How do I calculate my North Star metric when I have both free and paid users?
Pick the one number that best proxies for delivered value, not revenue and not signups. For a mixed model it is usually an engagement or usage event that both free and paid users hit (weekly active projects, messages sent, orders placed), because that predicts who eventually pays and who stays. Revenue is a lagging outcome of the North Star, not the North Star itself, so keep them separate on your dashboard.
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The biggest tracking mistake in an MVP is measuring everything and learning nothing. This Amplitude piece walks you through picking one metric that maps to real customer value and finding the early aha moment that predicts whether people stick around, which tells you the few events actually worth tracking. Treat it as a starting point for focus, not a rule: a small product is still learning what matters, so revisit your metric as you go.
The book behind the "One Metric That Matters" discipline, which is exactly the mindset you need to judge whether a ship worked instead of drowning in vanity numbers. It ties the right metric to your business type and stage, so you know which signal to watch after a launch. Read it as the reference that makes the rest of this list make sense.
Sean Ellis coined the North Star idea, so this is the walkthrough straight from the person who popularized it, in plain founder-facing language rather than theory. The full interview is long, but there is a dedicated Picking a North Star metric segment (around the 1:19 mark) worth jumping to first. His rule of thumb, that the metric should reflect core value, be actionable, not a ratio, and able to scale, is the honest gut-check for whether your free-plus-paid number is the right one.
On
Lenny's Podcast (YouTube)by Sean Ellis, interviewed by Lenny RachitskyAbout 95 minutes (North Star segment near 1:19:21)
The North Star should capture the core value your product delivers to users, not revenue itself, though it should correlate with revenue growth.
Ellis warns against a ratio as your North Star: pick a number that can grow, which matters when free and paid tempt you toward conversion-rate framing.
Skip to the Picking a North Star metric segment near 1:19:21 if you only want the metric-selection part rather than the full growth conversation.
