Outcome
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to match each preset to its audience, describe the widget set for each, and choose the right starting point for a new dashboard.
| Tier | Architect |
| JTBD | ”Pick a preset that gets a team to a productive dashboard in 30 seconds, instead of building from scratch.” |
| Personas | FinOps Lead · Engineering Leader · Platform Engineer · Finance Partner |
| Prerequisites | T1, Operator tier · M3.5, Showback dimensions |
| Time | 9 minutes |
| Bloom verb | Match (Apply), Describe (Understand), Choose (Evaluate) |
1. Concept
ZopNight ships four dashboard presets: Executive, Engineering, FinOps, and All Widgets. Each is a curated arrangement of widgets, sized and ordered for a specific audience. Presets are immutable templates: they cannot be edited directly. Customization happens by cloning a preset and modifying the clone (covered in L2).
PRESET AUDIENCE WIDGETS (curated)──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Executive Leadership, Finance Stat cards (org-wide) Cost Trend (monthly) Top Costly Resources Budget Health Savings Achieved
Engineering Platform / DevOps Resource Summary Cost Trend Schedule Execution Recommendations Anomaly Detection
FinOps FinOps Analyst, Lead Cost Flow Sankey Showback (per-team) Budget Health Tag Coverage Anomaly Detection Unit Economics
All Widgets Power user, evaluation Every widget visible (~25+ widgets)Executive preset
For leadership review and finance check-ins. High-level cost trend, top costly resources, budget health vs forecast, savings achieved over time. No deep technical detail; no per-resource drill; no audit-log surface.
EXECUTIVE preset widgets: Stat card: total spend MTD (vs same period last month) Stat card: forecast end-of-month (vs budget) Stat card: realized savings YTD Cost Trend (12 months) with forecast overlay Top 5 Costly Resources (org-wide) Budget Health (top 5 budgets by signal)
WHAT IT ANSWERS: "How much are we spending?" "Are we on budget?" "What is the biggest spend?" "How much have we saved?"Engineering preset
For day-to-day platform team use. Resource health, schedule execution status, current recommendations to triage, anomaly detection for incident response.
ENGINEERING preset widgets: Resource Summary (counts by status: running, stopped, idle) Cost Trend (30 days, team-scoped if user is team-scoped) Schedule Execution (last 24h: successes / failures) Recommendations (open count, top 5 by savings) Anomaly Detection (any anomalies in last 24h)
WHAT IT ANSWERS: "What's the state of my team's resources today?" "Did all schedules fire as expected?" "What recommendations should I act on?" "Is there an active cost incident?"FinOps preset
For the dedicated FinOps practitioner. Cost flow Sankey, team-level showback, budget vs spend per team, tag coverage trend, anomaly detection, unit economics: the FinOps practitioner’s daily working canvas.
FINOPS preset widgets: Cost Flow Sankey (org-wide; this month) Showback by Team (current month) Budget Health (all team budgets) Tag Coverage (with trend) Anomaly Detection (last 7 days) Unit Economics (cost-per-MAU overlay) Recommendations Summary (open, applied, savings achieved)
WHAT IT ANSWERS: "Where is the money going right now?" "Which teams are growing fastest?" "What's the state of tagging discipline?" "Where are the anomalies?" "Are unit economics improving?"All Widgets
Everything visible. Useful for evaluation (when first onboarding ZopNight and the team wants to see what’s available), for power users who want it all on one screen, and for org defaults when audience needs are mixed.
ALL WIDGETS preset: All ~25 available widgets Default size and ordering Scrolling required to see everything
WHEN TO USE: Initial onboarding / evaluation Org default before customizing Power user who refuses to switch dashboardsChoosing the right preset
QUESTION TO ASK PRESET──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────"What am I optimizing for at this view?" Executive summary, leadership review Executive Daily engineering work Engineering Cost analysis and optimization FinOps Exploring / evaluating All WidgetsThe choice is per-audience, not per-team. A FinOps Lead might use both Executive (for leadership prep) and FinOps (for their own work) on different days.
Customization path
Presets are starting points, not endpoints. Most mature orgs end up with:
1-2 saved dashboards based on cloned presets Cloned + customized (added or removed widgets) Set as org defaults or team defaults
The original presets remain visible as "templates": never edited,always available as a re-clone source if ZopNight updates them.The cloning + customization workflow is L2.
How ZopNight uses presets
Customer telemetry on preset adoption:
PRESET % OF CUSTOMERS USING──────────────────────────────────────────────────────FinOps 42%Engineering 28%Custom (cloned + modified) 18%Executive 8%All Widgets 4%Most customers either pick FinOps (mature FinOps practice) or Engineering (engineering-led cost discipline), often customized after a few months.
2. Demo
Different audiences picking different presets:
ORG: 80-engineer SaaS, with mature FinOps + monthly exec reviews
WEEKLY ROUTINE: Monday 9am: FinOps Lead opens dashboard Dashboard: FinOps preset (her default) Scans: cost trend, anomalies, top recs, tag coverage Time: 5 minutes
Tuesday: Platform engineer logs in Dashboard: Engineering preset (her default) Scans: schedule execution, her team's recs Time: 3 minutes
Friday: Engineering leader's weekly review Dashboard: Engineering preset (org default) Scans: team-level summary, recent anomalies Time: 5 minutes
MONTHLY EXECUTIVE REVIEW: Monday of month-end week: CEO meeting CTO opens Executive preset Walks through: Total spend vs prior month Forecast for end of quarter Savings YTD Top 5 costly resources Time: 10-minute slot
ORG DEFAULT: All Widgets New joiners see all widgets; experienced users have personal bookmarks to their preferred preset.The preset matrix matches role to need. Each user reaches their working canvas immediately.
3. Hands-on (5 min)
Browse the four presets in ZopNight:
PRESETS reviewed: □ Executive □ Engineering □ FinOps □ All Widgets
BEST FIT for your role today: __________WHY: __________________________________________________________
ORG DEFAULT (currently): __________ Is this the right default for your org? Yes / No If no: what would be better? __________
YOUR PERSONAL BOOKMARK / preferred view: __________________________________________________________If your team has mixed roles, the org default usually pairs with personal bookmarks for individuals.
4. Knowledge check
Q1
The Executive preset is best for:
A. Day-to-day engineering work
B. Leadership and finance; high-level cost trend, top costly resources, budget health, savings achieved. No deep technical detail; designed for monthly review meetings, not daily ops.
C. Engineering team
D. Audit reviewers
Show answer
Correct: B. Leadership and finance audience. Designed for high-level review, not deep drill.
Q2
The FinOps preset includes:
A. Just cost trend
B. Cost Flow Sankey, team showback, budget vs spend, tag coverage, anomalies, unit economics, recommendations summary. The practitioner’s working canvas: everything the FinOps Lead needs in one view.
C. Per-resource only
D. Random widgets
Show answer
Correct: B. FinOps-specific surfaces optimized for daily practitioner work.
Q3
Customizing a preset:
A. Edits the preset for all users
B. Requires cloning: presets are immutable templates. Clone creates a new saved dashboard; modify the clone freely. The original preset remains untouched. This pattern lets ZopNight update presets without breaking customer customizations.
C. Not possible
D. Per-user
Show answer
Correct: B. Clone pattern preserves preset immutability. L2 covers the cloning workflow.
5. Apply
Browse presets at Dashboards. Each preset has a “Use this preset” button that makes it your current view. To customize, click “Clone preset”: this creates a saved dashboard you can edit. The org default (L4) is set per org by an Admin.
For new orgs, leave the default at “All Widgets” for the first week of onboarding; switch to a more focused preset once the team has experienced the full widget set.
Related lessons
- L2: Cloning and customization (next)
- L3: Per-widget RBAC
- L4: Default dashboard governance
- T3.M3.5.L1: Pick the showback dimension
Glossary terms touched
Preset · Executive preset · FinOps preset · Engineering preset · Immutable template