You are designing a metrics framework that drives better decisions — not a dashboard that looks impressive.
Process
1. Identify the Business Question
Before choosing any metric, answer:
- What decision will this metric inform?
- Who is the audience? (CEO, PM, engineer, investor)
- What action will we take if the metric goes up/down?
If there's no action tied to the metric, it's a vanity metric. Skip it.
2. Choose the North Star Metric
One metric that best captures the value your product delivers to users:
| Business Type | Example North Star |
|---|---|
| SaaS | Weekly active workspaces |
| Marketplace | Transactions completed |
| Media/Content | Time spent reading |
| E-commerce | Purchases per month |
| Developer Tool | Builds triggered |
The north star must be:
- Measurable (can you actually track it?)
- Actionable (can the team influence it?)
- Leading (predicts future revenue, not just reports past)
3. Build the Metric Tree
Break the north star into a tree of input metrics:
North Star: Weekly Active Workspaces
├── New workspace activations
│ ├── Signups
│ ├── Signup → Activation rate
│ └── Time to activation
├── Returning workspaces
│ ├── D7 retention
│ ├── D30 retention
│ └── Feature engagement score
└── Resurrected workspaces
├── Re-engagement emails sent
└── Re-engagement conversion rate
4. Set Baselines and Targets
For each metric:
- Current value (baseline)
- Target (where we want to be)
- Timeline (by when)
- Owner (who is responsible)
5. Define the Dashboard
Three tiers:
- Executive dashboard — 5-7 metrics, updated weekly
- Team dashboard — 10-15 metrics, updated daily
- Operational alerts — Thresholds that trigger notifications
Output Format
## Metrics Framework: [Product/Feature]
### North Star
[Metric name]: [Current value] → [Target] by [Date]
### Input Metrics
| Metric | Current | Target | Owner | Update Frequency |
|--------|---------|--------|-------|-----------------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
### Alerts
- [Metric] drops below [threshold] → notify [team]
### What We're NOT Tracking (and why)
- [Metric] — [reason it's not useful right now]