In practice
For example, a booking app might track nights booked, a team chat tool messages sent in teams of three or more, and a self-serve SaaS tool trial accounts with more than three active users in their first week. Each counts the moment a customer got value, not the moment they paid.
It isn't a target or a full set of KPIs. Daily active users or sign-ups are weak choices because they say nothing about what customers value.
How to pick one
- Write down the moment a customer gets value from your product.
- Turn it into a count you can track weekly.
- Check it reflects customer value, follows from your strategy and leads revenue.
- Add three to five input metrics your team can move, such as how many customers reach that moment, how often and how quickly.
- Review it when the strategy changes, not every quarter.
Common mistakes
- Choosing revenue. It lags value and tells a team nothing about what to build.
- Choosing a number the team can't move.
- Hitting the number in ways that don't help customers, such as spamming invites.
What changes in AI-first products
When almost anything can be built in a day, a shared measure helps decide what is worth doing. It can also be gamed faster, so watch for agents reaching the number in ways you didn't intend. Annsa's ranking is not a north star: it orders priorities by what's broken, then what customers asked for, then ideas, and inside each by companies, revenue and urgency. Your north star is how you judge whether a ship moved the value.
See how Annsa does it: Roadmap →