CX Strategic Knowledge · CX Methods
North Star Metrics (NSM)
A North Star Metric measures customer success, not revenue, output volume, or team velocity.
A North Star Metric measures customer success and value delivered, and leads naturally to business success. Spotify tracks time spent listening; Airbnb tracks nights booked. NSMs are leading indicators — revenue, output volume, and features shipped do not qualify.
A North Star Metric measures customer success, reflects value actually delivered, and leads naturally to business success. Get the customer side right and the business side follows — that ordering is the whole point.
- Spotify: time spent listening
- Amazon: purchases per month
- Airbnb: nights booked
- Uber: rides completed
- Slack: active users
NSMs are leading indicators. Revenue is not one — it lags. Output volume is not one. Team velocity is not one. And features shipped is definitely not one: shipping measures your activity, not your customer's success.
Apply this
Reading about north star metrics (nsm) is one thing. Seeing where it applies in your journey is the useful part.