Header Logo

Before it starts

Your weekly read on data, design and product decisions that you should make before you open Power BI, Tableau or any dataviz tool.
Follow me
How to document dataviz & design decisions (before they dissapear)
READ TIME - 6 minutes ⏳   Every week, we make decisions about research methods, reporting formats, chart types, dashboard structures, data models, design patterns… and we often fail to capture why we made them. Then months later, someone asks: “Why do we use this chart type here?”“Why are KPIs g...
Feb 19, 2026
Where the design system really begins
READ TIME - 6 minutes ⏳   Most teams believe the hardest part of a design system is the components themselves.The tokens, the visuals, the libraries,... the things that can be drawn, named, or documented. What usually goes unnoticed is that the failure of a dataviz design system rarely starts th...
Feb 12, 2026 design systems
The missing semantic layer
READ TIME - 6 minutes ⏳   The first failure in a reporting system often happens before a single visual exists. It begins the moment a theme is assumed to have meaning it doesn’t actually contain.   When a palette pretends to be a system In many teams, the creation of a Power BI theme begins with...
Feb 05, 2026 design systems design tokens
Treat reports like products (not deliverables)
READ TIME - 6 minutes ⏳   In many teams, the moment someone says “we need visibility,” a dashboard starts getting built. No kickoff. No spec. No discussion of who it’s for or how it will be used. Just a blank Power BI canvas and a vague expectation of “insights.” But this reflex (treating dashboa...
Jan 29, 2026 data visualization design systems
The project before The Project
READ TIME - 6 minutes ⏳   Most projects don’t fail in delivery. They fail at the moment the problem is assumed to be understood. By the time something is called “a redesign,” “a new theme,” or “a dashboard revamp,” a set of assumptions is already locked in. The outcome is imagined. The success cr...
Jan 22, 2026 design principles design systems
The problem with “just using the theme” in dataviz
READ TIME - 6 minutes ⏳ Most organizations are very deliberate about what their people are allowed to do with data. They train employees on compliance, security, privacy, and governance. They document processes. They certify behaviors. They formalize responsibility. But when it comes to how the ...
Jan 15, 2026 design systems design tokens
Default chart titles are hurting your dashboards
READ TIME - 5 minutes ⏳   An old man is sitting on his boat.The boat itself is still resting on the beach, dry sand under the hull, no waves in sight, no sign that it has ever touched the water. Painted on the side, in large letters, is the boat’s name: “Waterproof”.The typography choice makes it...
Jan 08, 2026 data visualization user experience
Learning dataviz through experience
READ TIME - 4 minutes ⏳     A couple of years ago, ✨ someone in my building ✨ got tired of late-night-4AM parties coming from an upstairs neighbor. Not angry enough to escalate.Not certain enough to complain formally.Just frustrated (and unsure whether they were the only one hearing it). That un...
Jan 01, 2026 data visualization user experience
How to "escape the matrices"
  READ TIME - 1 minute⏳   When things feel unclear or complex, people reach for what’s familiar. What has worked before. What doesn’t require a long explanation or an uncomfortable conversation. Tables feel safe. Matrices feel familiar. Line charts are reassuring. They’re easy to ask for, easy t...
Dec 25, 2025 data visualization design principles
Templates define how you scale
READ TIME -  6 minutes⏳   Templates are often treated as a visual shortcut. A way to save time, enforce consistency, or make reports look cleaner. In reality, a template does far more than standardise colours and layouts. It encodes assumptions about how work is organised, how decisions flow, an...
Dec 18, 2025 design systems templates
When everyone plays their own part
READ TIME -  7 minutes⏳   An orchestra doesn’t fall apart because the musicians are bad. It falls apart because there’s no conductor. Everyone on stage may be deeply talented. They’ve trained for years, they know their craft. But without someone setting the tempo, unifying the vision, and guidin...
Dec 18, 2025 design principles design systems
Before you build a dashboard, ask this first
READ TIME - 4 minutes   Analytics teams don’t struggle because they lack tools or skills. They struggle because the work starts too late in the process, after the important thinking should have already happened. This issue explains that gap and why good dashboard work often falls apart because of...
Dec 18, 2025 business requirements design process framing
Footer Logo
© 2026 - the start user
Powered by Kajabi

Join Our Free Trial

Get started today before this once in a lifetime opportunity expires.