6 November 2025
When a north star is just a vanity metric with better lighting
North-star language is allowed in our studio. Exemption from a charter is not. A single number can be a policy. It can also be a poster that nobody is allowed to interrogate.
Three tests we use in class
First: can you name exclusions without embarrassment? If “active users” includes employees, bots, and a leftover conference campaign, you have lighting, not a star.
Second: does the owner have authority to refuse a prettier window before a board? If the CPO can edit the definition in a hallway, the star is decorative.
Third: would you still report the number if it fell for a reason you believe is healthy — killing a spammy acquisition channel, for example? Vanity metrics cannot survive a virtuous decline. Governed KPIs can, because the charter says why the drop is allowed.
What we do instead of mockery
We ask the team to write the north star as if it were any other KPI: owner, steward, freeze, exceptions, review cadence. Some survive that treatment and become useful. Some dissolve into three operational diagnostics, which is often the honest outcome.
KPI governance for product teams is not anti-ambition. It is anti-unexamined lighting. If your star cannot bear a freeze log, do not put it on the wall in Kennett or anywhere else.