Establish a strong foundation for a project to set teams up for success
Use this template to align on a project's goals, roles, target audience, and other essential details so that teams can work effectively and efficiently.
The project north star template is a great way to kick off new projects, business pitches, or ad-hoc client requests.
Get aligned on goals and essential details at the outset of a project
Build trust and transparency
Define success metrics, milestones, and KPIs collaboratively
To use Mural’s north star template, part of the Meta Think Kit design suite, follow the steps outlined below with your team.
To get started, the first step is to have your team (asynchronously or in real time) contribute their feedback using color-coded sticky notes (one color per team member) in each of the seven areas of the template:
People and roles
Goals
KPIs
Key milestones
Target audience(s)
Advantages & assets
Hopes & fears
Once everyone has had a chance to contribute, it’s time to bring the whole team together to look for key groups or themes across all your feedback. You can group these themes using tags for sticky notes, or by clustering them together.
With your central themes now defined, make sure your team is aligned on how to move forward, your goals, roles, and responsibilities — as well as how you’ll measure success. Take this time to clear up any questions and gauge how people are feeling about the upcoming project.
By the end of the exercise, hopefully everyone will be aligned, but if not, make sure to plan for potential offline followups or secondary sessions to clear up any unresolved issues.
To run a successful project north star template session with your team, you should:
Make sure that everyone has sufficient time to contribute their thoughts and feedback individually before bringing everyone together to look for themes — this will help avoid any blind spots
Make use of Mural’s private mode to avoid groupthink while brainstorming, and anonymous voting to help resolve any questions democratically
At the end of your workshop, it can be useful to run a quick check-in to gauge sentiment across your team, now that you’ve defined roles and responsibilities, as well as goals and metrics for success
The north star method, also known as the north star framework or north star metric, is a strategic approach used in product development and business strategy. It involves identifying a single, overarching goal or metric that serves as a guiding principle for the entire organization.
The north star method helps teams focus their efforts and align their activities towards achieving this key objective.
In an Agile context, the north star acts as a guiding light, ensuring that the team stays on track and works towards a common objective. It serves as a reference point for decision-making, prioritization, and evaluating progress. The north star in Agile is typically a customer-centric metric or outcome that reflects the desired impact or value that the product or project aims to deliver. By keeping the north star in mind, Agile teams can continuously iterate and adapt their approach to achieve the desired outcomes while responding to changing requirements and market conditions.
Mural is the only platform that offers both a shared workspace and training on the LUMA System™, a practical way to collaborate that anyone can learn and apply.