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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.

Tags: design systems

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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
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
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