Dashboard Speed Doctor
Fix slow Looker Studio dashboards without losing critical signal
Looker Studio dashboards can become painfully slow as complexity and blended sources grow. This recipe diagnoses likely causes (too many charts, heavy sources, blends/joins, formatting) and produces a performance-first redesign plan (including caching and pre-aggregation strategies).
INGREDIENTS
PROMPT
Diagnose and fix a slow Looker Studio dashboard. Output: - Root cause hypotheses (ranked by likelihood) - Quick fixes to apply today - Redesign plan for the data pipeline if needed - A dashboard "performance budget" policy (rules for adding new charts/sources) Inputs: - What sources are connected: - Are there blends/joins (how many): - Load time (view vs edit): - Number of pages and charts: - Business must-have metrics:
How It Works
This recipe helps you choose between "simplify dashboard" and "upgrade the data pipeline."
Triggers
- Dashboards load in 30–60+ seconds or freeze
- Joins/blends cause unreliable performance
- Clients complain dashboards are unusable
Inputs
- Dashboard structure (pages, charts, blends)
- Data sources used and their query behavior
- Editing vs viewing performance differences
Outputs
- Root cause shortlist (ranked)
- Quick fixes (reduce chart detail, caching, page separation)
- Long-term plan (warehouse, pre-aggregations, extracts)
Actions / Steps
- Identify high-cost elements: blends, granular dimensions, too many charts.
- Apply immediate fixes: reduce dimensions, separate pages by source, enable caching where possible.
- Decide if you need pre-aggregation: move heavy sources downstream and connect to aggregated tables.
- Add a "performance budget" policy for future dashboard changes.
Parameters
- Max acceptable load time (e.g., <5s view, <10s edit)
- Chart limit per page
- Default date range (avoid overly broad ranges)