From a call to a live dashboard in about 10 days
Most dashboard projects lose their first month before anyone draws a chart. Someone writes a requirements document, someone else interprets it, and by the time the first version appears the people who asked for it have moved on to other questions. We work from the conversation itself: what you tell us on the call is the specification, and every step after it is built from that record.
Step 1: the call
We start with a call with the people who will use and own the dashboard. With your permission we record and transcribe it, and the transcript becomes the requirements document. There is no separate brief for half the room to skim, and nothing gets lost in a handover between the person who listened and the person who builds.
Part of that first conversation has little to do with charts. We want to know who opens the screen each morning, which meeting it belongs to, the few numbers each role needs, how each of them is defined and who decides on change requests. The build is quick because that thinking happens first, and the dashboard stays in use for the same reason.
Step 2: a wireframe within 48 hours
Within 48 hours you see a wireframe built on sample data. It shows the layout, the filters, the main number at the top and how the rest of the screen explains it. You settle how it looks and behaves before any build time goes into your real data, which is the cheapest point to change your mind.
Step 3: the review call
We walk through the wireframe together on a second call, which is also recorded. Everything you ask for is captured as a numbered change list, so both sides know exactly what the build will include. If someone later asks why a filter works the way it does, the answer is in the transcript.
Step 4: first build in 7 days, live in about 10
The first build on your real data lands within 7 days, and the dashboard goes live in about 10, often sooner. You sign off on real numbers, checked against the figures your finance or operations team already trusts. We work in whichever tool you have, whether that is Power BI, Tableau, Looker or Qlik, or on a self-hosted front end if you would rather not pay per seat.
Step 5: changes within hours
After launch, requests come in through a box inside the dashboard or by email, and they all land in one list. A manager on your side decides which ones go ahead. Because the build is ours end to end, from the data model to the screens, an approved change usually ships within hours. Nobody has to hand it to another team or wait for a slot next month.
Where AI fits, and where people do
AI does much of the drafting. It reads the transcript, proposes the data model, writes the queries and measures, and lays out the screens. A person on our team reviews every piece against the agreed definitions before anything is released to you. That combination is why the timeline is short and the numbers hold up, and it is also why our rates can start from USD 15 an hour.
Why the record matters
Every decision traces back to the conversation it came from, so the transcripts double as an audit trail for the dashboard. When a new finance lead joins and asks why margin is calculated a certain way, you can show them the call where it was agreed. We follow the same process with pHRism, a UK HR and payroll systems consultancy we build dashboards with, and it works just as well when the people on the call sit in different countries.
If you are about to hire a BI analyst or are tired of waiting on reports, book a call with us. It is the first step of the process, so nothing you tell us is wasted.