The North Star Metric: Prevent Business Drift to Achieve Success

I just got back from Cádiz, Spain-a beautiful ancient port city on the Atlantic coast with an interesting history. Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World from this port on his second and fourth voyages.

I was standing at the top of the Cathedral’s bell tower and couldn’t stop thinking about how crazy these expeditions were. How do you stay on course when you set sail across the ocean?

Columbus relied on Polaris, the dependable and unblinking star (although not as precise as a GPS) to find his way to the Americas.

While launching and growing a business is generally not as life-threatening as crossing the ocean in the late 15th century, there are parallels we can draw and lessons to learn from these expeditions.

Between marketing campaigns, hiring, product development, or onboarding a new client, it is easy to lose focus and get lost. That’s where the North Star Metric (NSM) comes into play. That’s one notion that you must know to understand what Growth Marketing is.

Think of your NSM as your business compass. It’s that one key thing that should be at the center of all your decisions, helping you navigate through thick and thin.