North Star Metric: how to choose a guiding metric and input metrics
The North Star Metric is a single metric that best captures the value customers get from a product and links it to the company's future revenue. The article describes the selection criteria according to Amplitude's North Star Framework, an example metric tree with a calculation, and common mistakes.
Amounts and values in the examples are illustrative and show how the calculation works. In projects, we use the client's data.
Dominik Dębski · Lemur Media · · reading time: 4 min
Reviewed by Dominik Dębski, 1 November 2026
What is a North Star Metric?
The North Star Metric is a single metric that best captures the value customers get from a product and links the customer problems being solved to the company's revenue. The method was described by Amplitude in the North Star Framework and the North Star Playbook. The framework aims to connect three perspectives that usually operate separately in companies: customer, product and business.
The North Star Metric is accompanied by three to five input metrics. These are factors that product teams influence directly and that together explain changes in the North Star Metric.
What criteria should the metric meet?
A good North Star Metric measures the value realised by the customer, reflects the direction of the product strategy and is a leading indicator of revenue. Amplitude advises against vanity metrics, such as the number of registered users, and lagging metrics, such as monthly revenue. Revenue remains the company's goal, but it changes after the fact and does not tell teams what to improve.
| Criterion | Test question | Example that fails |
|---|---|---|
| Customer value | Does growth in the metric mean customers achieve more | Number of logins |
| Strategy | Does the metric show which direction the product is developing in | Number of features released |
| Leading indicator | Does a change in the metric precede a change in revenue and retention | Monthly revenue |
| Team influence | Can teams change it through their work | Market share |
| Measurability | Is the data available today | Satisfaction with no measurement system |
How do you match the metric to the product model?
Amplitude identifies three types of engagement (games): attention, transaction and productivity, and the North Star Metric should match the type of product. In the attention game, value grows with time spent in the product (media, video services). In the transaction game, completed purchases count (e-commerce, marketplaces). In the productivity game, value means tasks completed, and more time in the product may signal a problem; this is the dominant type in B2B. An example from Amplitude's documentation: in the productivity game the metric might be the number of tasks completed per account.
Other examples described by Amplitude are the number of delivered orders placed in a mobile app in retail, and the number of trial accounts with more than three active users in the first week in self-service SaaS. The second metric is a good predictor of trial-to-paid conversion because it combines activation with the product spreading within the customer's team.
What does a metric tree with a calculation look like?
The North Star Metric is broken down into input metrics so that their product or sum reproduces its value. The example concerns an invoicing system for companies with 1–49 employees. North Star Metric: number of invoices sent per month by active accounts.
| Metric | Current state | Quarterly target |
|---|---|---|
| Active accounts (breadth) | 1 200 | 1 300 |
| Invoices per active account (frequency) | 45 | 48 |
| Invoices sent per month | 54 000 | 62 400 |
Achieving both targets raises the North Star Metric by 15.6% (62,400 ÷ 54,000 = 1.156). Two further input metrics describe depth and efficiency: the share of accounts using automatic payment reminders and the median time to issue an invoice. Each input metric has a single owner in the product team.
How do you bring the North Star Metric into the management cadence?
The North Star Metric works when it is discussed on a fixed cadence and every product initiative names the input metric it is meant to change.
- Workshop with the board, product, marketing and sales (1 day): description of customer value, proposed metrics and assessment against the criteria.
- Recording the metric definition in the metrics glossary: data source, calculation method, frequency.
- Selecting 3–5 input metrics and assigning owners.
- Review every two weeks at team level and monthly at board level.
- Review of the metric once a year or after a change in product strategy.
In companies with 50–249 employees, one North Star Metric for the whole company is usually enough. With several products or markets, each product has its own metric and the board tracks them in a single report.
What are the common mistakes?
- Revenue as the North Star Metric: product teams cannot see the link between their work and the result.
- Several North Star Metrics for one product, which recreates the problem of scattered goals.
- A metric that is easy to inflate artificially, without a counter-metric, e.g. number of invoices without tracking cancelled invoices.
- Input metrics without owners and without review on a fixed cadence, e.g. every two weeks.