Choosing a North-Star Metric, Supporting Metrics and Guardrails for Google Maps

You are a product manager on Google Maps. How would you define success for the product, and which metrics would you use to measure it? ```hint Picture a good session Before naming any metric, describe what a Maps session that went well looks like for the person using it. Then check whether your candidate metric also counts people who search for a place without ever starting navigation. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should the metrics cover Maps as a whole, or one surface such as driving navigation, transit directions, or place search and reviews? - Is this about overall product health, or about a specific company priority right now, such as growing revenue from local businesses? - Does the scope include only the mobile app, or also the web version and the maps that appear inside other Google products? - Can I treat Maps as a mature product whose reach is close to saturated, so engagement and quality matter more than acquisition? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The value Maps delivers to travelers, to the local businesses that appear on it, and to Google, and how that value links to the company's mission - A north-star metric that measures delivered value rather than app opens, with a precise definition and a reasoned time window - Supporting metrics grouped by the product's main jobs (getting somewhere, choosing a place, keeping map data accurate) and by user segment - Counter-metrics that catch harm the north star could hide, such as poor routes, wrong arrival estimates or stale place information - How hard-to-observe outcomes such as reaching a destination would actually be instrumented, and where that data can mislead ### Follow-up Questions - Your north star rises for a quarter while reports of incorrect place information also rise. How do you decide whether the quarter went well? - How would you tell that someone reached their destination when they end navigation a few blocks early or never start navigation at all? - Which parts of your metric set would change if leadership made revenue from local advertising the top priority?