phrase
North Star
A guiding principle โ the thing you steer by when everything else is shifting.
Origin
Polaris, the brightest star in Ursa Minor, sits almost directly above Earth's northern pole, so its position barely moves over the course of a night. Ancient mariners and travelers used it for navigation across centuries. Frederick Douglass named his abolitionist newspaper The North Star in 1847 for exactly that reason.
Modern usage
The most-used leadership and product-strategy metaphor of the 2010s and 2020s. 'North star metric' = the single number that captures whether you're winning. Slightly worn but not yet dead.
In the wild
Our north star is weekly active creators, not total signups.โ product strategy
Tags
guidance
strategy