# North Star metric

A North Star metric is the single measure a product team uses to track whether customers are getting the core value the product promises. It counts that value as customers experience it, predicts long-term revenue, and is something every team can move.

## How do you choose a North Star metric?

Choose the metric that counts the moment your customer gets the value they pay for, over a time window that matches how often they need it. Revenue is the result of that value, so it is not the North Star itself.

Work through it in four steps:

1. **Write the value sentence.** "Our customers pay us so that their team can ___." Name an outcome the customer would recognize.
2. **Find the action that proves it.** The event in your data that only happens when that outcome happened: a document shared and opened, an invoice paid, a report viewed by someone other than its author.
3. **Add a cadence.** Daily, weekly or monthly, matching how often the job comes up. A payroll tool counted daily will always look like it is losing users.
4. **Check it against retention.** In your own cohorts, accounts with more of this action should stay longer and expand more. If they don't, you picked a measure of activity. Keep looking.

A quick test for a bad North Star: could it go up while customers get less? Time spent in the product fails that test for any tool meant to save time.

## What are examples of North Star metrics?

Good examples share a shape: a count of a value event, per period, often per account rather than per user.

| Product type | Example North Star metric |
|---|---|
| Collaboration tool | Weekly active teams who share a document that someone else opens |
| Invoicing tool | Invoices paid each month |
| Analytics product | Weekly accounts that view a report built on their own data |
| Marketplace | Transactions completed each week |
| Scheduling tool | Meetings booked each week through a shared link |
| Agentic product | Tasks the agent completes for users each week |

For an agentic product, count tasks the agent finished that the user accepted, not conversations started or messages sent. A long conversation that ends without the task done is cost, not value.

## How does a North Star metric relate to other KPIs?

The North Star sits above a small set of input metrics that teams own directly. Most break into breadth (how many accounts get value), depth (how much value each gets), frequency (how often) and efficiency (how quickly a new account gets there).

Say the North Star is invoices paid each month. Onboarding owns the share of new accounts that send a first invoice. Growth owns how many accounts add a second user. Payments owns the share of invoices paid on time. Each team can move its input this quarter, and every input feeds the one number.

## What doesn't a North Star metric tell you?

A North Star metric doesn't tell you what customers tried to get and didn't. It counts the value delivered, not the requests that went unmet. When users can ask an agent for what they need, those requests show the gap. Foldspace's Conversational Analytics records the intent behind each one as the user put it and [whether the conversation was resolved, escalated or left unresolved](https://docs.foldspace.ai/user-guides/analytics/conversation-metrics/), so the team can see which jobs the North Star still misses.

## Learn more

- [Product Analytics](/platform/product-analytics)