Netflix Case Study: Mission vs Goal vs Metrics
TL;DR - When Netflix started its goals were shipping DVDs. Now its goals are focused on streaming personalized content before you even know what you want next. Throughout that journey, they always had a mission to entertain the world.
What changed is the how that entertainment was delivered. So, in a product case the mission in big picture, the goal rooted in the immediate future that the team can accomplish and that goal is measured using metrics that can be found in the logs of activity for the most current iteration of the product.
The Story of Netflix Saves The Day
When candidates struggle with Mission vs Goal or Goals vs Metrics, I pull out the story of Netflix. It is a product most people in tech know and idolize. And at least for now, many remember (or studied) that Netflix started with DVDs. So it is easy to relate to how the mission remained relevant while the goals changed.
Mission
Netflix’s mission is “To entertain the world.”
Goals
When Netflix launched, its strategic focus and goal was on delivering DVDs by mail. They started by solving problems for movie buffs. The founders were visionary, they knew eventually movies would be streamed online, but they started with DVDs. Eventually, they moved to more mainstream watchers who were happy to avoid Blockbuster. Eventually, bandwidth because strong enough to enable streaming and they could start bringing movies to your computer.
The mission was, and remains, big enough to cover more than the delivery of DVDs. (Even the name shows they knew where they were headed when they started.)
Now, Netflix is focused on personalization, delivering you what you want when you want it front and center when you open the app.
Goals are:
what team is to own in next 12 to 18 months
user-focused
not a category of metics but a description from User POV
product-stage dependent
Metrics
You can quickly see as the product evolved so did measures of success, engagemnt and retention.
For example:
DVD Goal: Deliver DVDs in under two days.
DVD Metric: # of deliveries arriving in 2 days or less
vs
Streaming Goal: Create high-quality content that leads word of mouth growth
Streaming Metric: % of members who watch at least 10 hours/month of original content
Notes:
Product-Led Approach
Product Perspective: Customer’s Need
which leads to
Biz Perspective: Revenue & Cost considerations that determine ROI
References:
Gibson Biddle on Netflix strategy and goals in changing world. Long after I started using Netflix as a coaching story, Gibson Biddle speculated about how adding Ads to Netflix would change their mission. As if channeling my thoughts he said Netflix didn’t need to change its strategy, just its tactics.
