Breaking Down the Inputs: Key Drivers Behind Your North Star Metric

For entrepreneurs and product managers, defining a North Star Metric is a crucial step in aligning your team and driving your startup’s growth. However, the North Star Metric alone isn’t enough to guide your daily decisions and actions. To truly harness its power, you need to break down the metric into key inputs—specific factors that directly influence the metric. These inputs are the actionable elements that your team can work on to move the needle on your North Star Metric. Here’s how to identify and leverage these key drivers.

What Are Inputs in the North Star Framework?

• Definition: Inputs are the 3-5 key factors that most directly influence your North Star Metric. These are the actionable elements that your team can control and optimize to drive growth.
• Purpose: The purpose of identifying inputs is to break down the overarching goal (your North Star Metric) into specific, manageable components that your team can work on daily.

Why Inputs Matter

• Actionable Focus: Inputs provide a clear focus for your team, showing them exactly what they need to work on to influence the North Star Metric.
• Measurement and Improvement: By tracking and improving these inputs, you can more effectively measure progress and make data-driven decisions.
• Alignment: Inputs ensure that all teams are aligned in their efforts, as they all contribute to moving the same key drivers.

Steps to Identify Your Key Inputs

1. Start with Your North Star Metric

   • Action: Begin by clearly defining your North Star Metric. This metric should represent the core value your product delivers to customers.
   • Example: If your North Star Metric is “monthly active users,” the next step is to identify what drives user activity on your platform.

2. Break Down the Customer Journey

   • Action: Map out the customer journey and identify the key actions or behaviors that lead to the desired outcome reflected in your North Star Metric.
   • Example: For a SaaS product, key actions might include signing up, completing onboarding, regularly using core features, and renewing the subscription.

3. Identify Key Behaviors or Events

   • Action: Pinpoint the specific customer behaviors or events that most directly influence your North Star Metric. These should be measurable and actionable.
   • Example: If your North Star Metric is “customer retention rate,” key inputs might include “onboarding completion rate,” “number of active sessions per week,” and “frequency of support interactions.”

4. Use the Breadth, Depth, Frequency, and Efficiency Heuristic

   • Action: Apply this heuristic to help identify key inputs. Consider how you can influence the breadth (number of users), depth (level of engagement), frequency (how often users engage), and efficiency (ease of achieving the desired outcome) of the customer experience.
   • Example: For an e-commerce platform:
     • Breadth: Number of users adding items to their cart.
     • Depth: Average number of items per cart.
     • Frequency: Number of purchases per user per month.
     • Efficiency: Time taken to complete a purchase.

5. Mind-Mapping to Explore Relationships

   • Action: Use mind-mapping techniques to explore and visualize the relationships between your North Star Metric and potential inputs. This helps in identifying the most critical factors to focus on.
   • Example: Start with your North Star Metric in the center and branch out with different factors that could influence it. Group related concepts and narrow down to the most actionable inputs.

Testing and Refining Your Inputs

1. The Greenfield Test

   • Action: Test your inputs by brainstorming opportunities to influence them. If your team can quickly generate multiple ideas for moving an input, it’s likely a good choice. If not, the input might be too broad or too specific.
   • Example: For an input like “user engagement with core features,” brainstorm potential initiatives such as improving UI/UX, adding tutorials, or offering incentives for feature usage.

2. The Roadmap Check

   • Action: Align your current roadmap with the identified inputs. Ensure that your ongoing projects and upcoming features will positively impact the inputs. If there’s no clear connection, either your roadmap needs adjustment, or the input might not be as critical as initially thought.
   • Example: If one of your inputs is “number of successful onboarding sessions,” ensure that your roadmap includes features or improvements focused on simplifying and enhancing the onboarding process.

3. Regular Review and Iteration

   • Action: Regularly review the performance of your inputs and how effectively they are driving the North Star Metric. Be prepared to iterate and refine them based on what you learn.
   • Example: If a particular input isn’t moving the North Star Metric as expected, reassess whether it’s the right input or if there are external factors at play.

Leveraging Inputs for Product Development

1. Prioritize Features Based on Inputs

   • Action: Use your key inputs to guide feature prioritization in your product development process. Focus on building and improving features that will most significantly impact the identified inputs.
   • Example: If “feature adoption rate” is a key input, prioritize features that enhance usability, encourage exploration, and provide value early in the user journey.

2. Align Team Goals with Inputs

   • Action: Ensure that each team within your organization is aligned around the key inputs and understands how their work contributes to driving them.
   • Example: For a marketing team, focus on campaigns that drive initial sign-ups and increase onboarding completion rates.

3. Empower Teams to Experiment

   • Action: Encourage teams to experiment with different initiatives to move the inputs. Provide them with the autonomy to test new ideas and learn from the results.
   • Example: If “user retention” is an input, allow the customer success team to experiment with different communication strategies, such as personalized follow-ups or automated check-ins.

4. Communicate Progress

   • Action: Regularly communicate progress on the key inputs across the organization. This keeps everyone informed and aligned on what’s driving the North Star Metric.
   • Example: Share weekly or monthly updates on how each input is performing and what actions have been taken to improve them.

Conclusion

Identifying and leveraging key inputs is essential for making your North Star Metric actionable and impactful. By breaking down the metric into specific, manageable components, you can guide your team’s efforts more effectively and ensure that all activities are aligned with your overall growth strategy. Remember, the North Star Metric provides direction, but it’s the inputs that drive the day-to-day work that moves your startup towards long-term success. By focusing on these key drivers, you can build a product and a business that consistently delivers value to your customers.