Amplitude's North Star Metric
51+-person team · United States · amplitude.com
Their North Star Metric
Weekly active queries run by product teams
Reconstructed from public sources. Not officially endorsed by Amplitude. Request edit
Why this one won
Amplitude's North Star Playbook is famous for a reason. The company itself uses weekly active queries as its North Star because it captures the real habit: product teams asking questions of their data. Every new dashboard, chart type and feature is judged by whether it grows this number.
The Ray
Input metrics that multiply to produce the North Star. Tagged by dimension.
Active analysts per account
Team reach
Queries per analyst per week
Habit
Chart types used per team
Product surface
Time from question to insight
Analytic velocity
What they considered and rejected
| Metric | Why it was considered | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Events tracked | Volume not value | Eliminated |
| Weekly queries | Real usage signal | Kept |
Lessons learned
For tools, the honest metric is how often someone uses the thing the tool is for. Dashboards built, reports run, queries fired - the verb your customer came for.
Related North Stars
Dropbox
SaaS · 51+ · United States
North Star
Users with 1 file in 1 folder on 3 devices
Dropbox's early North Star was the cross-device sync aha. Once a user had at least one file in one folder on three devices, they'd integrated Dropbox into their real life. Retention flattened to near-zero churn past that point. Every acquisition, onboarding and product decision was aimed at pushing users across this threshold.
Linear
SaaS · 21-50 · United States
North Star
Issues shipped per team per week
Linear sells speed to engineering teams. Issues shipped captures exactly what engineering teams are paid to do and what Linear is supposed to make faster. It's a direct value measure that every product decision (keyboard shortcuts, workflow, integrations) can be tested against.
Superhuman
SaaS · 21-50 · United States
North Star
Emails triaged per active user per week
Superhuman is a speed product. Signups, pageviews and even DAU say nothing about whether the speed is actually being used. Emails triaged (replied, archived, snoozed) per active user per week directly measures the value proposition: inbox velocity. It also predicts renewal with 90%+ accuracy.
Find your North Star
Run the free 15-minute exercise. AI-guided, no sign-up, no paywall.
Start the exercise - freeAre you Amplitude? Request takedown