Designing a Control Tower That Gets Used
Adoption fails when control towers prioritize visual density over decision clarity. Start with exception decisions, not screens.
Most control towers fail for the same reason many dashboards fail: they answer the question 'what can we show?' instead of 'what decision must happen next?'
A usable control tower starts with decision moments. Which roles need to act? What threshold triggers action? What data is required to make a good call? Only after that should you design views and alerts.
Exception logic should be explicit. Teams trust systems when they can see why a shipment, order, or inventory position is flagged and what recovery actions are available.
The highest ROI pattern is often simple: fewer metrics, stronger definitions, and a clear daily/weekly cadence tied to owners.