Creating a Board

Create a Board

Dashboards in TargetBoard (also called Boards) let you organize key KPIs into visual layouts for teams, leaders, and company-wide visibility.

This guide walks you through how to create your own board and start populating it with KPI cards.

What You'll Learn

• How to create a board from the sidebar or menu
• Add and organize KPI cards
• Apply filters and date ranges
• Understand sharing, layout, and locking behavior

When to Use This

Use boards to:

• Group key KPIs for a team, function, or initiative
• Share status across stakeholders
• Track trends and drill into details from one central place

Step-by-Step: Creating Your First Board

1. Open the Create Menu

From anywhere in the app:

• Click on "Create Board" in the bottom of side menu or
• Click the three-dot menu next to the Top Boards folder and select "New Board"

2. Choose a Layout

• You’ll be prompted to either:
  • Start from scratch
  • Use a pre-built template (recommended if you're onboarding or want best practices)

At any point you can click on the more info on a card menu to see the exact filter and definition of the metric.

Adding Cards to Your Board

3. Add Cards

Once the board is created, click “+ Add Metrics” from the edit board or click on add to board from any metric page.

Each card supports:

• Chart Types:
  • Line
  • Bar
  • Pie
  • Stacked Bars
  • Grouped Bars
  • Multi-line
• Sizes:
  • S: KPI value only
  • M: Small trend line
  • H: Half-screen with full chart
  • L: Full-width chart

Editing Layout & Arrangement

4. Edit the Board Layout

• Click the pencil icon to enter board edit mode
• Drag and drop cards to rearrange
• Resize cards to fit your layout

Adding Text Cards

You can now add Text Cards to any board. These are perfect for:

• Creating section headers
• Adding context or commentary
• Linking to external documentation

How to Add a Text Card

1. Click the pencil icon to enter board edit mode.
2. In the top-right corner, open the dropdown and select "Add a text card".
3. Enter your content in the text editor — it supports:
   • Titles
   • Links
   • Bullets
   • Rich formatting
4. Resize and drag like any other card.

Explain what the section is showing or highlight key insights for stakeholders. Looks great on board export!

Filters, Time Range & Sharing

5. Set Filters & Time Range

Each board supports personal board and card filters and date ranges that affect only your view unless you share the board link.

You can apply filters at two levels:

Board-Level Filters

• Click the Filters button at the top of the board
• These filters apply to all cards, unless overridden at the card level

Card-Level Filters

• On any KPI card, click the filter icon in the top-right corner

• Select one or more dimensions to apply filters specific to that card
• These filters stack on top of any board-level filters

Card-level filters are personal and non-destructive. You can use them to explore different segments (e.g., Priority = Critical) without affecting other users. And you can also use metric value as a filter that makes it even more powerful.

6. Locking the Board View

• Click the lock icon to freeze the current filter and time range
• When users open the board from the menu, it will always open in the locked view

Permissions & Visibility

• By default, new boards are public to your organization
• You can change access and add view / edit collaborators
• See Board Permissions for more detail

Understanding Card Behavior

• Card titles auto-update based on filters / dimensions so context is always clear
• Click a card title to go to the Track tab for the full metric
• Click a point on a graph to open the Analyze tab (filtered to your selection)

More on the Analyze tab in Explore Metrics

Tips & Best Practices

• Use a template when starting a new board, it’ll save you time
• Use smaller cards for at-a-glance metrics and larger ones for trends
• Lock boards you want to use for reporting or recurring check-ins
• Share a board link to give others the exact same view

tipUse Text Cards for ContextGood to Know