Looker Studio Report Design

Workflow

Use templates/looker-studio-template.md to document the report design.

Define Purpose (Section 1): What needs to be monitored? What decisions will users make based on this report?

Discover Data (Section 2): Explore available datasets and understand schema.

• Ask user for project/dataset context and business background

• Use /bq-studio skill for BigQuery schema exploration

• If prior analysis exists, reference it and skip detailed exploration

Define Metrics (Section 3): Define key metrics and dimensions to monitor.

• Identify what needs to be measured

• Define calculation methods and data sources

Design Data Sources (Section 4): Design BigQuery custom queries for Looker Studio.

• Check existing resources: Similar reports or queries already exist?

• Align time granularity with usage frequency (daily/weekly/monthly)

• Pre-aggregate data in SQL for performance

• Document query, field definitions, and parameters

Design Pages (Section 5): Design report pages, charts, and layout.

• Design page structure and layout

• Select appropriate chart types for each metric

• Configure chart settings and filters

Configure Sharing (Section 6): Set up access permissions for the report.

• Define who needs view/edit access

• Document sharing settings

Best Practices

Reference Documentation

• Data types: Field data types (Number, Text, Date & Time, Currency, Percent, etc.)

• Types of charts: Chart types (Time series, Combo chart, Table, etc.)

Settings Documentation

• Verify setting names against actual Looker Studio UI before documenting

• Use exact terminology from the UI

Data Source Design

• One data source per analytical purpose

• Pre-aggregate in SQL for performance

• Include bucket fields for distribution analysis

• Include sort-order fields for proper chart ordering

• Descriptive data source names

Report Structure

• Separate pages by time granularity (daily/monthly)

• Group related metrics per page

• Consistent filter scopes within pages

Chart Type Selection

Purpose Chart Type

KPI current value Scorecard

Time series trend Time series chart

Category breakdown over time Stacked area / Stacked bar

Category comparison Bar chart

Composition Pie chart

Detailed data Table

Distribution (percentile) Time series (multiple metrics)