North Star Input Tree
Connect team inputs to one company-level measure of customer value
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 76%
The North Star Input Tree aligns growth work with the outcome the whole company is trying to create. Begin with a company-level North Star metric, then identify the measurable inputs that contribute to it. Teams should own inputs they can directly affect rather than inventing disconnected definitions of success. Their experiments can then target those inputs while leaders check whether local improvement actually moves the company metric. The mechanism creates a chain from company outcome to controllable input to experiment, making it easier to coordinate specialist teams without reducing every function to the same activity. It also creates a useful correction loop: if an input improves but the North Star does not, revisit the assumed relationship instead of celebrating the local result in isolation.
Origin
Joanna Lord discussed tying growth-team inputs to a company North Star while explaining how brand and growth capabilities work together on Marketing Against The Grain.
Core principles
- 01Start with the company North Star rather than an isolated channel metric
- 02Treat team metrics as inputs to the company outcome
- 03Give teams a measurable input they can influence
- 04Use experiments to improve inputs without losing company-level alignment
How to run it
- 1
Choose the company North Star
Define the company-level metric that represents the outcome the organization wants to create. Keep it above any one channel or specialist team.
Pro tip Use a metric that reflects customer value as well as company progress.
Watch out Do not begin with a convenient marketing dashboard metric and relabel it as the company North Star.
- 2
Map the input metrics
Identify the factors that contribute to the North Star and express the important ones as measurable inputs. Make the assumed connection between each input and the company outcome explicit.
Pro tip Prefer inputs a team can change through its own work.
Watch out An input is only useful if improvement in it can plausibly influence the North Star.
- 3
Assign controllable ownership
Give each team responsibility for the input closest to its capabilities. Preserve one company outcome while allowing specialists to work through different levers.
Pro tip Clarify where ownership is shared before work begins.
Watch out Do not create competing team North Stars that pull the company in different directions.
- 4
Experiment against the inputs
Run focused experiments intended to improve the selected input. Track the immediate input result and the eventual effect on the company metric.
Pro tip State the expected input-to-North-Star relationship before evaluating the test.
Watch out A winning local experiment is not a company win if the North Star remains unchanged.
- 5
Recheck the causal map
Review whether movement in the input produced the expected company-level change. Keep, revise, or remove the input based on what the results show.
Pro tip Use repeated evidence rather than one noisy result to revise the map.
Watch out Do not preserve an input merely because a team has become efficient at improving it.
In the wild
Illustrative: a subscription company chooses weekly active subscribers as its company North Star. Its growth team owns new-member activation as a controllable input and tests onboarding changes. Activation rises, but the team also checks whether the change produces more weekly active subscribers rather than stopping at onboarding completion.
→ The team can connect experiment results to the company outcome and reject hollow local gains.
Common mistakes
Promoting a channel metric
A channel metric may be easy to move without representing company-wide customer value. Starting at the company level prevents the channel from defining success for everyone else.
Assigning an uncontrollable input
A team cannot learn reliably when its metric is mostly controlled by another function. Give teams inputs they can materially influence.
Celebrating local gains alone
An improved input can still fail to move the North Star. Check the full chain before calling an experiment successful.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for companies coordinating growth work across several teams or functions.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the company has not yet agreed on the customer value its North Star should represent.
From the episode
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