Product metrics and goals
North Star metric
Also called North Star, NSM
One metric that captures the value customers get from a product, chosen so that growing it means the business is growing for the right reasons.
How it's worked out
One number that reflects customer value, leads to revenue, and that the team can influence
A North Star gives every team the same target to reason about. Nights booked, documents shared and orders delivered are classic examples: each rises only when customers get value.
On its own it's too broad to act on, so it's broken into three to five input metrics that teams can move directly.
In practice
A team-chat product chooses weekly active teams that send messages, rather than sign-ups or revenue.
Common mistake
Choosing revenue. It's the result of customer value, not a measure of it, and it moves too late to steer by.
Where it comes from
The term spread through growth teams in the 2010s, helped by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown's Hacking Growth (2017). Amplitude's North Star Playbook (2019) added the input metrics.