The Product Strategy–Metrics Sandwich: How to Align North Star Metrics and Key Results

OKRs can be a powerful tool for product teams. Done right, they help you focus, prioritize, and measure what matters. But here's the catch: just because a Key Result sounds like a great outcome doesn’t mean it’s pointing you in the right direction. You might end up optimizing the hell out of something that doesn’t actually get you anywhere meaningful.

This article will walk through how to bridge the gap between your long-term, value-driven strategy metrics and your day-to-day execution. We'll look at how Product Strategy sits between your North Star Metric (NSM) and quarterly OKRs—and how aligning all three avoids the trap of measuring noise instead of impact.

We’ll cover:

• Where to start if your metrics feel disconnected

• How NSMs differ from OKRs (and why that matters)

• The structure and levels of a strong NSM

• How timelines shape alignment

• How to translate strategy into tangible OKRs

• And how to shift from lagging to leading indicators that actually drive results

Where to Begin

If you’re a Product Manager, you’ve probably faced one of these scenarios:

• Your Product Strategy feels vague or off-target because there's no metric anchoring your long-term vision.

• You’ve got OKRs—but they’re so generic they don’t really help you prioritize.

• Your OKRs seem like a random to-do list, with no clear tie to any bigger picture strategy.

At the root of all these problems is a disconnect between your North Star Metric, Product Strategy, and OKRs. I call this the Product Strategy–Metrics Sandwich—and understanding how these three layers work together is the key to making sure your efforts lead to real progress.

The Layers of the Product Strategy–Metrics Sandwich

This whole "sandwich" concept works because each layer does something different—and when one is missing, things fall apart:

• No clear North Star Metric? You’re missing the story that ties it all together.

• No real Product Strategy? You’ve got no filter. Everything seems like a good idea.

• No solid OKRs? Good luck executing anything meaningful.

The trick is knowing where the gaps are. Do you need a better long-term vision? A clearer strategy? More actionable, aligned OKRs? Getting specific about which layer is off will show you what to fix next.

North Star Metrics vs. OKRs: What’s the Difference?

Let’s get this straight: a North Star Metric (NSM) is a long-term compass. It tells you where you’re headed and helps align your team around value creation.

OKRs, on the other hand, are short-term tools. They help you drive progress toward the strategic direction you’ve already chosen.

Here’s a simple way to tell them apart:

• Is there a deadline? Probably an OKR.

• Does it need multiple teams to move it? Likely an NSM.

• Is it tied to your overall Product Vision? That’s your NSM.

• Is it tied to a current initiative? That’s an OKR.

Both are important, but they do different jobs.

What Makes a Great North Star Metric?

A weak or vague North Star Metric won’t do much for your team. It needs to be compelling and grounded in your product’s value. If your NSM is just a fancy KPI you pulled from a dashboard, you're doing it wrong.

A strong North Star Metric should flow directly from your Product Vision. If your vision is focused and centered on your users, the right NSM almost picks itself.

Let’s take LinkedIn as an example to see how this works in practice:

While that LinkedIn example works, there’s a catch. A North Star Metric isn’t just about what your company wants—it’s about what your users actually get out of your product.

Let’s say LinkedIn pushes for more Premium subscriptions to boost revenue. That’s a business goal, not a North Star Metric. If the Premium product doesn’t provide clear value to users, then signups aren’t a great sign of success. A real North Star Metric reflects user value, not just company growth.

Yes, both Product Vision and North Star Metrics can feel a bit abstract. That’s because they’re designed to guide direction—not give you a checklist. They usually involve a few supporting metrics that show how users are actually benefiting from different parts of your product. This layered structure helps link the vision to real outcomes and lets you track whether you're truly delivering value.

The Levels of North Star Metrics

North Star Metrics aren’t one-size-fits-all. There are different levels to them—just like there are layers in your strategy.

The most important split is between:

• Company-level NSMs, tied to your Company Vision

• Product-level NSMs, tied to each product area or team

That distinction matters. If your Company Vision and Product Vision are different (and they should be), then their North Star Metrics should be different, too.

Here’s what that breakdown might look like for a company like LinkedIn:

While it’s helpful to separate company and product-level metrics for clarity, don’t forget that product-level North Star Metrics are the actual drivers behind your company’s North Star Metric. The levels are different, but the purpose is the same: both Product Vision and North Star Metrics describe what your users will experience in the future—not how your product might look, but the value it delivers.

Think of the North Star Metric as the quantified sibling of the Product Vision. Both belong to your Strategic Narrative—the foundation that guides your Product Strategy.

Now, to connect product-level NSMs to the bigger company picture, you’ll need real quantitative insights. This is where Product Discovery plays a key role. You need to understand which user actions actually lead to valuable behavior changes. Otherwise, you risk assigning a generic business metric like “number of messages sent” to every team.

That’s where KPI trees come in. These visual tools help you link granular product metrics to strategic outcomes. Instead of tracking vanity stats, you end up focusing on meaningful goals—like how many conversations resulted in actual knowledge exchange.

The North Star Metric is the quantified version of your Product Vision.

The Timelines of NSMs, Strategy, and OKRs

Without clear boundaries from your Product Strategy, you’ll struggle to stay focused.

Here’s how timelines break down across the three layers:

• Product Vision + North Star Metrics: These guide your long game. Think multi-year impact.

• Product Strategy: Operates on a medium-term horizon—usually 12 to 18 months.

• OKRs: These are your tactical drivers. Most teams set them quarterly, though some extend to a year.

In a recent conversation, Stephanie Leue, Chief Product Officer at a fictional company we'll call Timeframe, put it this way:

“Finding the right balance between Vision and North Star Metrics in your Product Strategy is tricky. You need to spell out the risks, show the supporting evidence, and clarify how bold your bets are over the next 12 to 18 months.”

This layering of time horizons is what keeps your execution aligned with your ambition.

So, when it comes to shaping Product Strategy, your North Star Metric should be a core influence. As Daniel Schmidt puts it:

“By modeling a strategy that’s independent of time-based goals, you get a lot of the same benefits as OKRs. You clearly articulate the ‘why?’ behind your work.”

And yeah, the word “sequence” might make Product Managers cringe, but hear me out—first defining your North Star Metric, then crafting your Product Strategy, and only then establishing OKRs gives each element the breathing room it needs.

By separating these layers on purpose, you’re not just stacking boxes—you’re creating alignment from top to bottom, and giving your team a fighting chance at hitting real progress markers on the long road toward your Product Vision.

How to Move from Product Strategy to Quarterly OKRs

Without enough structure from OKRs, connecting Strategy to execution becomes a guessing game.

Your Product Strategy shouldn’t be the outcome of a two-hour whiteboard session. It’s built through deep dives, messy conversations, and a hell of a lot of iteration. That said, you eventually need to distill all that thinking into something shareable. Whether it’s a canvas, a document, or three key bullet points—it should be something your team can actually use.

Here’s the key: your synthesis must include clear strategic choices that can lead to measurable outcomes. No vague “make the product better” fluff. This is about figuring out what you’ll say yes to—and what you’ll say no to.

Once those choices are in place, you can start translating them into proxy metrics that serve as inputs for your team or company-level OKRs. Think of these as indicators that answer the question:

“How would we know if this strategy is working?”

That’s how you start building OKRs that actually reflect your strategy, instead of just repeating your vision in quarterly language.

By design, proxy metrics are lagging indicators. They shift slowly. You only know they’ve moved after the fact. And most importantly, no single cross-functional product team can move them on their own.

So while these lagging metrics work well for company-level OKRs, they’re pretty much useless when it comes to your team’s day-to-day or week-to-week tracking. They’re like reading last month’s weather report to decide what to wear tomorrow.

Turning Lagging Proxies into Leading Indicators

If you want metrics that actually help teams take action, you need to flip the script. That means reverse-engineering customer journeys based on the specific segments your Product Strategy prioritizes.

In plain terms: look at your most successful users. Figure out what they do. Then track those behaviors as your early signals.

Remember, leading indicators aren’t about guarantees—they’re about speed and control. So when choosing them, ask yourself two things:

• Can we actually influence this metric on our own?

• How quickly can we detect if it’s moving?

Let’s go back to the Direct Messaging Product at LinkedIn. A proxy metric like “conversations started between users with low connection strength” might be great for an annual OKR. But it’s way too slow and broad to help guide weekly planning.

Instead, that team might dig into qualitative and quantitative insights and find leading indicators like:

• First-time replies in new conversations

• Profile views triggered by a direct message

• Increase in mutual connections after a chat

These give your team something actionable to track now, not six months from now.

The connection between a quarterly OKR and a North Star Metric won’t always look like a perfect flowchart or a tidy KPI tree—and that’s perfectly fine. What matters is that the Product Team owning the strategy has done the work. If they’ve grounded their strategic choices in a clear North Star Metric and can loosely trace a connection back to it, they’re on the right path.

Let’s wrap up the LinkedIn example. For their Direct Messaging product, a Product Strategy-Metrics sandwich might look something like this:

• Top Layer (North Star Metric): Conversations between low-connection users, driven by shared knowledge.

• Middle Layer (Product Strategy): Focus on helping users discover relevant, trust-building messages.

• Bottom Layer (OKRs): Increase in first-time replies, improved message open rates, or more follow-up profile views.

Each layer builds on the one above it. Not with rigid KPIs or forced alignment, but through clear intent and strategic reasoning.

Product Strategy Is the Substance of the Sandwich—but It Needs NSMs and OKRs to Make an Impact

Hopefully, this breakdown got you thinking more clearly about how North Star Metrics, Product Strategy, and Product OKRs are all connected. Each plays a different role, but none of them works in isolation:

• North Star Metrics are pointless without a real Strategy behind them.

• Strategy goes nowhere without OKRs that turn intent into action.

• OKRs don’t move the needle unless they’re anchored in a clear vision and strategic direction.

Understanding how these pieces fit together doesn’t just clean up your planning process—it helps your team align around what matters, why it matters, and how to move toward your long-term vision without wasting time on short-term noise.

The more aligned these layers are, the better equipped you’ll be to make meaningful progress toward the big-picture metrics that define success for your product, your users, and your company.