Product Manager Interviews: Success Metrics (Execution & Analytical)

super useful despite it would take sometime and practice to breakdown the northstar ;)

Hi, Dianna. Given Airbnb also has experiences now, I wanted to dig into choosing # of nights booked v/s # of booking made as the NSM. I didn't get the rationale of why # of nights booked would be a better metric.

))) toooooo complicated :)

Amazing content. I'm a PM and have been practising for upcoming PM interviews so your videos helped me to brush up with my interview foundations. :) Legit one of the best content here on YT... Thanks Dianna -- appreciate it loads!

This is an incredible video! I have an upcoming interview with Google coming up, and am wondering more about tradeoffs. After you analyze some tradeoffs, are you supposed to pick one to optimize for and provide rationale?

Incredibly naive- these questions have never come up in any interview I’ve done

amazingly great video !!

finally a content that is valuable, real case and comprehensive.
thank you Dianna

@dianna Yau Does the Northstar metric change when the product is new and has just been launched ( an acquisition metric) vs. when it is mature ( engagement metric ?

Hi @Dianna Yau. Advice on thinking of the user journey/Funnel and coming up with a few metrics and then picking the North Star as opposed to your method which is to pick a North Star first and break it down?

This question was asked to me in a recent interview but the interviewer kept pressing to find problems with this NorthStar of AirBnB, that is, Number of nights booked.

hello! great video. one question: is it better to come up with the Northstar Metric at the very beginning, and segment that into more granular metrics OR come up with all the metrics first then pick 1 as the NorthStar Metric at the end?

I see in this video the NSM was picked first and then broken down, but some other prep videos i see them selecting NSM after listing all the success metrics. Thanks!

Thanks a lot Dianna! The formula break down of the total nights booked was amazing & really helpful to cover all the factors impacting the north star metric.

❤thank you for sharing

thanks for really awesome content!
I really like this framework! but admit I've never seen anything like this before. I've read (and used) north star metrics, but haven't seen anyone EXPLICITLY break them down (obviously its easy to see how IMPLICITLY they relate to other metrics, but I just havent seen a discussion of this).

additionally I havent seen countermetrics discussed before.

is this a common/well-known framework? are PMs in execution/analyics interviews looking SPECIFICALLY for such a breakdown of northstar and and countermetrics, or is this just ONE AWESOME way to look at these types of questions?

can you point to some good sources to read more on this subject?

Absolute masterclass... For free! Thanks so much Diana, really helps a PM like me a lot ❤

@Dianna, you're the best.
This is one of the best explanations I've seen with practical application.

Thank you very much!

Goals for food delivery app for next 6 months

Can you please create videos with few more examples

thanks a lot for sharing this informative framework! I was wondering if you could explain the northstar breakdown part a bit more, do I understand correctly?
# of nights booked = total # of active users * # of nights booked per user
# of nights booked per user = total # of nights booked / total # of active users
= (total # of lists * list viewed rate * confirmed after viewed rate) / total # of active users
= (total # of lists * list viewed rate * (1-cancelled after viewed rate) ) / total # of active users
thank you !

Great video Dianna, thank you for sharing!

Thanks, very helpful!!

I love this framework - I find it to be a lot more logical & realistic then some of the metric frameworks. However, I do think there is a lack of discussion in this video about potential metrics & alternatives - their pros & cons. I wonder if this would be viewed negatively in an interview

The elements to a healthy ecosystem seem somewhat arbitrary. Why the focus on demand growth vs. supply, and why word of mouth in particular? Short-term stays aren't necessarily a demand-first market. Per the Big Sur anecdote, it might be just as much supply-driven. I was also a little lost as to how the anecdote about high quality photos fits into the broader picture of supply quality. Is that just to demonstrate user empathy? Appreciate a reply, thanks!

can you explain that brr=eak down metric more clearly

Can you do the same thing for ecommerce? Amazon?

Tradeoffs and Countermetrics sounded a bit confusing to me at first. If I am correct Tradeoffs are basically metrics which ratios of various features - ex: Online vs offline payments, Mobile vs Web Bookings and how we would optimize between them depending on the product strategy;
Similarly Counter Metrics are basically Quality Metrics (i.e. how do you measure the qualtiy of service, product on your platform - which is measured by ratings, reviews)

I believe the area to focus (like engagement, monetization, adoption, etc.... for AirBnB you have taken monetization) will depend on, in which PLC (product life cycle) stage the product is: introductory, growth, mature or decline and the metric under Radar for PM will be different in each PLC stage. So, we need to bring in PLC as a factor as well.

Great structure thank you! one follow-up question: when breaking down the northstar metrics, what's your suggestion on the breadth vs. depth? I tend to break down into too many layers and end up losing the big picture of the key levers.... any suggestion on this? Thanks!

Thank you for your awesome content. May I ask you one question? In the video, you mentioned about hosts with few property listings vs those who have many properties as tradeoff. I don't get trade off of what. Is it for trade-off of showing listing (giving priority for example) and how is it connected to the success metric itself. Thanks in advance.

This is such a nice video. I like the way you describe things. However, I did not understand the 3rd and 4th steps. Trade offs and Counter Metrics. Could you please write me here, why do we need them?

Thanks Dianna..

Hi Dianna, great content! i have one follow-up question. after you did a great breakdown of the north star, u talked about tradeoff and counter metrics from the supply side, is it ok that we think from the demand side and come up with some tradeoff and counter metrics?

Great explanation. This is so much more helpful than mock interviews that rattle off lots of buzzwords.

Total nights booked with 5 star review ( adding a quality metrics will enhance retention later )

Hi Dianna, thank you for the amazing content! For a PM interview focused on Hardware, not Software, how do you avoid the Northstar just being units sold (which doesn't matter to end users)? I am struggling to see how the framework can fit hardware solutions.

Dianna - the question asked what goal would you set. You did share the list of metrics - but I didn't get what is the goal that you would set?

Hi Diana. This is such a fresh breath of air. Thanks for all the insights! two quick questions - is it OK to not explicitly speak about the product goal? also on what basis did you pick your counter metric (since counters could be many)?

Thanks for posting amazing video. I enjoyed it. I would like to see and learn from you how you would think if you have to design a revenue model for any product.

Summary:
1. highlight key user values that are derived from the product.
2. Find an intersection or common points among all the values.
3. Identify the key North star (aka most important) matrix that records the Key values.
4. Break down the north star matrix to understand what L1 or L2 matrix contribute to key matrix.
5. Identify a counter matrix so you don't get blinded by key matrix, and seek tradeoff possibilities.

The most clarified explanation on success metrics & goals! well done & thank you👌👏🙌

Hi Dianna. Your videos are always very helpful! Through calling out a north star metric at the start- i'm not sure how clear the prioritization is. Do you think it would be beneficial if I were to look at some NS contenders then elaborate why # of nights is the north star and then drive deeper as you did and break it down?

the way the northstar metric was broken down was expert level.

This is so helpful l. I have a question. What kind of questions we can ask before starting the answer?

Brilliant! Thanks!

Wonderful video!! Thank you. One follow up question is the video’s title says Goals and Success Metrics. I didn’t see the Goal setting or how to define goals. I loved it the way you defined and broke the North Star metric. By success metric, are your referring to the North Star metric? Many thanks for great videos and replies. !!