“A dashboard is not a destination. It’s the starting point for exploration.”
It sounds obvious, right?
Yet for so many data teams, the reality is the opposite.
The dashboard is the end of the road. Once it’s delivered, the ticket is closed, the KPI boxes are ticked… and the cycle starts again.
For many data leaders I’ve spoken to, this has become a source of deep frustration, and even burnout. After interviewing 60 data leaders while researching the idea of the 10X Data Team Collective , one theme stood out loud and clear:
Data Leaders are tired of being a dashboard factory.
And a lot of data professionals are playing with the thought of leaving the data domain behind to explore a different career or to start something on their own.
The goal of this newsletter
If you’re a data leader, analyst, engineer, or scientist you probably didn’t join this profession to be a glorified reporting machine.
You joined to create impact. To help your business make better decisions. To uncover the why, not just the what.
In this edition, we’ll dig into:
- Why so many data leaders feel stuck in a dashboard production loop.
- The cultural traps that keep teams there.
- My own "I'm done with data moment"
- How I’m now building two different paths forward for people in our field
The problem: “Hello BI team, we need a dashboard…”
If you’ve worked in data for more than a month, you’ve probably seen a ticket like this:
“Hello BI Team, we’re launching a new marketing campaign. We need a Power BI dashboard to monitor performance. Please include: [list of KPIs], [list of filters].”
The request lands. You build it. It’s neatly presented. And then… nothing changes.
The dashboard sits there, reporting what happened, but offering no insight into why it happened or what to do next.
The business moves on to the next request. You move on to the next Jira ticket. And you slowly realize you’ve become a conveyor belt of dashboards.
Why is this so common?
Because in too many companies:
- Dashboards are treated as the destination rather than the start of a conversation.
- The culture rewards delivery speed (output) more than decision-making impact (outcome).
- Business teams are trained to be passive consumers of insights rather than active explorers.
The result: data leaders feel stuck. And many start thinking about leaving the profession altogether.
My own moment of “I’m done”
I know this feeling because I’ve been there.
In my first data leader role, 13 years ago, I was in pure factory mode.
Churning out dashboards, hot-fixing broken pipelines, chasing thousands of bugs, dealing with ever-changing requirements - it was madness.
We were busy, but we weren't creating real impact.
Eventually, I managed to break out of it.
I’ll share the three key things that helped me escape the dashboard factory in the next newsletter - next Sunday.
But the short version is: I learned how to apply best practices from product management and entrepreneurship to the data domain - deeply understanding stakeholders and business challenges before drawing architecture diagrams and designing tech stacks.
That shift allowed me to have a much greater impact…
But even then, a different kind of frustration crept in.
Why I still left data back then
In 2015, I was leading the data team at one of Europe's hottest scale-ups.
Our big vision didn't materialize and we were forced to pivot our business model.
Suddenly, the data challenges were smaller, the impact of our work was less exciting, and I no longer believed in the business model.
On top of that, my personal life was going through big changes - a divorce, a desire to leave my home country Germany to become a digital nomad, and a growing interest in product strategy and entrepreneurship.
It wasn’t data itself I was done with.
I was done with my context.
So I left data, moved out of Berlin and took an interim Chief Product Officer role with a venture capital firm in Taipei (and 8 years later I still live here 😎).
Rediscovering my passion for data
That time away from data was transformative.
Product management taught me to start with problems, understand users deeply, and build systems that empower them to solve those problems themselves.
When I came back to data, I applied these lessons and found myself more engaged than ever.
Combining data with product thinking and entrepreneurship made my work not only more impactful, but also more fulfilling.
Why I’m telling you this now
I know many of you are in one of two places right now:
- You’re frustrated but hopeful: you want to escape the dashboard factory trap and build a team that truly drives decisions, leveraging the quantum leaps we are seeing with AI.
- You’re ready to leave: you’re curious about freelancing, entrepreneurship, or another field entirely. You either want to say "farewell" to the data domain altogether or take an extended break.
That’s why I’m currently working on two tracks:
- For those who want to build AI-first data team of the future, I’m building the 10X Data Team Collective to help leaders build high-impact teams.
- For those who are ready to move on, I’m exploring a program to help data professionals pivot into freelancing and/or entrepreneurship.
I’d like your help
If you’re in that second group, feeling done with data and exploring what’s next, I’d love to have a chat with you.
I've walked in your shoes and I explored everything: freelancing, productized consulting, entrepreneurship and a stint as Chief Product Officer.
If you're keen to explore something new, drop your email here and I’ll reach out for a quick 15-20 min conversation.
Not to sell you anything (I don't have anything to sell - yet), but to understand your situation, your goals, and what kind of support would actually make a difference to you.
Bottom line
I’ve been in the dashboard factory.
I’ve escaped it.
I’ve also stepped away from data entirely, and came back more passionate than ever.
Wherever you are on that journey, there’s a path forward.
I’d like to help you find it.
See you next week!
Sebastian
