Article by: Mike York, COO
There is a special kind of comfort in a single number. Resembling those sweatpants that lost the drawstring years ago, the elasticity barely exists in the waistband, yet you refuse to get rid of them.
It fits in a headline. It fits in a dashboard. It fits in an executive update that needs to end early because someone is double-booked.
Unfortunately, it no longer fits reality.
From an insights industry lens, single-score KPIs didn’t just become insufficient. In 2026, they’re becoming actively misleading; the kind of misleading that feels helpful right up until something expensive goes wrong.
Let’s talk about why.
Single Scores Assume Consumers Are Consistent. They Are Not.
A single score quietly assumes: “People feel roughly the same way, most of the time.” That was optimistic even in 2018.
Today, consumers can:
- Love a brand
- Distrust its motives
- Buy it anyway
- Recommend it with caveats
And this sequence can occur in the same week.
Research reality: Averaging that into a “7.2” doesn’t simplify complexity. It hides contradiction, which is where behavior actually lives.
They Collapse Trade-Offs Into False Clarity
Every real decision involves trade-offs. Single-score KPIs pretend those trade-offs resolve themselves peacefully. They do not.
What gets lost:
- Price tolerance vs emotional value
- Trust vs convenience
- Satisfaction vs likelihood to return
When you collapse these into one number, you don’t get insight. You get a ceasefire between variables.
Single Scores Reward Stability, Not Accuracy
Single-score KPIs are popular because they don’t move much. Leadership loves this. Reality does not.
What’s actually happening:
- Scores stay flat while behavior shifts underneath
- Early warning signals get averaged out of existence
By the time the score moves, the damage is already in production.
They Confuse Measurement With Meaning
A number feels objective. It feels serious. But seriousness doesn’t equal usefulness.
The problem:
- Single scores answer “how are we doing?”
- Stakeholders actually need “why is this happening now?”
One number cannot carry timing, context, or causality. It just nods politely and changes color.
They Turn Market Research Into Performance Theater
Single-score KPIs are easy to socialize. They give everyone something to point at.
They also quietly encourage:
- Defensive interpretation
- Score-protection behavior
- Insight avoidance disguised as simplicity
When the goal becomes protecting the number, learning comes to a screeching halt.
They Flatten Risk Until It’s Too Late
Single scores are averages. Risk is not.
What gets erased:
- Minority segments with outsized churn risk
- Edge cases that predict future failures
- Early dissatisfaction that hasn’t spread yet
The average looks fine. The problem is incubating.
They Assume Alignment Where None Exists
One score implies one truth. Organizations do not operate that way.
What’s really happening:
- Different functions care about different drivers
- The same score means different things in different rooms
The number creates alignment theater, not actual alignment.
So Why Do We Keep Using Them?
Because:
- They’re easy to report
- They’re easy to benchmark
- They make complexity feel managed
And because replacing them requires admitting something uncomfortable, the job of market research is not to make things easier to explain. It’s to make them harder to misunderstand.
What Works Better in 2026
This doesn’t mean “throw out metrics.” It means stop pretending one number can do ten jobs.
The strongest insight teams are shifting toward:
- Metric systems, not metric idols
- Driver-based dashboards instead of summary scores
- Trade-off mapping over satisfaction ranking
- Contextual storytelling alongside quantitative signals
Clarity now comes from structure, not reduction.
The Last Word
Single-score KPIs aren’t neutral. They shape what organizations notice, discuss, and ignore.
In 2026, the risk isn’t that your KPI is wrong. It’s that it’s comfortably incomplete.
And in a world where behavior shifts faster than dashboards update, incomplete information doesn’t just mislead. It delays action.
If your KPI still fits neatly on one slide? You might want to ask what it’s leaving out.
***
SMARI is an award-winning Indiana-based market research consultancy that was founded in 1983 with the idea of guiding change and inspiring confidence. We are proud to work with SMEs as well as a variety of Fortune 500 brands. We are powered by our core values: integrity, community, perseverance, trust, passion, curiosity, and innovation. SMARI’s expertise encompasses complete project scopes, including instrument design, sampling & fielding services, reporting & analysis in the Healthcare, CPG, Retail, Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, and Financial Services industries, among others. Much has changed in our 40+ years, but our tagline and overarching mission remain the same—to guide change and inspire confidence. Start a conversation with us at www.SMARI.com.
