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1) Why I am wary of "North Star" metrics. Short answer: It's overly simplistic to think one metric should sit "head and shoulders" above a bunch of others. It depends on a lot of things. (A thread.)
2) At the moment, I am editing all my writing on Medium, doing a search & replace of "North Star metric" with "high-level engagement metric." I'm doing this because "North Star metric" creates confusion.
3) Product teams need a high-level engagement metric -- a metric that defines the overall quality of their product. Facebook has Daily Active Users and Netflix has monthly retention. Teams use this metric to make decisions about what is "better" in the context of AB tests.
4) But orgs have LOTS of metrics. For instance, I find it helpful for marketing/product/finance teams to force rank Growth, Engagement, and Monetization across the entire org-- to agree to one prioritization. Companies often choose to put engagement 3rd, for lots of good reasons.
5) So, in an organization that prioritizes Growth, Monetization, and Engagement, for instance, you create confusion if teams call their "high-level engagement metric" their "North Star Metric." But I thought DAUs/Retention is our North Star metric? Why are we putting it 3rd?
6) This is why I have excised the phrase "North Star" metric from my vocabulary. Instead, I refer to it as "High-level Engagement Metric" -- the metric that defines your product's overall quality and helps you to answer the question, "Is my product better?"
7) While it may be the "North Star Metric" for the product team, depending on the overall company's current goals, it may be secondary to either growth or monetization goals.
8) If you want to learn more, this essay and the one that follows it provide further depth on metrics: medium.com/@gibsonbiddle/… and this essay explains the "GEM" model: medium.com/@gibsonbiddle/…
9) I will be back off the grid and will stop filling your Twitterbox soon -- promise.
10) Actually, this is the Medium essay that explains the GEM prioritization model: medium.com/@gibsonbiddle/…
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More from @gibsonbiddle see all

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@gibsonbiddle
@gibsonbiddle
1) Another product strategy topic I am focused on: the difference between building consumer & enterprise/B2B SW. I hope there will be lots of comments/chatter around this thread as my career has focused on consumer. I look to others to fill in my blindspot on enterprise/B2B.
2) Here's a high-level summary of my thinking. I am curious how others see the key differences between consumer and enterprise and what consumer product leaders can learn from enterprise product leaders & vice-versa.
3) I have limited experience in B2B, but half the folks I work with at product strategy workshops are B2B folks and I believe I am as helpful to them as I am to consumer peeps, so there's hope. I'd like to be more thoughtful, however, about the differences between the two.
Read 17 tweets
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@gibsonbiddle
@gibsonbiddle
1) I've been thinking about product strategy in the context of very early startups & more established, scaling startups. In product strategy, I focus a lot on "delighting customers in hard to copy, margin-enhancing ways." But in the beginning, it's all about delight.
2) The differences first hit me at Electronic Arts in 1991. An MBA pal did a Michael Porter strategy analysis on a whiteboard for a startup we hoped to spin out. A VP took one look, erased his work, then wrote "OPPORTUNISTIC" across the board.
3) At startups, the job is to establish an initial beachhead to connect with a small subset of customers. In scaling, you shift gears to expand. That's when you engage in the discipline of building hard to copy advantage and business model experimentation via product strategy.
Read 20 tweets
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@gibsonbiddle
@gibsonbiddle
1) Folks are forever asking me how to approach a mentor. The simple advice: take a loose connection and slowly build on it. Most of my mentors were grounded in a shared connection (same college, b-school, worked at the same company, shared interest in skiing, sailing, biking)
2) In shaping a loose connection into a tighter relationship, recognize there has to be some sort of personality fit. You have to like talking/interacting with each other. That takes some light emails/coffee/casual meetings over time.
3) Then be aware of the potential mentor's "tests". They are time-starved and will test you a bit. LIke, "If you'd like to talk more, set up a meeting two months from now." The test there is to see if you will remember to do it, and can navigate their crazy schedule.
Read 13 tweets

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