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| Criterion |  Engineering Goal Question Metric |  Product Strategy SMART Goals |  Growth North Star Metric |  Growth Flywheel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 goals are formulated too generally, it brings measurability, direction, and timing into shape. It prevents intentions from staying without clear verification. | 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. | Growth often breaks down where a reinforcing mechanism builds up too much friction. A Flywheel shows the cycle of value, repetition, and reinforcement meant to sustain growth. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 90-180 min | 15-30 min | 1-2 h | 60-120 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-6 | 1-8 | 3-8 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | GQM Table, Metric Profiles | SMART Goal, Measurement Note, Deadline | North Star metric, Input metric tree, Measurement cadence | Flywheel Map, Friction Points, Growth Levers, Experiment Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | MetricsMeasurementEngineeringAlignment | GoalsPlanningMeasurementAlignment | GrowthMetricsAlignmentRetention | GrowthRetentionConversion |