Product metrics and goals
Input metrics
Also called Supporting metrics, Driver metrics, Supporting indicators
The handful of measures that add up to a North Star, each one something a team can change directly.
How it's worked out
North Star = a combination of three to five inputs, such as breadth × depth × frequency
Inputs turn a big goal into work. 'Grow weekly active accounts' becomes 'more trials, more trials activated, more accounts coming back each week', and each can have an owner.
Good inputs are leading: they move before the North Star does, so teams see the effect of their work sooner.
In practice
A shop's weekly orders break into visitors, add-to-cart rate and checkout completion, owned by marketing, merchandising and checkout teams.
Common mistake
Picking inputs that nobody can change, or that change for reasons the team doesn't control.