If you’re new to User-Centered Dashboard Development (UCDD), please check out the earlier posts (also found at the bottom of this post) to get acclimated, then come back here!  

Above: “Three… Two… One… Blast off!” 

The time is here to launch our dashboard to our end users! The fifth step in our UCDD Framework is Launch.  

Going Live

In this step, our goal is to promote our dashboard and educate users on how to best use it.  

What are some common challenges you typically face at this stage of development? Maybe you’re thinking things like:

• My users don’t know there’s a new dashboard for them.
• My users can’t find the new dashboard on our Server.
• My users don’t trust the new dashboard or data.
• My users don’t know how to use the dashboard.

If you encounter these challenges, that’s completely normal. After all the work we’ve done to build a beautiful and useful solution, it can be disheartening at this stage when our dashboard doesn’t generate as much excitement as we had hoped. But hopefully, if you have been following UCDD throughout development, at least some of these challenges can be alleviated simply because your users have been on the development journey with you – so they already know a new and awesome tool is about to be launched.

When it comes to promoting the dashboard to your larger user base and educating them on the functionality of your new dashboard, there are a few things you can do: 

• Create a training and education plan  
• Produce short “how-to” promotional videos to share in Slack or Teams 
• Host Lunch and Learns (but be sure to actually provide lunch!) 
• Go on a Meetings Roadshow to promote the new dashboard at existing team meetings 
• Embed your dashboard in a tool like Curator and feature it on the homepage as a “New and Exciting!” resource

Depending on the audience size, visibility and complexity of your new dashboard, you may want to develop a full “Roll-Out” plan with all the suggestions above, or you may be able to get away with some smaller promotions and a Slack announcement. Think about what makes the most sense for your users.   

Here are some additional InterWorks blogs that may assist you in your efforts here:

• Success in Adoption: Building Excitement
• How to Increase Tableau User Adoption Through Good Documentation
• Increasing Tableau Server User Adoption: Overview

If you want to work with us on a UCDD project, reach out and see what we can do for you!