Too Many KPIs: How to Decide What Belongs on a Power BI Dashboard

Your stakeholders want 30 KPIs on the dashboard. They insist everything is critical. You know that's a mistake — but how do you push back?

KPI overload is one of the most common dashboard failures. When everything is highlighted, nothing stands out. Users scan without comprehending. Decisions don't get made. The dashboard becomes digital wallpaper.

Why More KPIs Reduce Clarity

The human brain can hold about 7 items in working memory. Show someone 30 numbers, and they'll remember maybe 3 — if you're lucky. The rest becomes noise.

Worse, KPI overload creates analysis paralysis. When users see 30 metrics, they don't know which ones matter. They can't prioritize. They either ignore everything or ask you to explain — defeating the purpose of self-service analytics.

How Executives Actually Scan Dashboards

Watch an executive use a dashboard. They don't read systematically left to right. They scan for answers to specific questions:

• Are we on track?
• What needs attention?
• Is there anything surprising?

If your dashboard doesn't answer these questions in seconds, it fails — no matter how many KPIs it contains. The Executive Summary layout pattern is designed specifically for this scanning behavior.

The 5-7 Rule

A single dashboard page should contain 5-7 KPIs maximum. Not 5-7 per section. 5-7 total. This forces prioritization and ensures every metric earns its place.

"But everything is important!" your stakeholders say. It isn't. If everything were equally important, nothing would be important. Your job is to help them distinguish critical from nice-to-have.

A Framework for Choosing KPIs

Step 1: Identify the Primary Decision

Every dashboard should support a specific decision. Not "understand sales performance" — that's too vague. Something like "Decide whether to increase marketing spend in underperforming regions."

If you can't articulate the decision, you can't prioritize the metrics.

Step 2: Ask the "So What?" Test

For each proposed KPI, ask: "If this number changes significantly, what would we do differently?"

If the answer is "nothing" or "we'd need more information," that KPI doesn't belong on the primary view. Move it to a drill-through or cut it entirely.

Step 3: Categorize by Frequency

Some metrics need daily monitoring. Others are monthly or quarterly concerns. Don't mix them on the same page.

Create separate views for different time horizons. The daily operational dashboard is not the monthly executive review.

Step 4: Negotiate with Evidence

When stakeholders insist on more KPIs, don't just say no. Show them alternatives:

• "We can add that metric to a drill-through page"
• "We can include it in the detailed view for analysts"
• "We can create a separate page focused on that topic"

Separation isn't rejection. It's organization.

What to Do With the Other 23 KPIs

You're not deleting metrics — you're organizing them. Use the Hub and Spoke pattern:

• Hub page: 5-7 critical KPIs that answer "Are we okay?"
• Spoke pages: Detailed views for specific topics
• Drill-throughs: Deep-dives triggered by clicking a specific metric

This structure respects the executive who needs answers in 30 seconds and the analyst who needs to explore details.

The Bottom Line

Dashboard effectiveness is inverse to KPI count. Fewer, better-chosen metrics create more impact than comprehensive metric dumps. Your job isn't to show all the data — it's to show the right data.

Want a faster way to apply these patterns? Download the free BI Blueprint starter template.