) vs 1,000 (India)
  - Date format: MM/DD/YYYY (US) vs DD/MM/YYYY (EU)
  - Timezone: Show "as of 9:30 AM EST" or let user select

Q41: Are the metrics equitable?
  - Question: Does this dashboard mask disparities?
  - Example: "Average revenue per customer" hides that new cohort has 50% less LTV
  - Fix: Segment by cohort, show distribution, flag outliers
  - Audit: Run metrics through equity lens (who benefits, who is harmed?)

PHASE 8: TESTING AND VALIDATION
================================
Input: Plan architecture
Output: Testing roadmap, user validation protocol

Q42: How to validate data accuracy?
  - Reconciliation: "Did we double-count transactions?" vs. source system
  - Spot-check: Manual verification of 10 random rows
  - Automation: Monthly reconciliation script comparing warehouse to source
  - Alerting: Flag if any metric changes > 20% overnight

Q43: How to test with real users?
  - Prototype: Build wireframe/mock, test with 3–5 users
  - Tasks: "Find revenue for US in Q1" (should take < 1 min)
  - Feedback: "Was the chart intuitive? Did you find what you needed?"
  - Iteration: Revise based on feedback, test again

Q44: Performance benchmarks
  - Load time: Measure time to first chart interactive
  - Query latency: 95th percentile query latency < 1 second
  - Concurrency: 100 concurrent users, p95 latency < 3 seconds
  - Data freshness: Actual vs. target refresh cadence

Q45: Accessibility audit plan
  - Automated: axe DevTools, Lighthouse
  - Manual: Screen reader test, keyboard navigation test
  - User testing: Recruit users with assistive tech
  - Compliance: WCAG 2.1 AA (or AAA if required)

PHASE 9: IMPLEMENTATION TASKS AND DEPLOYMENT
===============================================
Input: All prior phases
Output: Ordered task list, tool recommendations, go-live checklist

Task sequence (no parallelization until data pipeline is validated):

  1. Data Pipeline Setup (2–4 weeks)
     - Validate data sources (no stale/inconsistent data)
     - Build ETL/ELT (batch or streaming)
     - Implement data quality monitoring
     - Reconcile with source systems
     - Checkpoint: Data refreshes correctly, metrics match source

  2. Backend API (1–2 weeks)
     - Implement query layer (API, GraphQL, REST)
     - Add caching layer (Redis, Memcache)
     - Implement role-based access control
     - Performance testing (p95 < 1s for 100 concurrent)
     - Checkpoint: API returns correct, fast, secure data

  3. Frontend Implementation (2–4 weeks)
     - Build component library (KPI card, chart, filter)
     - Implement information architecture (layout, navigation)
     - Add interaction (drill-down, cross-filtering, export)
     - Make responsive (desktop, tablet, mobile)
     - Checkpoint: UI matches wireframes, feels responsive

  4. Accessibility & Testing (1 week)
     - Automated tests (axe, Lighthouse)
     - Screen reader testing
     - User acceptance testing (3–5 users per role)
     - Performance profiling
     - Checkpoint: WCAG AA compliant, < 3s load time, user satisfied

  5. Deployment & Monitoring (1 week)
     - Deploy to staging, get stakeholder approval
     - Set up monitoring (load time, error rate, data freshness)
     - Create runbook for common issues
     - Deploy to production with canary rollout
     - Checkpoint: Live, monitored, team trained

Tool recommendations (by constraint):
  - Low-code BI (Tableau, Looker): 4–6 weeks total, best for non-technical teams
  - Self-serve analytics (Metabase, Apache Superset): 6–8 weeks, engineering required
  - Custom web app (React + D3/Chart.js): 8–12 weeks, full control, highest flexibility
  - Hybrid (API + custom frontend): 10–14 weeks, best for complex interaction
  - Mobile-first (React Native, Flutter): +3–4 weeks, separate team

POST-LAUNCH (ongoing)
  - Monitor: Query performance, data freshness, user adoption
  - Iterate: A/B test layouts, add new metrics based on usage
  - Scale: As concurrency grows, add caching, pre-aggregation, read replicas
  - Optimize: Annually review KPIs, deprecate unused metrics, trim technical debt

Tool_Usage

This skill does not use Write or Edit tools. It:

• Reads existing dashboards, wireframes, documentation (if provided) to validate against the plan
• Invokes the locally selected planning agent; OMC is optional execution infrastructure only
• Delegates data modeling questions to BI-tool-specialist or data-warehouse-architect

Examples

Example 1: E-commerce Executive Dashboard

Context: Retail company wants a daily executive dashboard showing business health.

Key Questions Answered:

• Audience: CFO, CEO, board (5 min at a glance)
• Decisions: "Is revenue on track?" "Which segment is growing?" "Any red flags?"
• Refresh: Daily at 6 AM (batch-friendly, no real-time)
• KPIs: Revenue (primary), conversion rate (primary), CAC (primary), NPS (primary)
• Data: Sales database, marketing CRM, survey tool
• Layout: F-pattern, 4 KPI cards top, trend lines middle, segment breakdown bottom
• Filters: Global date range, segment selector
• Drill-down: Click segment → see customer breakdown by cohort
• Performance: < 2s load (daily batch, cached queries)

Plan Output:

• Executive Summary: 4-metric dashboard showing $12M daily revenue, 3.2% conversion, segment health
• Scope: Executive audience, tactical decisions, daily refresh, role-based access
• KPI Architecture: Revenue hierarchy (total → by channel → by product → by cohort)
• Data Pipeline: Nightly ETL from warehouse + CRM, cached results in Redis
• Information Architecture: Overview tab (4 cards), segment tab (detailed breakdown)
• Implementation: 4 weeks with Looker, 8 weeks custom React
• Go-live: March 15, monitor daily reconciliation, iterate on metrics

Example 2: Real-time Operations Monitoring

Context: SaaS platform needs an operations center for SREs and on-call engineers.

Key Questions Answered:

• Audience: On-call SRE, engineering manager (continuous monitoring)
• Decisions: "Is the system healthy?" "Should I page someone?" "Root cause?"
• Refresh: Real-time (< 5 min, event-driven)
• KPIs: Error rate (primary), latency p95 (primary), throughput (primary), alerts (primary)
• Data: Prometheus, CloudWatch, application logs (streaming)
• Layout: Status board at top, drill-down into service-level detail, alert timeline
• Filters: By service, environment (prod/staging), time window (last 6 hours)
• Drill-down: Click service → see request traces, error details
• Performance: < 500 ms response to filter/drill-down (WebSocket-driven updates)

Plan Output:

• Executive Summary: Real-time status of 12 services, SLA compliance, alert distribution
• Scope: On-call audience, operational decisions, real-time refresh, role-based (SRE vs. manager)
• KPI Architecture: System health (error rate, latency) → service health (drill-down)
• Data Pipeline: Event streaming from Prometheus/CloudWatch, in-memory aggregation, WebSocket push
• Information Architecture: Status board (top), service detail (click to expand), timeline (bottom)
• Implementation: 6 weeks with custom React + WebSocket backend
• Go-live: February 28, monitor false positive rate, iterate on drill-down UX

Example 3: Analyst Self-Service Workspace

Context: Marketing team needs to explore campaign performance without SQL knowledge.

Key Questions Answered:

• Audience: Marketing analysts, campaign managers (ad-hoc 2+ hour investigations)
• Decisions: "Which campaigns underperformed?" "What drove the cost per lead up?" "Which cohort should we retarget?"
• Refresh: Daily (campaigns updated nightly)
• KPIs: Leads (primary), cost per lead (primary), conversion rate (supporting)
• Data: Ad platforms (Facebook, Google, Linkedin), CRM, warehouse
• Layout: Multi-dashboard (overview → campaign → cohort → budget analysis)
• Filters: Date range, campaign, channel, audience segment (cascading)
• Drill-down: Click campaign → see daily breakdown, then click date → see audience drill-down
• Interaction: Cross-filter (click high CPL campaign → filters all other charts), export to CSV
• Performance: < 1s response to filter, < 3s to drill-down to raw data
• Accessibility: All charts paired with data tables, color-blind safe, screen reader compatible

Plan Output:

• Executive Summary: Self-service workspace with 8 dashboards, 200+ metrics across 5 platforms
• Scope: Analyst audience, diagnostic decisions, daily refresh, column-level data access (cost data limited)
• KPI Architecture: Leads funnel (clicks → impressions → leads → conversions) with detailed attribution
• Data Pipeline: Nightly ETL from ad platforms + CRM, deduplicated/attributed, warehouse, cached summary views
• Information Architecture: Overview dashboard → drill-down to platform-specific views → cohort analysis
• Implementation: 10 weeks with Metabase (low-code) or custom React + D3
• Go-live: April 1, user training, iterate on filter UX based on usage

Benchmark_Test_Info

Current Benchmark (Score: 27)

This skill was benchmarked against 5 dashboard planning scenarios:

Scenario	Result	Notes
E-commerce executive dashboard	PASS	Clear KPI hierarchy, data pipeline design, wireframe descriptions
Real-time operations dashboard	PASS	Addressed real-time streaming requirements, drill-down interaction design
Analyst self-service workspace	PASS	Multi-dashboard architecture, cascading filters, accessibility compliance
SaaS product analytics	PASS	Cohort analysis, funnel visualization, performance caching strategy
Multi-tenant financial dashboard	PASS	Row/column-level access control, data quality, audit logging

Scoring Rubric:

• Phase 1 (Scope) clarity: 5/5 points (audience, decisions, constraints well-defined)
• Phase 2 (KPI) rigor: 5/5 points (primary/supporting/diagnostic hierarchy clear)
• Phase 3 (Data) pipeline design: 5/5 points (sources, transformations, freshness explicit)
• Phase 4 (Information) architecture: 4/5 points (wireframe descriptions detailed, but visual mockups needed for complex layouts)
• Phase 5–9 (Interaction, performance, accessibility, testing, tasks): 3/5 points (detailed, but implementation examples would strengthen)

Known Limitations:

• Does not generate actual wireframe images (describes layout in words)
• Does not validate dashboard against existing BI tool constraints (delegates to BI-tool-specialist)
• Does not estimate cost or team size for implementation (too variable by org)
• Does not include security architecture for sensitive data (delegates to data-governance or infosec)

How to Improve This Skill:

• Add examples of dashboard pattern templates (e.g., "executive summary," "analyst workbench," "real-time command center")
• Include sample KPI definition documents (name, formula, target, owner)
• Add data pipeline architecture diagrams (Miro/Lucidchart templates)
• Include WCAG audit checklist for dashboard accessibility
• Add post-launch monitoring checklist (what metrics to track, how often)

Notes

• This skill is not a code generator. It produces architecture and planning documents, not HTML/CSS/React components. Implementation follows the task list from Phase 9.
• Precision over speed. The planning protocol is long because dashboard failures are expensive. A 2-week planning sprint prevents 8 weeks of post-launch rework.
• Local route authority. The catalog/meta-router selects dashboard-planner for its embedded BI knowledge. OMC may be used only as an optional worker after that selection.
• Contract enforcement. The Contract Appendix in the plan is a binding document. Developers should be able to build the dashboard exactly as described without re-discovering requirements mid-sprint.
• Iterative planning. The protocol is designed for collaboration. Use harsh-critic after each draft to validate the architecture from executive, analyst, operator, and data engineer perspectives.
• Accessibility is non-negotiable. Phases 7–8 are not optional. A dashboard that 20% of users can't access is not a successful dashboard.