The new Dashboard Filters feature is a great step forward, but its value is limited because filters only apply to a single data source.
Business Problem
Enterprise dashboards are typically built from multiple sheets and reports, including project plans, status reports, KPI sheets and portfolio reports. While these sources often share common business dimensions such as Channel, Region or Portfolio, they cannot currently be filtered together.
Large organisations often create multiple versions of the same dashboard for different audiences because a single filter cannot span multiple data sources.
For example, an executive should be able to select Region = Europe and have every widget update, regardless of whether the data comes from a project plan, status report or metrics sheet. Today this requires multiple dashboards or separate filters.
Proposed Solution
Introduce Dashboard Context Layer - allowing enterprise data modelling based on shared business dimensions rather than individual data sources. Each widget would map one of its fields to a common dashboard layer. This is not simply allowing one filter to connect to multiple reports. It introduces a semantic layer where different fields can represent the same business concept.
E.g. Selecting 'Europe' would update every mapped widget across the dashboard:
Dashboard Filter / Dimension | Widget Field |
|---|
Region | Widget A - Country |
Region | Widget B - Market |
Region | Widget C - Sales region |
Business Benefits
- One dashboard instead of many channel-specific versions.
- Reduced dashboard maintenance and duplication.
- Improved governance through a single source of truth.
- Better executive experience with consistent cross-source filtering.
- Greater scalability for enterprise portfolios and global organisations.
Summary
The current feature filters by a single data source. Dashboard Context Layers filter business context.
This would transform dashboards into dynamic executive reporting tools that scale across complex enterprise environments, reducing dashboard sprawl while improving governance and usability.
Today, dashboards are collections of independent widgets. Dashboard Context Layers would allow them to behave as a single coherent reporting experience, enabling enterprise-scale dashboards without duplication, while preserving a single source of truth.
Matt
