Example data. Fieldnote is a fictional company used to fill all 61 boards, so the examples tell one consistent story.
Post-PMF Fieldnote, 2 squads optimising different things. Élise, Karim, Tom and Priya pick one metric.
What the team took away
"Same day" was the fight: seats would have pleased finance, but only same-day logging predicts the 4 % churn cohort.
How to run it
Preparation
Leadership, product leads and one data person who can pull numbers live. Without data in the room, the tree is a wish list.
Send three examples of North Star metrics from other companies (Airbnb nights booked, Slack messages sent in teams) with why each was chosen.
Prepare a dashboard tab with the 10 metrics you already track, last 90 days, so candidates can be checked against reality immediately.
Ask each lead to propose one candidate NSM beforehand, with the reason in one sentence.
Agenda
20 min
Candidates Paste the proposed candidates. For each, ask: does it measure value received by the customer, not by us? Revenue and signups are out. Keep 3 to 4.
40 min
Choose the North Star Test each candidate: if it doubled, would revenue follow within a year? Can a team move it this quarter? Can we measure it today? Score, debate, the CEO or product head decides in the room.
10 min
Break Off the board.
40 min
Levers What are the 3 to 5 things that mathematically drive the NSM? Breadth (how many), depth (how much), frequency (how often), efficiency. Write the formula on the board if you can.
50 min
Input metrics per team Under each lever, the input metrics a team can move week to week. Each team leaves with one or two they own. Pull the current value for each, live.
20 min
First review date Decide who reports the tree monthly and in which meeting. Set the first review in four weeks and the questions it must answer.
Pitfalls
Choosing revenue or MRR as the North Star. It lags by months and no single team can move it. Pick what causes revenue.
A tree with twelve input metrics is a dashboard, not a focus. Two per team, maximum.
Ending without pulling the current numbers. A metric nobody has measured yet is a project, not a metric; assign it before leaving.
Afterwards
The tree is reviewed monthly in the leadership meeting and the input metrics become the KRs of the next OKR session. Each team's input metric shows up on their Sprint planning board.