Build a Metrics Framework and North Star Metric for Spotify

You are a product manager at Spotify and have been asked to build the metrics for the product. Propose a metrics framework: the goal the metrics serve, the primary metric you would hold the product to, the supporting metrics that drive it, how you would break them down, and the guardrails that would warn you when growth is coming at a cost. ```hint Follow the value exchange Spotify serves listeners, creators and advertisers, and earns money from both subscriptions and ads. Start from what each side gets out of Spotify, and look for a primary metric that rises only when all of them are better off. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should the metrics cover Spotify as a whole, or one product area such as music, podcasts, audiobooks or the free ad-supported tier? - Are the metrics for the leadership team tracking company health, or for a product team that needs numbers it can move directly? - Is there a current business priority, such as converting free listeners to Premium or growing podcast listening, that the framework should reflect? - Should the framework cover creators and advertisers, or only listeners? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Spotify's mission, the sides of its marketplace and its business model, used to justify the goal the metrics serve. - A primary metric with a precise definition and a reasoned comparison against alternatives such as monthly active users or revenue. - A tree of supporting metrics across the listener journey and the creator and advertiser sides, with the segments that matter (free versus Premium, region, content type, device). - Guardrail metrics that catch harmful or low-quality growth, such as ad overload, rising royalty costs or poor playback reliability. - How the metrics are reviewed and owned, and how to interpret metrics that move in conflicting directions. ### Follow-up Questions - Listening time is rising while Premium cancellations are also rising. How would you investigate? - How would you tell whether growth in podcast and audiobook listening adds to music listening or replaces it? - Which single metric would you give the team that runs the free ad-supported tier, and why?