What is a North Star metric in growth marketing?

A North Star is the single number that, if it doubles, the company is unmistakably better off. It must be customer-aligned (moves when the customer wins, not when you ship a feature), leading rather than lagging revenue, inarguable in one sentence, and decomposable into inputs the team can actually influence.

Why isn't revenue a good North Star metric?

Revenue is a lagging indicator. By the time it moves, the work that caused the move happened one to two quarters earlier. North Stars should be leading inputs — repeat purchase rate for DTC, weekly active seats for B2B SaaS, filled requests for marketplaces, D30 retention for consumer subscriptions — that predict revenue 60–180 days out.

How does the North Star chapter mini-game work?

You're shown three companies — a DTC brand, a B2B SaaS, and a marketplace — each with conflicting dashboards and a leadership team pushing a vanity metric. Your job is to pick the correct North Star for each given the data. Wrong picks expose the trap (vanity, lagging, supply-side) so the lesson sticks.

What's the difference between a North Star and a KPI?

KPIs are the inputs that decompose the North Star. A North Star is the one outcome the entire company optimizes; KPIs are the levers individual teams pull. If you have ten North Stars, you have zero.

Chapter 01 · The North Star — Growth Marketing

Growth / A Story

Ch. 01 · The North Star

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