Picking a Creator North Star Metric
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- —
A working method for choosing the single metric a content business steers by. Start from the mission — number of lives changed, or number of true fans — then notice that customers are on a journey rather than experiencing one discrete life-changing event. Treat the business like a software company or a meditation app and ask what cadence of consumption is right: daily, weekly or monthly. Then find a proxy that already exists in your analytics rather than inventing something perfect, de-duplicate across platforms with estimates to get a directionally accurate number, and stress test it for perverse incentives. Finally, split the model into acquisition, engagement and retention, and monetisation, so the North Star has a structure underneath it that the team can act on.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Anchor the metric to the mission
Start with something that reflects purpose — number of lives changed, number of true fans, or the number of people you're helping achieve their goals in some form. The naming matters less than that it stays on-mission.
Watch out Life-changing is a discrete event, but your customers are on a continuous journey — pick a metric that reflects the journey.
- 2
Choose the right cadence
Ask what the right consumption cadence is for your customer — weekly, daily or monthly. A software product or meditation app steers by weekly active users; a content business consumed monthly should steer by a monthly measure of active consumers of content.
- 3
Find a proxy that already exists
Rather than building a new measurement system, look for a metric buried in your existing analytics. YouTube analytics contains monthly returning viewers, which is a reasonable proxy for true fans — someone who stopped getting value three years ago correctly drops out of the number.
Pro tip A metric that self-corrects when you stop delivering value is better than one that only accumulates.
- 4
De-duplicate across platforms with estimates
Some people follow the podcast and the channel, some only one. Use estimates to de-dup across platforms and accept a directionally accurate number. Hide the complexity from the team behind a simple proxy.
Watch out Don't stall waiting for a number that feels legitimate — rough proxies are enough to steer the business.
- 5
Stress test the metric
Ask deliberately what makes you nervous about it. The classic tension: what grows a channel differs from what keeps existing people watching. New viewers click topic-led titles; returning viewers want the vlogs. Check whether the incentives really are at odds or only feel that way.
Pro tip Where you're unsure, run it as an experiment — e.g. put vlogs on the main channel for a few months and see what happens.
Watch out A per-video view target puts you on a hamster wheel and takes the joy out of the work; a returning-audience metric rewards a drum beat of valuable content instead.
- 6
Split the model into three pieces
Underneath the North Star, break the business into how you get followers and loyal subscribers, how you engage and retain them, and how you monetise them. Keeping it that simple is the point.
In the wild
Ali has over 5 million followers, but every video doesn't get 5 million views, so some subset of followers, email subscribers and podcast listeners are true fans and some aren't. Buried in YouTube analytics is monthly returning viewers. It works as a proxy because someone who got a lot of value three years ago but isn't getting it now correctly falls out of the number — if the content were still serving them, they'd be returning. If that number grew 10x, the videos would be getting millions of views each. It's not perfect, but it's directionally accurate enough to steer by.
→ An existing analytics number becomes a usable North Star proxy without new tooling.
The metric immediately surfaced a real decision: should vlogs go on the main channel or the second channel? Vlogs reliably get fewer views than a sit-down educational video, but core true fans love them, and returning viewers are the audience the metric counts. Rather than argue it out, the answer was to run it as an experiment — put the vlogs on the main channel for the next few months and see what happens to the number. The metric turned a matter of taste into something testable.
→ A contested editorial decision converted into a months-long experiment with a measurable outcome.
Common mistakes
Waiting for a perfect number
Trying repeatedly to land on a metric that feels rigorous and abandoning it each time leaves the business unsteered. Numbers that move in the extreme make progress obvious, and if they don't move you aren't making progress towards your goals.
Making raw views the North Star
A view target creates pressure that every video must hit a number, which drains the joy from creating and pushes you towards titles your core audience resents. Returning visitors reward a consistent drum beat of valuable content instead.
From the transcript
“it would be helpful to come up with some proxy metrics that you you can hide all this complexity from the team”
“we do have a metric in YouTube hidden deep within YouTube analytics which is monthly returning viewers”
“how do you get loyal subscribers how do you get followers and then there's going to be this other piece which is how do you…”
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