North Star of your Product?

I am sure you have heard this quite enough. what si your north star? Do you and the team have the same north star? Let us decode this!

In real life, the North Star is the star Polaris, the brightest in the constellation Ursa Minor. (Yes this does relate to Product Management, bear with me!) Because it is almost motionless in our night sky, navigators can use it to find their way without a map or compass. Essentially, ‘north star’ is shorthand for what guides you when you’re lost. Can you find some relevance yet?

Product Management involves so many different things, it can be easy to get sidetracked and forget just what it is you’re trying to do! As there are so many people working on the same product, it can also be difficult to keep everyone working towards the same goal. That’s why every product or service needs a north star.

What Does ‘North Star’ Mean in Product?

Your north star can also be thought of as your ‘why’. It’s your reason for being, the thing you want to achieve, the product you want to fix, the difference you want to make…

A product can do more than one thing. For example, Airbnb began as a way to cut out the middleman and hassle of short-term property rentals. They later branched out to luxury booking and local experiences for travelers. Although these added features are nice and help to build up the product’s USP, the core values of Airbnb remain the same. They want to build experiences for users. Everything they do reinforces their north star.