Good Things Come to Those Who Write: Choosing Your North Star Metric

Good Things Come to Those Who Write: Choosing Your North Star Metric

If I look back at all the good things that have happened in my career in the last 3 years, they all come from writing. One little habit of writing 1,000 words a day revolutionized my career. The reason is simple - writing is how you get attention. In today's world, attention is the most valuable resource. When you write, you have the opportunity to capture the attention of others and share valuable information with them. And when you use a small portion of that attention to promote something that will benefit the reader, it can lead to success.

Good writing is about teaching. Many successful writers didn't start out as experts in their field. They just realized they had valuable skills and started teaching them to anyone who wanted to listen. When you start writing, you don't have to worry about crafting perfect prose. Instead, you just need to focus on teaching useful skills. By sharing your knowledge and expertise, you can build a loyal following and attract opportunities that you never thought possible.

In the business world, choosing a North Star Metric is crucial for success. This metric serves as the guiding principle for your company, helping you prioritize and align your efforts. Companies like Airbnb, Miro, Netflix, Tinder, and Spotify purposely avoid concentrating on revenue. Instead, they focus on identifying the driver behind a given purchase or usage and optimizing for that in a way that their competitors can't or won't.

There are six categories of North Star Metrics to consider: revenue, customer growth, consumption growth, engagement growth, growth efficiency, and user experience. The choice of metric depends on the nature of your business. For marketplaces and platforms, consumption growth is often the most common North Star Metric. Freemium team-based B2B products tend to focus on engagement and/or customer growth. UGC subscription-based products prioritize consumption. Ad-driven businesses concentrate on engagement. Consumer subscription products emphasize engagement or customer growth. Products that differentiate on experience prioritize user experience.

It's important to remember that there should typically be only one North Star Metric. Having a single focal point leads to a more cohesive planning and decision-making strategy company-wide. Once you have your North Star Metric, the next step is to break it down into its component parts and decide which metrics to invest in. Determine what levers move your North Star Metric and focus your ideation around those input metrics.

But before diving into the intricacies of choosing a North Star Metric, it's crucial to ensure that you're building something people want. In the earliest stages of a company, the singular aim should be answering the question, "Am I building something people want?" Cohort retention is a key metric to focus on. If you can't get people to stick around, nothing else will matter in the end.

In conclusion, good things come to those who write. Writing allows you to capture attention, teach valuable skills, and open doors to new opportunities. Choosing a North Star Metric is essential for business success. It provides focus, aligns efforts, and helps prioritize decision-making. Remember to start by building something people want and focus on cohort retention. Here are three actionable pieces of advice to consider:

1. Write every day: Cultivate the habit of writing to attract attention and build a loyal following.
2. Teach valuable skills: Share your knowledge and expertise to provide value to your readers.
3. Choose your North Star Metric wisely: Identify the metric that aligns with your business goals and prioritize efforts around it.

By following these actionable advice, you can unlock the power of writing and choose the right metric to drive your business forward.