When we talk about your North Star we’re referring to the the single point of focus that guides you and your company and stops you drifting off course.
Every business needs one as it tells everyone where you’re going, why they come to work, and how they can help you get there.
Although simple, they are not easy to get right and the process of defining them for some is very challenging.
There are three parts to a North Star we recommend you define:
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North Star Open Mission (Visionary)
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North Star Secret Mission (Visionary)
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North Star Metric (Numerical)
North Star Open Mission
The Open Mission is the part that you can share amongst all of the company.
The ZOKRI Open Mission is:
Fast growth products often find their growth stalling at $1m – $5m. But good products and agile teams should not fail.
ZOKRI’s OKR Software exists to remove issues like bad strategy, sales and marketing not improving and scaling, and dysfunctions like silos, sub-optimal focus and average productivity.
The result will be faster and more sustainable growth, with smoother and more predictable growth trajectory.
North Star Secret Mission
Your secret mission is the one that your investors and executive team know, and perhaps some key employees. But it’s not widely known and it’s commercially sensitive as it is the part that is going to give you an unfair advantage, be hugely valuable and create a likely exit.
The ZOKRI Secret Mission is:
Secret: But really exciting. (Sorry!)
North Star Metric
Your North Star Metric is the SINGLE number that guides your business above all other numbers. What you choose as your North Star Metric will depend on your growth stage and product, and can change through time. The characteristics of a North Star Metric are:
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It’s able to guide the whole business
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It’s directly connected to your Open Mission
The ZOKRI North Star Metric is:
Number of Confidence Level interactions.
Why? When teams are working with OKRs and Growth Initiatives well they update their confidence level of achieving their goals on a frequent basis (usually weekly). These confidence updates tells us that teams are successfully working with OKRs and Growth Initiatives, and they are part of the workflow of the business.
Users, OKRs, Growth Initiatives, Sessions, Time in App are not nearly as insightful or guiding.
One Metric To Rule Them All – The Not So Secret Sauce
The idea of defining product success with metrics and goals is not new, but essential. It’s also used by the products and companies we’d all like to borrow some of their secret sauce from.
Guess The North Star Metric
What would you guess the North Start Metric is for:
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Saleforces
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Hubspot
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Gmail
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Tableau
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Survey Monkey
And of course, what’s yours?
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