Pick and Define the One Metric Google Calendar Should Steer By

You are a product manager on Google Calendar. Leadership wants a single north star metric for the product: one number that shows whether Calendar is delivering value to the people who use it and that the team can steer by. Which metric would you choose, how exactly would you define it, and why is it better than the alternatives? ```hint Where the value shows up List the moments when someone actually gets value from Calendar, including ones that happen without opening the app, and ask which of those moments a metric can observe reliably. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should the metric cover the free consumer Calendar, the version organizations get through Google Workspace, or both? - Should it treat Calendar as a whole, or one job within it, such as scheduling meetings with other people? - What matters most for Calendar at this stage: reaching more people, deeper use by current users, or keeping people in the wider Google ecosystem? - Which surfaces count as use: the Calendar app and website only, or also Calendar inside Gmail and the reminders it sends? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - What value Calendar delivers, and to whom: people planning their own time, meeting organizers and invitees - Candidate metrics mapped to the user journey and judged on clear criteria: reflects value, measurable, responsive to product changes, hard to game - One precisely defined north star (unit, time window, what counts and what does not) and why it beats the runner-up candidates - Supporting metrics and guardrails that catch what the north star misses, such as spam invites or scheduling friction - How the metric would be sliced, and its known blind spots ### Follow-up Questions - Would your north star change for organizations on Workspace? Why? - A launch starts adding events from users' emails to their calendars automatically, and your metric jumps. Is that a real gain in value? - The metric declines over several weeks. How would you find out why?