North Star Playbook

Who is this book for?

You are:

• A product manager, product designer, product developer, or anyone interested in improving the way you manage and build products.
• Familiar with product management basics. You’ve worked on product teams with product managers, designers, developers, and researchers and are looking for new methods to deepen your understanding.
• Curious about frameworks, tools, and systems. You are eager to learn more, while recognizing that there are no silver bullets.

You want:

• A greater sense of impact and coherence in your work.
• A more focused, less reactive way to work.
• To address customer problems and opportunities without just churning out more features.
• Context and inspiration to improve your current tools and metrics, like OKRs, roadmaps, and KPIs.
• More autonomy, with more flexibility to solve problems, while ensuring your work aligns with the bigger picture.
• To be data-informed instead of letting the data drive you in circles.
• Shared language and common understanding about vision, strategy, and value.

By the end of this book, you will:

• Understand the purpose and value of the North Star Framework.
• Understand the elements of the North Star Framework.
• Be able to run an internal North Star workshop.
• Be able to define and name a North Star Metric (and related inputs) for your company.
• Be able to identify and address common traps.
• Know when to change your North Star Metric.
• Understand how to integrate the North Star Framework with your development process.