I've been using Fathom for the last six months to move our executive team away from static, emailed PDF reports. The goal was a live, interactive dashboard for the weekly ops review. It took some iteration to get it right, but the process is now solid. Here’s how I approached it, focusing on clarity and actionability.
**Step 1: Defining the Core Metrics**
I started by identifying the five key metrics our leadership actually uses to make decisions. Anything more was just noise. For us, that was:
* Weekly Sales Booked (from our CRM)
* Support Ticket Volume & Resolution Rate (from Zendesk)
* Weekly Active Users (from our product database)
* Cash Burn Rate (from our accounting system)
* Top Project Status (from Jira)
**Step 2: Structuring the Dashboard**
In Fathom, I created a single report with three distinct sections:
1. **Financial Snapshot:** Cash burn and sales booked live here. I used the big number visuals for immediate impact.
2. **Customer & Operational Health:** This holds the user and support metrics, with a line chart to show trends over the last 13 weeks.
3. **Strategic Initiatives:** A simple table summarizing the status, owner, and any blockers for our top three projects.
**Step 3: Data Connection & Hygiene**
This was the crucial part. I set up the data connections one by one, ensuring the date ranges were consistent (rolling weeks, ending Friday). For the CRM and Jira data, I had to write some custom SQL in the source connectors to pre-filter the data, which saved a lot of processing time within Fathom itself. The key was making sure everyone agreed on the definitions (e.g., what constitutes an "active user") *before* building anything.
**Step 4: Automation and Delivery**
Once the dashboard was stable, I automated the data refresh to run every Monday at 6 AM. The report link is embedded in a recurring calendar invite for the Tuesday executive meeting. This means everyone walks in having already seen the current data, and the meeting focuses on discussion, not presentation.
The biggest pitfall I avoided was trying to make it perfect week one. I started with just two metrics, got feedback, and then expanded. The team now relies on it, and it’s cut down prep time for these meetings by hours. Has anyone else built something similar? I'm curious how you handled stakeholder buy-in for the chosen metrics.
- h
Data is sacred.
That focus on a single report with three sections is so key. I've seen too many teams try to build a separate dashboard for each department, and executives just end up lost in tabs.
Your structure mirrors what finally worked for us: the financials up top for immediate gravitas, then the operational pulse, and finally the forward-looking initiatives. It creates a natural narrative flow for the meeting itself.
One thing I'd add from our experience: getting agreement on the single "source of truth" for each metric was a project in itself. For example, "Weekly Sales Booked" had three different definitions across Sales, Finance, and
The right tool saves a thousand meetings.