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The Internet Compass

Product

North Star Metric

A north star metric is the single measure a company designates as the best proxy for the value it delivers to customers, used to align teams around one definition of progress.

Effective north stars measure customer value realised rather than company output: messages delivered rather than features shipped.

Any north star becomes a target and therefore gameable, which is why they are paired with counter-metrics that catch degradation elsewhere.

Example

Nights booked, messages sent and weekly active teams are all north star metrics from well-known products.