Dashboards can contain KPI analyses that take a single value from a table and present it in a tile. Great for when there's a key metric you want to highlight or track.
Dataset editors can add KPI analyses like these to dashboards. This allows you to show a key company metric (e.g., Brand Awareness) as a prominent value that grabs attention.
Selecting a KPI
To display a KPI in a dashboard, save an analysis of any kind — table, chart or variable card — that contains the value you want to show. Click the Edit button in the upper right to put the dashboard in edit mode (this is only available to editors of that dataset) and enter the edit panel for that particular analysis. Once the edit panel is opened, change the visualization type to KPI.
Now you can select the value you want to use as a KPI from the table. It is not yet possible to select subtotals or differences as KPI values:
Keeping a KPI tile up-to-date
When showing a KPI in a tracker project, you usually want to show the value from the most recent wave. Selecting the value from the most recent column is easy enough, but it’s inconvenient to have to return to edit the dashboard every wave to update the reference. To solve this, Crunch offers the ability to specify that your KPI tile should show whatever is the most recent value in a series. To use this feature, make sure that your saved analysis has your wave variable as columns. Then, when you choose your KPI value, you’ll see an additional option in the KPI selection screen for “Fixed” vs “Most recent”…
“Fixed” will keep a cell reference the same regardless of new waves being added, but “Most recent” will always show the most recent value, thereby automatically updating your dashboard whenever a new wave is added. You’ll see that the whole row gets highlighted, indicating that this is the sequence that will be used. The currently most recent cell is highlighted with a border to indicate that, at present, this is the value that will get used in the KPI tile.
Adding a comparison value
With KPI comparisons, you can display the difference between your current KPI value and a prior period value or a value from another row of the same column. This could be vs. the previous wave, the last year, a key competitor - whichever comparison provides the most meaningful context.
For example, your brand awareness may be 73%, which seems okay on its own. But when you see it's increased 5% vs. last wave, you realize it's great news.
This simple comparison gives your KPIs much-needed context, transforming them from just a number into an actionable metric.
Setting up your comparison
To add a comparison to a KPI, first create the KPI in the usual way, using either a “Fixed” or “Most recent” reference (see above). Then, when you return to the Properties panel for the KPI, you’ll see a new tab has appeared - “Options”.
In this tab, you will find a toggle for “Comparison”. When you turn on comparison, you will see the existing cell chosen for the KPI (with a blue border) and you’ll get the opportunity to select the cell you would like to use for your comparison. Comparisons can be made against any cell in the same row or column as the KPI, including the value in the “All” column. It is not yet possible to select subtotals or differences as comparisons.
If your analysis has a time-series axis (either a date-time variable or a categorical date variable), you’ll see an option for “Selection mode”, giving the choices of “Relative” or “Fixed”.
- Choose “Fixed” to select a comparison cell that does not change as new waves are added. Use this option for comparisons that should not change, such as the beginning of the year.
- Choose “Relative” to select a comparison cell that does change as new waves are added, always keeping the same relative distance from the KPI value (e.g. a comparison with the prior wave).
Once you’ve selected a comparison value, it will be given a purple border and the preview on the right will update to show how the tile will look.
Beneath the preview are two further useful options:
- Primary value: Choose between “KPI” or “Comparison”. This controls whether the large central number is the KPI and the smaller number beneath is the comparison or vice versa. The default is to emphasize the KPI value, but if you’d prefer to emphasize the comparison instead, just change the toggle.
- Subtitle: This is the same subtitle field as you’ll find on the Properties tab, but it’s here to make it easy to edit the subtitle to something that explains the comparison being made. Typically, you might want the subtitle to say something like “vs previous wave” or “vs campaign start” or “vs [name of competitor] etc.
At this time, comparisons are only available for KPI tiles.
Editing a KPI tile
As an editor you can make optional changes to the titles, number type and decimal places, and click Save. To change the comparison cell, just re-enter the “Options” tab and click a different cell. To turn off the Comparisons feature, just switch the toggle to the off state.