Identify North Star Metric

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Goal: Identify a single customer-centric key performance indicator (North Star Metric) that reflects the value customers get from the product and serves as a leading indicator of business success.

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Tools Required

This skill runs using CORE memory only. No integrations required.

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Step 1: Clarify the Product

Ask:

• What does your product do? — Core value proposition
• Who uses it? — Primary customer
• How do they use it? — Frequency, workflows

“What problem does this product solve, and how often do customers use it?”

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Step 2: Classify Your Business Model

Ask the user to identify which “game” they’re playing: Attention Game

• Customers pay with time
• Goal: Maximize daily/monthly active usage
• Examples: Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok
• Potential North Star: Daily active users, hours watched, sessions per user

Transaction Game

• Customers complete discrete transactions
• Goal: Maximize number or value of transactions
• Examples: Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash
• Potential North Star: Transactions per user, GMV, bookings completed

Productivity Game

• Customers use the product to accomplish a job
• Goal: Maximize work completed or problems solved
• Examples: Notion, Canva, Dropbox, Slack, CORE
• Potential North Star: Tasks completed, documents created, projects shipped, time saved

Ask: “Which of these best describes your business?”

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Step 3: Brainstorm Candidate Metrics

Based on the business game, brainstorm 5-7 candidate metrics: Attention: DAU, WAU, MAU, time spent, sessions, retention rate Transaction: Orders, GMV, transactions per user, repeat rate, conversion rate Productivity: Documents created, projects completed, invitations sent, tasks shipped, workflows automated Ask: “What activity/outcome truly indicates a customer is getting value?”

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Step 4: Evaluate Candidates Against 7 Criteria

For each candidate, rate it on these criteria (1-5 scale, 5 is best):

1. Easy to Understand — Can anyone in the company explain it in one sentence?
2. Customer-Centric — Does it reflect customer value (not just company revenue)?
3. Sustainable Value — Does achieving this metric indicate long-term engagement?
4. Vision Alignment — Does this support your company’s mission/vision?
5. Quantitative — Is it measurable and numeric (not fuzzy)?
6. Actionable — Can product, design, marketing, sales ALL influence it?
7. Leading Indicator — Does this predict future revenue/business success?

Create a quick scoring table: Pick the highest-scoring metric.

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Step 5: Identify Input Metrics

Once you have a North Star, identify 3-5 Input Metrics that are:

• Easier to move in the short term
• Direct contributors to the North Star
• Actionable by individual teams

Example for a Productivity app (North Star: Tasks completed):

• Input Metrics:
  • User signups
  • Tasks created per user
  • Task completion rate
  • Daily active users
  • Churn rate

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Step 6: Present the Decision

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North Star Metric Selected Metric: [Metric name] Definition: [What does this metric measure? How do we calculate it?] Why This?

• Customer Value: [How does achieving this indicate customer success?]
• Business Impact: [How does this predict revenue/growth?]
• Vision Alignment: [How does this support our mission?]

Business Model Classification [Attention / Transaction / Productivity game] Scoring Summary Input Metrics (Drivers) These contribute directly to the North Star:

• [Input metric 1]: How it drives the North Star
• [Input metric 2]: How it drives the North Star
• [Input metric 3]: How it drives the North Star

How We’ll Track It

• Where/how we measure this [Dashboard link or description]
• Frequency of review [Daily/Weekly/Monthly]
• Target [If applicable, e.g., “Grow 20% quarter over quarter”]

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Edge Cases

• Conflicting stakeholder opinions: Use the 7-criteria scoring to align on the decision objectively. Ask: “Which of these 7 matters most for our business?”
• Multiple products/segments: Consider separate North Stars per product line if they’re distinct businesses. Ask: “Are these the same customer and business?”
• Metric is hard to measure today: It’s okay. Pick the best metric and invest in tracking it. Note: “We need to build instrumentation for this.”
• Current North Star isn’t working: Ask: “Why is it failing? Is it not customer-centric? Is it not actionable?” Revisit the criteria and find a better candidate.