Smartsheet Sights lets you create dashboards that visualize data from multiple sheets

Outline in brief

• Hook: The big picture matters; dashboards pulling from many sheets help teams see it.

• What Sights does: Sights lets you create custom dashboards to visualize data from multiple sheets.

• Why it matters: Quick insights, better collaboration, and fewer data chasing paths.

• How it works: Step-by-step sense of building a sight with charts, graphs, and summary views that pull from different sheets.

• Real-world uses: Cross-team status, KPI snapshots, project portfolios.

• Practical tips: Focused dashboards, smart widget choices, clean visuals, data freshness, and sharing ideas.

• Common bumps and fixes: Avoid clutter, set refresh strategies, and consider audience.

• Wrap-up: Sights as a centralized, living view that keeps everyone aligned.

Smartsheet’s Sights: seeing the whole story at a glance

Let me explain a simple truth about work: the numbers tell a story, but only if you can read them quickly. That’s where Smartsheet’s Sights comes in. The core function is clean and clear: to create custom dashboards that visualize data from multiple sheets. Rather than flipping between dozens of sheets, you assemble a centralized view that highlights what truly matters—progress, risks, timelines, and goals. It’s not about stacking charts for the sake of it; it’s about a visual summary that supports faster, better decisions.

Why dashboards that pull from many sheets matter

Projects rarely live in a single place. Sales data sits with the CRM, deadlines live in a project plan, budgets sit in a finance sheet, and risk logs might be in another file. When you need to gauge how a portfolio is performing, chasing data from all directions eats time and creates bottlenecks. Sights solves that by letting you bring these disparate data streams together into one place. You get quick insights without losing context. Stakeholders don’t have to become data scavengers; they see the important signals in one glance.

What you can actually put into a sight

In Smartsheet, a sight isn’t a static page. It’s a dynamic canvas that can host different visual elements, all connected to your sheets. Think charts that track trends, line graphs that show throughput, and summary reports that distill complex data into bite-sized numbers. You can also include other widgets like metrics, rich text notes, or images to annotate what you’re showing. The key is to match the right widget to the message you want to convey. A burn-down chart here, a KPI metric there, a quick risk flag in a color-coded gauge—these choices make the story readable at a glance.

How to build a sight in a few practical steps

Here’s the thing: it’s approachable, even if you’re new to dashboards. Start by naming the sight with the audience in mind—executive sponsors? product managers? operations? Then add widgets that pull data from the sheets you already use.

• Connect sources: Link the widgets to the relevant sheets. If you have data across multiple projects, you can pull in each project sheet or a master sheet with roll-ups.

• Choose visuals: Pick charts for trends, metrics for snapshots, and a summary report to present key figures in plain language. Don’t overdo the widgets; a focused set is easier to digest.

• Arrange for clarity: Place the most important signals at the top, use a consistent color palette, and add brief captions so viewers don’t have to hunt for meaning.

• Set filters and interactions: If your audience needs to see data for a specific period or team, include filters. Interactive elements keep the sight useful across different reviews.

• Share and iterate: Once you publish, gather quick feedback. A sight should evolve as priorities shift and new data becomes available.

Real-world ways teams use Sights

• Cross-team project status: Imagine a dashboard that shows milestone progress from engineering, QA, and product teams in one place. You can spot delays early by watching a single trend line rather than opening multiple sheets.

• KPI dashboards: If the goal is to track adoption, churn, or feature usage, a sight can combine user metrics from analytics sheets with product backlog data, giving a holistic view of impact versus plan.

• Portfolio view for leaders: Executives appreciate a high-level snapshot—budget burn, high-impact risks, and upcoming milestones—without drowning in detail. A well-crafted sight makes the portfolio feel alive, not static.

• Quarterly reviews, simplified: Instead of flipping through decks and worksheets, leadership can reference a sight during meetings to discuss progress, blockers, and forecast scenarios in real time.

Tips for making a sight genuinely useful

• Be selective: It’s tempting to include every data point, but usefulness comes from focus. Lead with 3–5 core metrics that tell the story, and add context only where it adds clarity.

• Keep visuals meaningful: Not all charts are equal. Use line charts for trends, bar charts for comparisons, and gauges for status. If a widget doesn’t add clarity, leave it out.

• Use consistent visuals: Stick to the same color codes for the same data across widgets. Consistency reduces cognitive load and speeds interpretation.

• Prioritize freshness: If data ages quickly, set up automatic refresh and note the data’s timestamp on the sight. Viewers should know they’re looking at current numbers.

• Think audience first: Some stakeholders want a high-level snapshot; others need more detail. Build variants or sections within the sight to serve different viewers without duplicating effort.

• Security and sharing: Decide who can edit and who can only view. A good sight is public enough to inform but secure enough to protect sensitive information.

Common stumbling blocks and how to avoid them

• Clutter kills clarity: Too many widgets, tiny fonts, and busy colors. If it starts to feel overwhelming, prune back to the essentials. A clean page is a powerful page.

• Data drift: If sources aren’t updated or aligned, the sight loses trust. Establish a data refresh cadence and document where the data originates.

• Mismatch with the audience: A sight built for analysts isn’t necessarily right for executives. Start with the audience’s questions in mind and tailor the visible signals accordingly.

• Over-reliance on one data source: Relying on a single sheet can create blind spots. Include cross-sheet visuals where possible to capture broader context.

Connecting the dots: the art of narrative in dashboards

Dashboards aren’t just pretty pictures of numbers; they’re stories about progress, risk, and strategy. A great sight invites a reader to see the connections: a spike in support tickets might correlate with a new feature release; a dip in on-time deliveries could line up with a staffing gap. The best dashboards don’t tell you everything; they point you toward the right questions. And when you can answer those questions faster, you free up brain space for problem-solving, not data hunting.

A few refinements that feel almost magical

• One source, many views: If you need a streamlined executive view and a more detailed operational view, you can create multiple widgets pulling from the same underlying data. That keeps integrity intact while serving different needs.

• Narrative hooks with text: A short explanatory note near a chart can prevent misinterpretation. A sentence like “Q3 pace accelerated, but risk zones remain ahead” can steer discussion in the right direction.

• Visual cues that matter: Subtle color changes can signal risk levels or milestones. A green-to-orange transition can be a gentle nudge that attention is needed soon.

Bringing it home: Sights as a living, shared lens

Here’s the bigger plus: Sights makes collaboration easier. When everyone looks at the same, up-to-date picture, communication improves. People ask better questions, decisions become swifter, and accountability feels more tangible. In fast-moving projects, that shared lens matters as much as the data itself.

If you’re curious about how to craft a sight that truly resonates with your team, start with the question: what’s the one thing you want everyone to understand at a glance? Build from there, test with colleagues, and iterate. Sometimes the simplest sight—one chart, one key metric, a concise caption—delivers the clearest guidance.

Final thoughts

Sights isn’t about piling on more dashboards; it’s about consolidating what matters into a single, accessible view. By pulling data from multiple sheets and presenting it through charts, graphs, and summary reports, it helps teams stay aligned, act decisively, and communicate with impact. If you’re working with Smartsheet, giving a sight a try can turn scattered data into a compass you can trust.

If you’d like a deeper dive into practical examples or want a quick walkthrough to set up your first sight, I’m happy to walk you through the steps. After all, visibility isn’t a luxury; it’s a smart way to keep goals within reach and teams moving in the same direction.