Metrics & North Star

Strategy

Chọn North Star Metric, input metrics, guardrails — tránh vanity, leading vs lagging, Goodhart's Law.

Roadmap — Cách học và đạt kỹ năng

North Star Metric (NSM)

Sean Ellis: "One metric that best captures the core value your product delivers." NSM đáp ứng 3 tiêu chí:

Reflect user value (không phải vanity).
Measurable accurately, frequently.
Actionable — team có thể tác động trực tiếp.

Ví dụ NSM

Company	NSM
Spotify	Time spent listening
Airbnb	Nights booked
Slack	Daily active workspaces with >2k messages
WhatsApp	Daily messages sent
Shopee	Successful delivered orders

Metric hierarchy

North Star — 1 metric.
L1 input metrics — 3–5 driver của NSM (acquisition, activation, retention, revenue).
L2 feature metrics — đo từng feature individual.
Guardrails — không được giảm (latency, NPS, error rate).

Leading vs Lagging

Lagging — revenue, churn (đo sau).
Leading — engagement signal predict revenue/churn (đo trước).

Goodhart's Law

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." Ví dụ: target DAU → team push notification spam → DAU tăng nhưng retention long-term giảm. Counter bằng guardrail metric.

Common pitfalls

Vanity metric — page view, signup không reflect value.
Quá nhiều NSM — defeats the purpose.
NSM = revenue — lead to short-term hack.
Không define "active user" rõ → confusion ở weekly review.

Vietnam context

E-commerce VN: tránh dùng GMV làm NSM (có thể game bằng coupon). Dùng "delivered orders" hoặc "repeat customers". Edtech: lessons completed thay vì signups.

Roadmap keyword coverage - các wording trên roadmap nghĩa là gì?

Roadmap links analytics basics, metrics thinking, portfolio metrics and North Star work to the same metric-system skill.

Roadmap wording	Ý nghĩa khi học skill này	Artifact / evidence	Bài tập thực hành
Analytics cơ bản	Read simple funnels, counts, rates and trends without over-interpreting.	Basic dashboard	Build a 5-metric dashboard for one feature.
Tư duy Metrics (Metrics thinking)	Connect product behavior to outcome and guardrails.	Metric tree	Create input/output/guardrail metrics for activation.
Metrics basics	Foundation concepts: numerator, denominator, cohort, funnel, retention.	Metric glossary	Define 10 metrics with formula and owner.
Portfolio metrics	Director-level view across product areas and investment bets.	Portfolio dashboard	Map product bets to outcome, input and guardrail metrics.