What is a Board in Looker?

If you're using Looker, you know it's a powerful tool for digging into your data, but you've probably also noticed it has its own unique vocabulary. One term that often comes up is "Board," a simple feature that plays a huge role in organizing your analytics. This guide will explain exactly what Looker Boards are, how they differ from Dashboards and Looks, and how you can use them to make your data much easier for your entire team to find and use.

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What Exactly is a Looker Board?

Think of a Looker Board as a personalized homepage or a central hub for all the data relevant to a specific team, project, or topic. It’s a curated collection of links to your most important Dashboards and Looks, organized in one clean, accessible space.

Instead of forcing your colleagues to navigate through a maze of folders to find the report they need, you can create a Board that brings everything together. For example, a "Marketing Team Board" could contain links to:

• A dashboard tracking Google Ads performance.
• A dashboard visualizing website traffic from Google Analytics.
• A specific "Look" showing the top 10 performing blog posts this month.
• A dashboard for email campaign results.

Essentially, a Board doesn’t contain the data visualizations themselves, it acts as an organized directory or table of contents that points users to the right reports. It's the top layer of organization that helps transform a collection of individual reports into a cohesive analytics workspace.

Dashboards vs. Looks vs. Boards: Clearing Up the Confusion

Looker's terminology can be a bit confusing at first. Let's break down the three core components - Looks, Dashboards, and Boards - to understand how they work together.

Looks

A "Look" is the most basic building block. It is a single, saved data visualization. Think of it as the answer to one specific question about your data. A Look could be:

• A line chart showing daily active users over the last 30 days.
• A table listing total sales by region for the current quarter.
• A pie chart showing the breakdown of traffic sources.

You create a Look by exploring your data, applying filters and dimensions, and saving the resulting visualization. It's a granular snapshot of a single metric.

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Dashboards

A "Dashboard" is the next level up. It’s a collection of multiple Looks (and other elements like text boxes or buttons) all arranged on a single page. If a Look answers one question, a Dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of a broader topic by combining several related visualizations.

For instance, a "Sales Performance Dashboard" might include several tiles:

• A Look showing total revenue this month.
• A Look showing the number of deals closed by each sales rep.
• A Look showing the conversion rate of leads from different channels.
• A text tile with a header that says, "Q3 Sales Performance."

Dashboards are a fantastic way to monitor performance and see how different metrics relate to one another in one view.

Boards

A "Board" is the highest level of organization. It is a curated page that contains links to your Dashboards and Looks. While a Dashboard houses the actual data tiles, a Board simply organizes the access points to them. It centralizes all the relevant content for a specific team or initiative, preventing users from getting lost.

Here’s a simple breakdown:

• Look: A single data chart or table. (e.g., "Revenue this Week")
• Dashboard: A collection of multiple charts and tables. (e.g., "Overall E-commerce Performance Dashboard")
• Board: A collection of links to Dashboards and Looks. (e.g., "Executive Leadership Board" linking to key financial, marketing, and sales dashboards).

Why Should You Use Looker Boards? The Key Benefits

At first glance, Boards might seem like just a fancy way to organize bookmarks, but they offer some significant advantages that make navigating your data analytics much more efficient.

1. Create Team-Specific Hubs

Different teams care about different metrics. Your marketing team needs to see campaign ROI and website traffic, while your sales team is focused on pipeline velocity and conversion rates. Boards allow you to create a dedicated space for each team with curated links to the exact reports they need. This makes analytics feel more relevant and less overwhelming for each department.

2. Simplify Onboarding and Navigation

For a new employee, finding the right report in a shared folder system can be daunting. With a Board, you can simply direct them to their team's centralized hub. For example, a new sales rep can be sent to the "Sales Team Board" to instantly find the pipeline dashboard, performance leaderboard, and other key reports. It dramatically reduces the learning curve and helps new team members get up to speed quickly.

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3. Promote a Single Source of Truth

When reports are scattered everywhere, team members might end up using outdated or incorrect versions. Boards help establish a single source of truth by directing everyone to the same, officially curated content. When a marketing manager needs the latest attribution numbers, they know to go to the Marketing Board and click on the "Marketing Attribution Dashboard" link, ensuring they’re always looking at the right data.

4. Improve Organization and Reduce Clutter

As your company grows, so does the number of reports you create. Your Looker instance can quickly become cluttered with dozens or even hundreds of Dashboards and Looks. Boards act as a much-needed organizational layer, grouping related content and making it easier to find what you need without sifting through noise.

How to Create and Manage a Looker Board: Step-by-Step Guide

Creating a board is simple. Here’s a quick walkthrough to get you started.

Step 1: Create a New Board

First, navigate to the folder where you’d like your Board to live. In the top right corner of the folder page, click the "New" button and select "Board" from the dropdown menu. You’ll be prompted to give your Board a name - make sure it's descriptive and easy to understand (e.g., "Q4 Marketing Initiatives" or "Product Team KPIs").

Step 2: Add Content to Your Board

Once you’ve created your board, you can start adding content.

There are two primary ways to do this:

• From the Board itself: While viewing your Board, click the "Edit" button. You’ll see options to add existing dashboards or Looks. You can search for the content by name and add it directly.
• From a Dashboard or Look: Navigate to a Dashboard or Look you want to add. Click the three-dot menu in the upper right and select "Add to a Board." A dialog box will appear where you can search for and select the Board you want to pin it to.

You can also add a description to your Board to give users context about its purpose.

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Step 3: Organize Your Content with Sections and Text

A great Board isn't just a list of links - it's an organized, readable resource. When you edit your board, you can add sections with headers to group related reports. For example, on a marketing board, you could create sections like "Paid Media Performance," "Website Analytics," and "Email Marketing."

You can also add Markdown text tiles to include descriptions, notes, company-specific definitions for metrics, or links to external resources like a project plan in Google Docs. This context helps turn your Board from a simple directory into a true knowledge hub.

Step 4: Manage Access and Permissions

Boards inherit their permissions from the folder they are saved in. If a user has permission to view a folder, they can also view any boards within it. However, it's crucial to remember that adding a dashboard or a Look to a Board does not automatically grant access to it. A user must still have permission to view the original Dashboard or Look to be able to open it from the Board. This is a key security feature that prevents unauthorized access to sensitive data, even if it's linked on a widely shared Board.

Best Practices for Effective Looker Boards

To get the most out of Looker Boards, keep these tips in mind:

• Keep it Focused: Each board should serve a specific purpose or audience. Avoid creating "kitchen sink" boards with everything in one place. For example, create separate boards for "Sales," "Marketing," and "Executives" rather than having one massive board.
• Use Clear Naming Conventions: Name your boards, sections, and links logically so everyone understands their purpose without needing an explanation. For example, "Marketing - Paid Ads Q3 2024" is better than "Jim's Report."
• Add Context with Markdown: Use the Markdown tiles to add descriptions, explanations, and key takeaways directly on the board. Tell the story of your data to help users understand what they are seeing.
• Regularly Prune and Update: Business needs and data needs change. Review your boards quarterly to remove outdated dashboards, add new ones, and ensure everything is still relevant and useful.

Final Thoughts

To wrap it up, Looker Boards are a simple but effective tool for bringing order to your data analytics. By centralizing links to the most important dashboards and Looks, you can transform a jumble of reports into an organized, accessible workspace that empowers your team to make smarter decisions without wasting time searching for information.

We know how time-consuming it can be to juggle between different platforms and try to create centralized views. While tools like Looker help organize reports, with Graphed we’re focused on simplifying this process for sales and marketing teams. You can simply connect all your sources - like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce - and use pure natural language to create live dashboards in seconds. No more building dozens of individual reports to organize later. Just tell us what you want to see, and all your data is there in one centralized place.