Page 211 · Module 09, Finance & Metrics · this screen continues that page
All 108 frameworksNorth Star Metric & OMTM
Your team tracks many metrics but none of them feel like the right one. Different teams
The prompt
Copy & paste readyLabelsReplace theseSwap the role below
Pro tip, from the book
The most common North Star mistake is choosing a metric that measures your activity instead of the customer's value. 'Registered users' measures your acquisition, not their value. 'Users who completed their first meaningful action' measures whether they got value. The metric must describe something good happening for the customer, not something good happening for you.
Who should run this prompt
Module role profileWho should review your numbers and financial narrative? Numbers do not lie — but they can mislead when read through the wrong lens. A CFO and an investor look at the same P&L and ask completely different questions. A customer's finance team looks at your pricing and asks a question neither of them thought of. Use this page to choose who is in the room before you present, model, or decide based on your financial data.
Choose any role to drop it into the prompt above. Only the highlighted opening clause changes — the rest of the prompt stays exactly as printed.
◆◆◆◆◆ → ◆ seniority, board level down to specialist◈ outside the organisation
How to make any role sharper
- Add years of experience: "...with 15 years in enterprise SaaS" produces different depth than just the title.
- Add what they care most about: "You care most about [X]" shapes every word of the output.
- Add their communication style: "Be direct. Flag risks first. No jargon." changes the tone entirely.
Use this when
The problem it solvesoptimise for different numbers. Metrics move up and down without anyone being sure whether the business is actually getting better or worse. 1.Your North Star Metric must measure value delivered to customers, not revenue extracted from them. 2.The OMTM changes as you move through startup stages, what matters in pre- product-fit is different from what matters in scaling. 3.Instrument your product to track the North Star automatically, not manually. 4.Build every team's weekly goals around moving the North Star, not their departmental metrics. The North Star Metric is the single metric that best captures the core value your product delivers to customers and that, when it grows, predicts long-term company health. Examples: Airbnb's North Star is nights booked, Spotify's is time spent listening, Slack's is messages sent. The OMTM (One Metric That Matters), coined in Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz, is the one metric your company should focus on above all others at the current stage of growth. Unlike the North Star (long-term), the OMTM shifts as the company moves through stages. AI can help you identify both for your specific business model and stage.
How the framework works
From the printed pageFind the one number that predicts every thing elseand focus your entire company on moving it
Where the framework comes from
Eric Ries / Lean Analytics — North Star Metric · Alistair Croll & Ben Yoskovitz, OMTM, 2013
Pairs well with
As printed with this frameworkModule 09 — Finance & Metrics
Know your numbers. Own your narrative.
9 frameworks, printed on pages 206–223.
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