5 Brutal Truths — Your Power BI Isn’t Built for Mobile (And That’s Why Execs Don’t Use It)

Read time: 2.5 minutes

Why Do Mobile Power BI Deployments Not Work?

1. Dashboards built for desktop do not function on a mobile device.
Creating smaller versions of a desktop dashboard is not a valid strategy to make a dashboard work on a mobile device.
SOLUTION:
Create dashboards with a mobile layout that enable on-the-fly review by executives.

2. Executives don’t explore dashboards because there are too many clicks involved, and they lose interest.
SOLUTION:
Design your dashboard such that there is one screen and have no more than:
→ 3–5 KPIs shown on that screen
→ No scrolling
→ Immediately obvious information.

3. Filters create friction for mobile users, so they will not change their views in order to use dashboards.
SOLUTION:
Create role-based dashboards that deliver information immediately.

4. Performance is crucial to engaging mobile users.
Latency will erode any user’s confidence in and the reliability of the information in the dashboards.
SOLUTION:
Optimize dashboards for:
→ less than 2 seconds load time
→ Use of lightweight visuals
→ Cached data.

5. Just because someone can access a dashboard on their device doesn’t mean that they will use it.
If dashboards are not incorporated into workflows, they will be ignored.
SOLUTION:
Deliver insights through:
→ alerts
→ email summaries
→ embedded workflow decision-making.

💡Key Takeaway: 

Executives avoid dashboards, but not because they dislike data. Executive dashboards require too much focus.

In mobile BI, clarity is much easier to achieve than complexity.