Netflix's North Star Metrics & Framework To Build Your Own

Coming up in today’s edition:

1. One quick win: A hiring framework used by Jeff Bezos

2. One proven system: World-class teams use to create North Star Metrics

3. One million-dollar question: Accelerate your own performance

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Imagine what your team could achieve if every member was fully engaged, aligned with your vision, and consistently delivering at their highest level…

The Elite Team Leadership Programme is launching soon 👀

1. JEFF BEZOS’S TACTIC TO SIMPLIFY YOUR HIRING PROCESS

Jeff Bezos sets a high bar for hiring—every candidate has to clear three key benchmarks:

1. Can the person do exceptional things or possess exceptional ability?

Why Ask: Ensures the candidate brings unique skills or extraordinary talent that sets them apart.

What You’re Looking For:

• Evidence of standout achievements or capabilities.

• A track record of innovation, problem-solving, or mastery in their field.

• Potential to deliver results beyond the standard expectations.

2. Do you admire them?

Why Ask: Builds a team filled with people who inspire respect and create a culture of excellence.

What You’re Looking For:

• A strong sense of character, integrity, or leadership qualities.

• Traits that make them a role model or someone others would want to follow.

• Someone whose presence elevates the morale and aspirations of the team.

3. Will the person raise the effectiveness of the team?

Why Ask: Ensures every new hire contributes to collective growth and improves overall performance.

What You’re Looking For:

• Skills or attributes that complement the team’s existing strengths.

• The ability to collaborate and elevate others’ contributions.

• A mindset focused on team success over individual recognition.

If you ask the right questions, you can get answers to all three of these questions in a single, 30-minute interview.

Here is an old classic from Bezos where he shares one other major thing he looks for when hiring 👇

2. A SYSTEM FOR CHOOSING A GREAT NORTH STAR METRIC

North Star Metrics (NSM) have risen in importance in the Silicon Valley startup world for 3 core reasons:

1. They align teams

2. They focus efforts

3. They drive long-term growth

Popularised by companies like Airbnb and Facebook, they serve as the single metric you orient your company around.

But many companies go wrong when creating their own version.

For example, it’s more common than you’d think for companies to have different North Stars for different parts of their business. But this defeats the purpose.

It should only be one metric so the whole team/company have a clear, shared goal.

A North Star isn’t the same as an OKR—it doesn’t come with a “key result” attached to it.

So here is some criteria for you to follow when creating your version:

1. Customer-Centric: Directly tied to the value provided to customers or user adoption.

2. Measurable: Quantifiable with available data (attention, transactions, or productivity).

3. Actionable: Encourages teams to focus on activities that improve the metric.

4. Predictive of Growth: Leads to long-term success if improved.

5. Simple: Easy for everyone in the organisation to understand and rally around.

You are seeing the adoption of these metrics in sports as well as business:

• Basketball: Points per possession or field goal percentage.

• Football: Expected goals (xG) or passes completed in attacking thirds.

• NFL: Average yards gained per offensive play.

• Hockey: High-danger scoring chances.

Here are some business examples for inspiration:

1. Spotify: Time spent listening.

2. Amazon Prime: Subscription renewal rate.

3. Netflix: Hours watched per subscriber.

4. Uber: Rides completed per week.

5. YouTube: Watch time per user.

6. Airbnb: Number of nights booked.

7. Facebook: Monthly active users (MAU).

8. Slack: Number of teams that sent 2,000+ messages.

Whether in business or sports, these metrics provide clarity and focus.

If you don’t have one already, reply to this email and I can send you some examples specific to your industry 🤝

3. IF YOU WERE FIRED AND SOMEONE CAME IN TO REPLACE YOU, WHAT WOULD THEY IMMEDIATELY START AND/OR STOP DOING?

I love this question as we often know what we should be doing more or less of but fail to put it into practise.

Why?

• The daily grind of meetings, decision-making, and crises leaves little room for reflection.

• Familiar processes, even if suboptimal, feel safer than trying something new.

• Constant pressure to perform makes you prioritise quick wins over larger routine changes.

We often continue doing too many things, making one mile of progress in one thousand different directions.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Dedicate 15 mins at the end of each week to:

• Ask yourself this question.

• Assess your own performance.

• Focus on the actions that will have the biggest impact on your long-term goals.

Arguably the greatest UFC fighter of all time, Jon Jones, truly brought this concept to life when he defeated Stipe Miocic in the biggest heavyweight fight of all time on the weekend.

Instead of practising hundreds of MMA moves in every direction, he doubled down on one singular move which he practised for 3 hours per day leading up to the fight.

That move won him the fight.

What are the knockout moves that you should focus more of your time on?

What are the less impactful moves that are wasting your energy?

Re-focus for the last few weeks of the year.

MY TOP FINDS OF THE WEEK 🔍

For your performance:

• The “Ceiling and Floor” framework that will change how you think about goal setting forever (Link)

For your team:

• José Mourinho 🗣️ on the key difference between a captain and a leader (Link)

For your health:

• What happens to the human body when you don’t sleep for 11 days - check out this fascinating sleep deprivation experiment from 1963 (Link)

Hope you enjoyed this week’s tactics. I’ll be back next Sunday with a new lineup 👋 - Alex 

P.S. Did you get something useful from this email? Do me a solid by sharing this link with 1 newsletter pal… 🙏

P.P.S. If you want some one-on-one time to apply some of the concepts to specific challenges you are having with your own team, please get in touch.