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| Criterion | ![]() Engineering Goal Question Metric | ![]() Growth North Star Metric | ![]() Product Discovery Smoke Test | ![]() Product Strategy Counter Metrics |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | Helps clarify technical problems, hypotheses, and next steps in concrete terms. It breaks a technical problem into testable parts. The result is captured as a GQM table and metric briefs. | When product teams track many metrics, the view of the actual customer outcome easily gets lost. A North Star Metric bundles growth, usage, and value contribution into one signal that makes the system's direction visible. | When demand only needs to be roughly verified, it tests interest with minimal effort. It measures whether people would take a next step at all. | When a headline metric could mask side effects, it adds guardrail signals against unwanted outcomes. It connects customer value, product logic, and decision priorities. The result is captured as a counter-metric list and guardrail definitions. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Medium | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 90-180 min | 1-2 h | 1-5 Tage | 30-60 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-6 | 3-8 | Nutzertraffic | 2-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Async | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | GQM Table, Metric Profiles | North Star metric, Input metric tree, Measurement cadence | Interest Metrics, Conversion Signal, Learning Note | Counter Metric List, Guardrail Definitions |
Tagsno overlap | MetricsMeasurementEngineeringAlignment | GrowthMetricsAlignmentRetention | ValidationExperimentsDemandGrowth | MetricsMeasurementStrategyExperiments |



