Designing Impactful Public Affairs Dashboards. The Internal Side of Public Affairs (54)

By Alan Hardacre, PhD

Co-Founder Advocacy Academy, Advocacy Strategy

Insights from the “Internal Side of Public Affairs” Webinar

Last week we held a great webinar on the subject of Public Affairs Dashboards because Public Affairs professionals are increasingly expected to demonstrate the strategic value of their work across internal audiences. If you are updating executive/regional/market leadership then you are likely using some form of dashboard. In our latest Internal Side of Public Affairs webinar, we explored what should be in a Public Affairs Dashboard, how to best work with the information you need to build one – and what tools people are using to do all of this.

Whether you’re reporting progress, aligning with business objectives, or illustrating your Public Affairs impact, a well-designed dashboard can transform how Public Affairs is perceived and understood internally – so it is well worth the investment in time and resource to get this right for your organisation.

So, what did we get from the webinar:

Start with a Purposeful Process

A strong dashboard doesn’t begin with a template—it begins with a process. Here’s the foundational approach we discussed:

1. Identify Internal Audiences

   
   

   Who will use the dashboard? Executive leaders? The Public Affairs team? Project stakeholders? The answer defines both the format and the metrics.

   
   

2. Clarify What Each Audience Needs to See

   
   

   Tailor your story to each audience: What matters to them? What outcomes are they tracking? What do you need them to understand?

   
   

3. Build a System for Data Collection and Conversion

   
   

   Whether you're capturing data in Excel, designing a bespoke tool, or using platforms like Notion or Airtable, consistency and accessibility are key.

   
   

4. Visualize Effectively

   
   

   Use automation where possible or build repeatable templates. Visualization should enhance—not obscure—the story you're telling.

One Size Does Not Fit All

We emphasized that Public Affairs dashboards must be tailored to your organization’s internal structure, level of Public Affairs maturity, and ways of working-reporting-visualizing. Internal audiences typically fall into three main groups:

• Executive Leadership: Focused on ROI, financial impact, risk, and reputation. This dashboard is all about your impact.

  
  

• Public Affairs Teams: Need more granular detail on objectives, timelines, influence metrics, and stakeholder engagement. This dashboard is more about project management and alignment to keep focus.

  
  

• Project/Campaign Owners: Require visibility into execution, milestones, and policy alignment. This is the most detailed dashboard needed to align and focus.

Go Beyond Financial-Impact Metrics—Tell the Full Story

While financial return and impact is a key metric, the most compelling dashboards also integrate:

• Progress on goals and objectives

• Policy influence and stakeholder relationships

• Risk exposure and reputational indicators

• Timeline alignment with political milestones

• Sustainability, ESG outcomes, and public funding secured

Slide 4 in the attached deck offers a comprehensive list of metrics you can include in dashboards, underscoring the multifaceted value Public Affairs brings to organizations. What we discussed was the need to use dashboards to educate and tell the story we want to tell internally – so adding some influence or Trade Association updates-metrics to financial ones helps you build more understanding with senior leaders and executives.

Tools in Use Today

From manual approaches to more advanced platforms, practitioners are using:

• Excel + PowerPoint: Still a go-to for many, particularly for short-term needs.

  
  

• Custom-built Systems: For organizations ready to invest in integrated capture-to-visualization solutions.

• Low-code Platforms: Tools like Notion, Airtable, and Smartsheet provide a flexible middle ground.

Final Takeaway: Context is Everything

There is no silver bullet solution. Your dashboard must reflect the unique context of your organization, internal stakeholders’ needs, and the story you want to tell about Public Affairs. When done right, a dashboard is more than a reporting tool—it becomes a strategic asset to convey who you are, how you work and what you contribute to your organisation.