north-star-metric-finderlisted

# North Star Metric Finder Identify a candidate North Star Metric (NSM) that satisfies five strict criteria, then map the 3-5 input metrics that drive it. The output is a defensible recommendation, not a brainstormed list. ## Core Principle **A North Star Metric is a forcing function, not a slogan.** Adopting the wrong one quietly skews two years of roadmap decisions. The five criteria below exist to *eliminate* candidates that look reasonable but fail under stress. ## The Five Criteria | Criterion | The Question | Failure Example | |-----------|--------------|-----------------| | **Value-capturing** | Does this metric only go up when customers receive real value? | "Logins per week" - easy to game with notification spam | | **Predictive** | Does this metric lead revenue and retention by ≥1 quarter? | "MRR" - lagging, not leading | | **Actionable** | Can the team move this metric with deliberate actions? | "NPS" - moves slowly, hard to attribute changes | | **Understandable** | Can every employee state the metric and why it matters in one sentence? | "Weekly active accounts with ≥3 successful API calls in their primary workspace" | | **Singular** | Is this a single metric, not an index of three? | A weighted composite hides which input is broken | A candidate must pass all five. Three out of five is not a NSM - it's a useful KPI. ## Output Save to `outputs/nsm-[product]-[YYYY-MM-DD].md` - **Recommended NSM** + the five-criteria pass/fail evaluation - **Runner-up cand