What is North Star Metric?

Your North Star Metric is the one number that best captures the core value your product delivers to customers. For Airbnb, it's "nights booked." For Slack, it's "messages sent." It's not revenue or signups—it's the metric that, when it grows, means users are getting real value. Every team should understand how their work moves this number.

When Should You Use This?

Define your North Star when you have Product-Market Fit and need to align the whole team around growth. It helps prioritize features—does this move our North Star? Use it in dashboards, team meetings, and roadmap planning. Don't obsess over it before PMF, when you're still figuring out what value you deliver.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• •Choosing revenue or signups—those are lagging indicators, not value delivered
• •Multiple North Stars—you need ONE metric everyone rallies around
• •Not connected to value—"DAU" is vague, "songs played per week" captures music value
• •Too hard to move—it should be influenced by product/growth work, not just ads
• •Never revisiting it—your North Star can change as your product evolves

Real-World Examples

• •Airbnb—Nights Booked (captures supply and demand value)
• •Slack—Messages Sent (reflects team engagement and value)
• •Medium—Total Time Reading (quality engagement, not just pageviews)
• •Amplitude—Weekly Learning Users (product analytics value delivered)