Preparing anonymised extracts for a dashboard commission

External dashboard work should never require live production access. A well-shaped sample extract is enough to define metrics, layouts, and refresh notes.

Remove direct identifiers. Keep plan type, tenure bands, region codes, and usage buckets that your internal definitions already rely on. Document how each field was derived so the visualisation team does not invent meaning.

Ship three time windows if possible: a quiet week, a peak week, and a recent anomaly week. Single-week samples hide seasonal patterns and lead to overconfident chart scales.

Include a one-page metric intent list: what each KPI is meant to answer. That list prevents the commission from drifting into decorative charts that nobody uses in meetings.