Product glossary
A list of helpful product terms and definitions
A metric which defines the total number of pages viewed (on a website) within a given time period.
An agile software technology practice where two developers work in tandem on one codebase. One developer, the "driver", writes the code, while the second developer, the "observer" or "navigator", reviews the code as it is written.
When a business changes its strategy in accordance to changing customer preferences, the industry, or other factors that may impact its goals or profitability
The act of deciding the importance and urgency among various initiatives to determine which one(s) to move forward with. There are many methods and frameworks that product managers use to prioritize including impact to effort, ICE scoring, buy a feature, and more.
A solution to a problem shared by many.
The one who oversees the entire process of a product's design. They are skilled in many design competencies and employ many tools to ensure the best user experience possible for end users and customers.
Defines all of the steps needed to take a product from idea to launch. though defined in different ways it generally has the following six stages: Define the problem / Prioritize the problem / Design the solution / Build the solution / Test the solution / Ship & measure success
Activities performed with the goal of understanding if a product should be improved, and if so, where and when. At the end of this product managers should deeply understand their customers' needs to build products that meet their needs.
The portion of the user journey that happens inside the product (website or app). It factors in a user's emotions, thoughts, and rationale as they utilize the product
The process all products go through from when they are first introduced in a market to when they decline and are retired. There are four stages of the product lifecycle are: Introduction / Growth / Maturity / Decline
Though there are many definition for what a product manager does their role boils down to 3 key responsibilities: Being the champion of their customers / Working with stakeholders to accomplish product and business goals / Making data-driven decisions
"Product-market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market." - Marc Andreessen, co-founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
A product marketing manager focuses on how the product should be positioned in the market and ensuring that its value is communicated and that it reaches its sales and marketing goals. Their role involves communicating the value of a product to the market, training sales on selling the product, developing marketing materials, developing marketing tools, and working closely with the marketing team on marketing campaigns, among other tasks.
An operational role that works to improve the relationship between product, engineering, and customer success teams. They own many of the behind the scenes tasks of a product team while helping cross-functional product teams operate. Some of these behind the scenes tasks include managing the tools that the product team uses, working with sales, support, and customer success to improve the customer experience, and developing new business processes that streamline product development.
The individual in a scrum team that manages the development backlog and ensures that the strategic initiatives that a product manager has set are implemented. Their tasks include working with their implementation team to reach sprint goals, grooming and prioritizing the backlog, working with a product manager to clarify requests, and addressing concerns that the development team brings up during the development process.
All of the products and services that a business offers.
Strategically managing the collection of products and services that a business offers to reach business goals.
A document that details the blueprint for a product outlining what is being built, the requirements, who it is being built for, and the desired outcome.
The tools and solutions that product managers use to launch a product into the market. This includes recording tools for customer interviews, roadmapping software, user tracking and analytics software, project management tools, user surveying tools, and more.
The goals for a product, how it will be accomplished, and how these goals tie into the overall strategy of the business as a whole.
While the company vision describes how the overall company expects the world to be once they accomplish their mission, the product vision describes how the future should be based specifically on the offered product. Some of the key ingredients for a well-crafted product vision are that it be: Clear and specific, problem- and customer-oriented, achievable, and engaging.There is no formal way to create a product vision. There are numerous methods that have their merits. Check out Geoffrey Moore’s (the author of Crossing the Chasm) product vision template, which uses the following format: For [target customer] who [customer need to be solved the [product name] is a [product category] that [benefits, unique selling points]. Unlike [competitor product] our product [main differences].
When the product serves as the primary driver for user acquisition, conversion, retention, and expansion rather than a separate team or department.
Project managers manage projects. Projects have a defined scope, timelines, and resources that need to be managed to ensure that the scope is delivered on time. Project managers do not represent customers, they do not interact with users, they do not make strategic decisions regarding the solution, nor do they define the “what” and “why” of the work they are doing. These activities and decisions are made by a product manager.
An early model of a solution used to test, experiment, and validate assumptions before moving forward.
