North Star Metric

The single most important metric that best captures the core value your business delivers to customers. Everything else is secondary.

Having one north star metric focuses the entire team. When every decision is evaluated against one number, you avoid conflicting priorities and measure what actually matters.

Spotify: time spent listening. Airbnb: nights booked. For an e-commerce brand: number of repeat customers. Not revenue, because that can grow even while customer satisfaction falls.