HealthCan it be trusted and acted on?
Sanity dashboard
In use, fresh, actionable, honestly rolled up and focused: the main answer is found in seconds and can be trusted.
Example dashboard
Click a widget to see its data
Product health
Owner: Product analytics
Refreshed today 05:00Share
Weekly active users
18.4k
+3.2% vs last week
Week-4 retention
38%
+2 pts, target 40%
Activation in 7 days
61%
−1 pt vs last week
Paying users
2,140
+1.8% vs last week
Retention by sign-up cohort (% still active)
July cohortAugust cohortSeptember cohort
Activation by channel
Referral72%
Organic68%
Partner59%
Paid social41%
The data model behind it
Product sign-ups and activitySanity metrics come from the activity fact cut by the sign-up cohort on dim_user. Rates and retention need both facts and the cohort attribute; a cumulative total needs one table and no date filter at all.
- Tables read
- 5 of 5
- Joins
- 5
- Fact type
- Transaction fact (sign-ups) and periodic snapshot (daily activity)
- Grain
- Sign-ups: one row per new user · Activity: one row per user per day
- Refresh
- Daily
Widgets
Highlighted: every table this view reads. Pick a widget to isolate its query.
Where it sits in the taxonomy
Passes all four checks in order: it is used and refreshed, its numbers would change a decision if they moved, its roll-ups cannot hide failures, and a new reader finds the answer quickly. Failing any one makes it an anti-pattern.
- In the last quarter, has anyone opened it and has its data refreshed?Yes
- If its headline numbers moved, would someone act differently?Yes
- Can a summary status be green while items inside it are failing?No, roll-ups show the worst case
- Can a new reader find the main answer in about ten seconds?Yes
- Sanity dashboard
At a glance
- Checks passed
- All four
- Metrics
- Rates, ratios and cohorts tied to decisions
- Test
- “If this doubled, what would we do?” has an answer
- Maintenance
- A named owner and monitored refreshes
Not to be confused with
- Vanity dashboard
- A vanity metric only rises and changes nothing. A sanity metric can fall and triggers an action when it does.
- Watermelon dashboard
- A watermelon hides failures inside a green roll-up. A sanity dashboard rolls up with worst-case rules and links to the detail.
How to recognise it
- Every KPI has an owner and a target
- Numbers can fall as well as rise
- Any status can be traced to the items behind it
Use it for
- Always: it is the goal