Instead of setting early revenue targets, new products should focus on a more telling metric: getting a small cohort of sophisticated users to become obsessed. This deep engagement is a leading indicator of product-market fit and provides the necessary insights to scale to the next 50 users.

'Customer obsession' is a one-way street; you can be obsessed with customers who are indifferent to you. Factory reframes this principle to 'create obsessed customers,' forcing the company to focus on the output: building a product and experience so compelling that customers become its advocates.

For Nike's innovators, the ultimate measure of success isn't market performance but the user's genuine joy upon experiencing the product. This "athlete's smile" confirms that a meaningful problem has been solved, serving as a leading indicator that commercial success will naturally follow.

Instead of obsessing over financial outputs like revenue, Amazon focuses on the controllable inputs that drive those results. For its retail business, these are selection, price, and delivery speed. By relentlessly improving these inputs, they create a self-reinforcing flywheel that naturally produces the desired financial outputs.

True effectiveness comes from focusing on outcomes—real-world results. Many people get trapped measuring inputs (e.g., hours worked) or outputs (e.g., emails sent), which creates a feeling of productivity without guaranteeing actual progress toward goals.

Many companies claim customer-centricity, but few are willing to provide value to a degree that seems unbalanced. This relentless focus on the end-user, whether in product, service, or content, is a rare and powerful competitive advantage that builds a sustainable brand.

Truly customer-obsessed leaders don't delegate the definition of key metrics. Like Jeff Bezos specifying how to measure package delivery speed, they personally architect the measurement systems to ensure the entire organization optimizes for what customers actually value.

Focus on what customers value (e.g., delivery speed, order accuracy) rather than internal business metrics like ARR or user growth. This approach naturally leads to a better product roadmap and a more defensible business by solving real user problems.

Product teams focus on technical metrics like scalability, but customer-facing teams see success differently: it's when a client says they "couldn't run their business" without the product. The goal is to merge these two definitions by translating technical achievements into tangible customer outcomes.