Define a North Star Metric, classify the business game (Attention, Transaction, Productivity), validate the NSM against 7 criteria, then design a full product metrics dashboard with input metrics, health metrics, business metrics, visualizations, review cadence, and alert thresholds. Use when choosing a North Star Metric, setting up a metrics framework, creating a metrics dashboard, defining KPIs, or building a data monitoring plan.
From pm-product-discoverynpx claudepluginhub jupitermoney/pm-superic-skills --plugin pm-product-discoveryThis skill uses the workspace's default tool permissions.
Guides browser automation with Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium for e2e testing and scraping. Teaches reliable selectors, auto-waits, isolation to fix flaky tests.
Provides checklists to review code for functionality, quality, security, performance, tests, and maintainability. Use for PRs, audits, team standards, and developer training.
Enforces A/B test setup with gates for hypothesis locking, metrics definition, sample size calculation, assumptions checks, and execution readiness before implementation.
Design a comprehensive product metrics dashboard with the right metrics, visualizations, and alert thresholds.
You are designing a metrics dashboard for $ARGUMENTS.
If the user provides files (existing dashboards, analytics data, OKRs, or strategy docs), read them first.
Metrics vs KPIs vs NSM: Metrics = all measurable things. KPIs = a few key quantitative metrics tracked over a longer period. North Star Metric = a single customer-centric KPI that is a leading indicator of business success.
NSM is NOT: multiple metrics, a revenue or LTV metric (it must be customer-centric, not company-centric), an OKR (OKRs are goal-setting; NSM is what you measure to know if you're winning), or a strategy. Choosing the right NSM is a strategic choice, but the NSM itself is a measurement, not a plan.
The Three Business Games — before choosing an NSM, classify the business:
The business game shapes which NSM candidates make sense. An Attention product measuring transactions is tracking the wrong thing.
4 criteria for a good metric (Ben Yoskovitz, Lean Analytics): (1) Understandable — creates a common language. (2) Comparative — over time, not a snapshot. (3) Ratio or Rate — more revealing than whole numbers. (4) Behavior-changing — the Golden Rule: "If a metric won't change how you behave, it's a bad metric."
8 metric types: Vanity vs Actionable (only actionable metrics change behavior), Qualitative vs Quantitative (WHAT vs WHY — you need both; never stop talking to customers), Exploratory vs Reporting (explore data to uncover unexpected insights), Lagging vs Leading (leading indicators enable faster learning cycles, e.g. customer complaints predict churn).
5 action steps: (1) Audit metrics against the 4 good-metric criteria. (2) Update dashboards — ensure all key metrics are good ones. (3) Identify vanity metrics — be careful how you use them. (4) Classify leading vs lagging indicators. (5) Pick one problem and dig deep into the data.
For case studies and more detail: Are You Tracking the Right Metrics? by Ben Yoskovitz
Before building the dashboard, run Phase 0. Do not skip this. A dashboard built on the wrong metrics is worse than no dashboard — it creates false confidence and drives bad decisions.
Ask the PM to share context:
"Tell me about your product: what does it do, who uses it, and how do they get value from it? What are you currently measuring? Is there a metric you already think of as your North Star? What decision or problem is this dashboard meant to solve? Bullet points are fine."
Read everything before asking follow-ups.
Push past the first answer on every dimension. Most PMs have thought about metrics — but surface-level thinking produces vanity dashboards that no one acts on.
On what value the product actually delivers:
On what they are currently measuring:
On the North Star hypothesis:
On the business game:
On what the dashboard is actually for:
After the intake, show the PM where their thinking is grounded and where it is assumption:
AREA STRENGTH NOTE
Value delivered to users [Grounded / Assumed / Unknown] ...
Current metrics quality [Actionable / Mixed / Vanity-heavy] ...
NSM hypothesis [Clear / Fuzzy / None] ...
Business game [Clear / Contested] ...
Dashboard decision owner [Named / Unclear] ...
Tell them:
"I can build the dashboard now. Where your thinking is grounded, I will design metrics that reinforce it. Where it is assumed or unclear, I will propose the metric but flag the assumption — you will need to validate it before treating the dashboard as a decision tool."
Ask: "Should we proceed, or do you want to work through any of these gaps first?"
Classify the business game and choose the North Star Metric
Step A: Identify which game the business plays — Attention, Transaction, or Productivity.
Step B: Propose 2-3 NSM candidates and validate each against the 7 NSM criteria:
| Criterion | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Easy to understand | Can every person in the org define this metric in one sentence? |
| Customer-centric | Does it reflect value delivered to customers, not just company activity? |
| Sustainable value | Does it indicate habits and long-term engagement, not one-off events? |
| Vision alignment | Does improving this metric mean we are moving toward our mission? |
| Quantitative | Is it measurable with a clear, numeric definition? |
| Actionable | Can product, engineering, and marketing teams directly influence it? |
| Leading indicator | Does it predict future revenue and retention, not just report the past? |
A good NSM passes all 7. If a candidate fails more than 2, discard it and try another.
Step C: State the chosen NSM clearly with its exact calculation and the reasoning behind selecting it over the alternatives.
Identify the metrics framework — organize metrics into layers:
North Star Metric: The single metric that best captures core value delivery (chosen in Step 0)
Input Metrics (3-5): The levers that drive the North Star
Health Metrics: Guardrails that ensure overall product health
Business Metrics: Revenue, cost, and unit economics
For each metric, define:
| Metric | Definition | Data Source | Visualization | Target | Alert Threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Name] | [Exact calculation: numerator/denominator, time window] | [Where the data comes from] | [Line chart / Bar / Number / Funnel] | [Goal value] | [When to trigger an alert] |
Design the dashboard layout:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ NORTH STAR: [Metric] — [Current Value] │
│ Trend: [↑/↓ X% vs last period] │
├──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┤
│ Input Metric 1 │ Input Metric 2 │
│ [Sparkline] │ [Sparkline] │
├──────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ Input Metric 3 │ Input Metric 4 │
│ [Sparkline] │ [Sparkline] │
├──────────────────┴──────────────────────────┤
│ HEALTH: [Latency] [Error Rate] [NPS] │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ BUSINESS: [MRR] [CAC] [LTV] [Churn] │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Set review cadence:
Define alerts:
Recommend tools based on the user's context:
Think step by step. Save the dashboard specification as a markdown document.