Data + Intuition: A Hybrid Approach to Developing Product North Star Metrics

“You make what you measure” is a familiar mantra at datadriven companies. Accordingly, companies must be careful to choose North Star metrics that create a better product. Metrics fall into two general categories: direct count metrics such as total revenue and monthly active users, and nuanced quality metrics regarding value or other aspects of the user experience. Count metrics, when used exclusively as the North Star, might inform product decisions that harm user experience. Therefore, quality metrics play an important role in product development. We present a five-step framework for developing quality metrics using a combination of machine learning and product intuition. Machine learning ensures that the metric accurately captures user experience. Product intuition makes the metric interpretable and actionable. Through a case study of the Endorsements product at LinkedIn, we illustrate the danger of optimizing exclusively for count metrics, and showcase the successful application of our framework toward developing a quality metric. We show how the new quality metric has driven significant improvements toward creating a valuable, user-first product.