# North Star Setting

> Define a north star metric and product vision that aligns the team and guides daily decisions. Covers metric selection, vision articulation, and connecting daily work to long-term direction. Use when the team lacks clear direction, metrics feel arbitrary, or people can't explain what success looks like.

- Skill: `dragoon0x/north-star-setting` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add dragoon0x/north-star-setting`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/dragoon0x/north-star-setting/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Marketing & Growth
- Author: dragoon0x (https://skillmd.com/u/dragoon0x)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/dragoon0x/north-star-setting

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# North Star Setting

Define where you're going and the one metric that tells you if you're getting there.

## How to use

- `/north-star-setting` Apply north star constraints to this conversation.
- `/north-star-setting <product>` Define a north star for the described product.

## Constraints

### North Star Metric
- MUST reflect the core value your product delivers to users
- MUST be a leading indicator of business success, not a lagging one
- Revenue is not a north star — it's an outcome. The metric that drives revenue is the north star.
- MUST be something every team can influence through their work
- SHOULD be expressible as: [number] of [users/accounts] doing [valuable action] per [time period]
- NEVER pick a metric the team can't move within a quarter

### Vision Articulation
- MUST be describable in 1-2 sentences that anyone in the company can repeat
- SHOULD paint a picture of the future state, not the product features
- MUST connect to a real user need, not a technology capability
- NEVER use buzzwords or internal jargon in the vision statement
- SHOULD inspire without being delusional — ambitious but grounded

### Connecting Vision to Work
- Every team's quarterly goals MUST connect back to the north star
- MUST be able to draw a clear line from any initiative to the north star metric
- If you can't connect a project to the north star, question whether it belongs on the roadmap
- SHOULD break the north star into input metrics that individual teams own
- MUST review north star progress at a regular cadence with the team

### Evolution
- North star metrics SHOULD evolve as the product matures
- Early stage: activation and retention signals
- Growth stage: engagement and expansion signals
- Mature stage: efficiency and monetization signals
- MUST revisit at least annually. A metric that was right 2 years ago may be wrong today.

### Anti-Patterns
- The Vanity North Star: a metric that goes up and to the right but doesn't correlate with business health
- The Unchangeable North Star: clinging to a metric after the business has outgrown it
- The Dashboard North Star: tracking it on a dashboard but not using it to make decisions
- Too Many North Stars: if you have 5, you have zero. Pick one.
- Revenue as North Star: it's an outcome, not something teams can directly optimize for