What Metrics Does the North Star Metric Skill Help Define?

The North Star Metric skill defines a single customer-centric North Star Metric (NSM) and 3-5 supporting input metrics that serve as actionable leading indicators for sustainable growth.

The phuryn/pm-skills repository provides product management utilities that help teams align on growth strategies. When asking what metrics the North Star Metric skill helps define, the answer centers on a focused metric framework designed to drive long-term value while identifying immediate levers for improvement.

The Core Metrics Defined by the Skill

The North Star Metric (NSM)

According to the source code in pm-marketing-growth/skills/north-star-metric/SKILL.md (lines 42-51), the skill surfaces one core KPI that satisfies seven specific criteria: easy to understand, customer-centric, sustainable value, vision-aligned, quantitative, actionable, and a leading indicator. This single metric acts as the guiding light for product decisions, ensuring teams measure outcomes that actually matter to users rather than vanity metrics.

Input Metrics (Supporting Leading Indicators)

In addition to the NSM, the skill generates 3-5 input metrics that are easier to move in the short term and directly influence the North Star Metric (lines 53-57 of SKILL.md). These leading indicators provide tactical focus areas for teams, allowing them to identify which specific user behaviors or product changes will drive movement in the overarching NSM.

Business Game Classification

Before selecting metrics, the skill helps classify your business game into one of three categories: Attention, Transaction, or Productivity (lines 25-32 of SKILL.md). This classification informs the selection of appropriate metrics by understanding whether your product primarily captures user attention, facilitates transactions, or enhances productivity.

How to Invoke the North Star Metric Skill

The CLI command is defined in pm-marketing-growth/commands/north-star.md. Here are practical examples:

# Example 1 – Simple invocation with a business description

pm north-star "We run a SaaS collaboration tool that helps teams share design assets and iterate quickly."

# Example 2 – Providing extra context (vision, current metrics, customer segments)

pm north-star "
  Vision: Empower every creative team to ship design work twice as fast.
  Current metrics: Daily Active Users, Uploads per User, Time‑to‑Publish.
  Key customers: Small design studios and freelance designers.
"

Expected output structure:

Business Game: Productivity
North Star Metric: Design Assets Published per Active Team (DAPAT)

Input Metrics:
  • Daily Active Teams (short‑term lift)
  • Average Upload Size per Team
  • Time‑to‑Publish (seconds)
  • Feature Adoption Rate (new collaboration features)

This output demonstrates how the skill classifies the business game, proposes a single NSM that meets all seven criteria, and lists concrete input metrics that can be acted upon immediately.

Key Implementation Files

• pm-marketing-growth/skills/north-star-metric/SKILL.md: Contains the full skill description, the seven criteria for effective NSMs, and the prompt template that generates both the North Star Metric and its supporting input metrics.
• pm-marketing-growth/commands/north-star.md: Defines the CLI interface, showing how users invoke the skill with business context and parameters.
• README.md: Provides repository context and links to various skill categories within the phuryn/pm-skills project.

Summary

• The North Star Metric skill defines two primary metric types: a single North Star Metric (NSM) and 3-5 supporting input metrics.
• The NSM must satisfy seven criteria including being customer-centric, quantitative, and a leading indicator.
• Input metrics serve as actionable leading indicators that are easier to influence in the short term.
• The skill first classifies your business game (Attention, Transaction, or Productivity) to ensure metric relevance.
• Implementation files are located in pm-marketing-growth/skills/north-star-metric/ and pm-marketing-growth/commands/.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly is a North Star Metric?

A North Star Metric is a single customer-centric key performance indicator that represents the core value your product delivers to users. According to the phuryn/pm-skills source code, it must satisfy seven criteria: easy to understand, customer-centric, sustainable value, vision-aligned, quantitative, actionable, and a leading indicator.

How many input metrics does the skill generate?

The skill generates 3 to 5 input metrics that serve as leading indicators influencing the North Star Metric. These metrics are designed to be easier to move in the short term than the NSM itself, providing teams with immediate tactical focus areas.

What are the three business game classifications used by the skill?

The skill classifies businesses into three categories: Attention (products focused on capturing user attention), Transaction (products facilitating exchanges or purchases), and Productivity (products helping users complete tasks more efficiently). This classification informs the selection of appropriate metrics for your specific business model.

Where is the skill logic defined in the repository?

The core skill logic resides in pm-marketing-growth/skills/north-star-metric/SKILL.md, which contains the prompt templates and criteria definitions. The CLI command interface is defined in pm-marketing-growth/commands/north-star.md.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instagit@latest"]
    }
  }
}