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| Criterion |  Growth North Star Metric |  Product Strategy SMART Goals |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |  Engineering Goal Question Metric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | 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 goals are formulated too generally, it brings measurability, direction, and timing into shape. It prevents intentions from staying without clear verification. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium |
Timedifferent | 1-2 h | 15-30 min | 1-2 h | 90-180 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-8 | 1-8 | 4-12 | 3-6 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop + async | Workshop + async | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | North Star metric, Input metric tree, Measurement cadence | SMART Goal, Measurement Note, Deadline | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions | GQM Table, Metric Profiles |
Tags1 shared | GrowthMetricsAlignmentRetention | GoalsPlanningMeasurementAlignment | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation | MetricsMeasurementEngineeringAlignment |