Video · About 95 minutes (North Star segment near 1:19:21)

The original growth hacker reveals his secrets | Sean Ellis (author of "Hacking Growth")

Sean Ellis, interviewed by Lenny Rachitsky · Lenny's Podcast (YouTube) Free Beginner

The original growth hacker reveals his secrets | Sean Ellis (author of "Hacking Growth")

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.

  • 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.
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The question it answers

  1. How do I calculate my North Star metric when I have both free and paid users?

Read with it

  1. The biggest tracking mistake in an MVP is measuring everything and learning nothing. This Amplitude piece walks you through... Amplitude Article Every Product Needs a North Star Metric: Here's How to Find Yours Julia Sholtz
  2. The book behind the "One Metric That Matters" discipline, which is exactly the mindset you need to judge whether a ship worked... O'Reilly / Lean Series Book · 440 pages Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz
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