Product Management Glossary
100+ product management terms, frameworks, metrics, and methodologies defined clearly and concisely.
A
A/B Testing
A controlled experiment in which two or more variants of a page, feature, or flow are shown to different user segments at the same time to...
AARRR (Pirate Metrics)
A framework developed by Dave McClure that breaks the customer lifecycle into five stages: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and...
AI Alignment
The research and engineering discipline focused on ensuring AI systems behave in accordance with human values, intentions, and goals rather...
AI Copilot UX
A design pattern where AI augments human work as a collaborative assistant rather than replacing the human, with the user maintaining...
AI Design Patterns
Reusable solutions to common UX challenges in AI-powered products, including patterns for confidence display, progressive disclosure,...
AI Evaluation (Evals)
Systematic testing of AI system outputs against quality benchmarks, safety criteria, and task-specific metrics to measure performance and...
AI Safety
The research and engineering practices focused on preventing harmful AI behaviors, ensuring reliable operation under adversarial...
AI UX Design
The practice of designing user experiences for AI-powered products, addressing unique challenges like probabilistic outputs, user trust...
ARR / MRR (Annual Recurring Revenue / Monthly Recurring Revenue)
ARR is the annualized value of all active subscription contracts, while MRR is the same figure on a monthly basis.
ATS Optimization
The practice of formatting and keyword-optimizing a resume so it passes through Applicant Tracking Systems — the software that filters...
Acceptance Criteria
A set of predefined conditions that a user story or feature must satisfy before it is considered complete and ready for release.
Activation Rate
The percentage of new users who complete a key action that correlates with long-term retention, often called the \\"aha moment.
Affinity Diagram
A collaborative technique in which team members write observations, ideas, or data points on sticky notes (physical or digital) and then...
Agentic AI
AI systems that can autonomously plan, reason, and take sequential actions to achieve complex goals with minimal human intervention,...
Agentic UX
The design of user experiences for autonomous AI agents that plan and execute multi-step tasks, requiring new UX patterns for oversight,...
Agile
A family of iterative and incremental software development methodologies grounded in the Agile Manifesto (2001).
Associate Product Manager (APM)
An entry-level product management role, typically for candidates with 0-2 years of experience, often structured as a rotational program at...
B
Backlog
An ordered list of all work items -- user stories, bugs, technical debt, spikes, and improvements -- that a product team may deliver.
Beta Testing
A pre-release testing phase in which a product or feature is made available to a limited group of external users under real-world...
Blue Ocean Strategy
A strategic framework for creating uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant, rather than competing in existing markets.
Burn Rate
The rate at which a company spends its cash reserves, typically expressed as a monthly figure.
Burndown Chart
A visual graph that plots the amount of remaining work (often in story points or tasks) against time within a sprint or release.
Business Model Canvas
A one-page strategic tool developed by Alexander Osterwalder that maps nine building blocks of a business: Key Partners, Key Activities,...
C
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total cost of sales and marketing efforts required to acquire a single new customer over a given period.
Card Sorting
A user research method in which participants organize topic labels into categories that make sense to them, revealing their mental models.
Chain-of-Thought
A prompting technique that improves AI model reasoning by instructing it to break down complex problems into explicit, step-by-step...
Churn Rate
The percentage of customers or subscribers who stop using a product during a given time period.
Cohort Analysis
A method of grouping users by a shared characteristic -- most commonly sign-up date -- and tracking their behavior over time.
Competitive Moat
A sustainable competitive advantage that protects a company from rivals, analogous to the moat around a castle.
Context Window
The maximum amount of text, measured in tokens, that a large language model can process in a single interaction, including both the input...
Contextual Inquiry
A field-based research method in which the researcher observes and interviews users in their natural work or life environment while they...
Continuous Delivery
A software engineering practice in which code changes are automatically built, tested, and prepared for release to production at any time.
Conversational UX
A design paradigm where users interact with software through natural language dialogue rather than traditional graphical interfaces,...
Conversion Rate
The percentage of users who complete a desired action out of the total who had the opportunity.
Customer Development
A methodology pioneered by Steve Blank in which founders and PMs systematically test business hypotheses by getting out of the building and...
Customer Journey Map
A visual representation of every touchpoint a customer has with a product or company, from initial awareness through purchase, onboarding,...
D
DAU / MAU (Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users)
DAU is the count of unique users who engage with a product on a given day; MAU is the same over a 30-day window.
Data Flywheel
A self-reinforcing cycle where product usage generates data that improves the AI model, which improves the product experience, which drives...
Definition of Done (DoD)
A shared agreement within a team that specifies all conditions a piece of work must meet before it can be considered complete -- for...
Dependency
A relationship in which one piece of work, team, or system relies on another to proceed.
Design Sprint
A five-day structured process created at Google Ventures for rapidly solving big product problems through ideation, prototyping, and user...
Design System for AI
An extension of traditional design systems that includes components, patterns, and guidelines specifically for AI-powered features,...
Design Thinking
A human-centered problem-solving methodology popularized by IDEO and Stanford's d.
Diary Study
A longitudinal research method in which participants record their experiences, behaviors, and thoughts over a period of days or weeks using...
Discovery (Product Discovery)
The ongoing practice of determining what to build by understanding customer problems, validating assumptions, and evaluating solutions...
Double Diamond
A design process model from the UK Design Council that visualizes work in four phases across two diamonds: Discover (diverge), Define...
Dual-Track Agile
An approach in which a product team runs two parallel tracks: a discovery track (exploring problems and validating solutions) and a...
E
Edge Inference
Running AI models directly on user devices like phones, laptops, and IoT hardware rather than sending data to cloud servers, enabling...
Embeddings
Dense vector representations of text, images, or other data that capture semantic meaning, enabling AI systems to measure similarity and...
Empowered Teams
A concept championed by Marty Cagan describing product teams that are given problems to solve rather than features to build.
Engagement Rate
The proportion of users who interact meaningfully with a product, feature, or content over a given period.
Epic
A large body of work that can be broken down into multiple user stories or tasks.
Explainability (XAI)
The degree to which an AI system's decisions and outputs can be understood by humans, and the techniques used to make opaque models...
F
Fake Door Test
A discovery technique in which a button, link, or menu item for a feature that does not yet exist is presented to users.
Feature Adoption
The percentage of active users who have used a specific feature at least once (or on a recurring basis, depending on definition).
Feature Creep
The uncontrolled expansion of a product's feature set beyond its original scope, often driven by stakeholder requests, competitive...
Feature Factory
A pejorative term for a product team that churns out features based on stakeholder requests without validating whether those features solve...
Feature Flag
A software mechanism that allows teams to enable or disable a feature for specific user segments without deploying new code.
Few-Shot Learning
A technique where AI models learn to perform tasks from just a small number of examples provided in the prompt, without requiring...
Fine-Tuning
The process of further training a pre-trained AI model on a smaller, task-specific dataset to adapt its behavior and improve performance...
First-Mover Advantage
The competitive benefit gained by being the first company to enter a new market or create a new product category.
Flywheel Effect
A concept from Jim Collins describing a self-reinforcing cycle in which each component of a business model feeds and accelerates the next,...
Foundation Model
Large pre-trained AI models trained on broad datasets that can be adapted through fine-tuning or prompting for a wide variety of downstream...
Freemium
A pricing model in which a basic version of the product is offered for free while advanced features, higher usage tiers, or premium support...
Function Calling
A large language model capability that enables AI to invoke external tools, APIs, and services based on natural language input, bridging...
G
Go-to-Market Strategy (GTM)
The plan for how a company will launch a product or feature to the target market, encompassing positioning, pricing, distribution channels,...
Grooming (Backlog Refinement)
A recurring team activity in which backlog items are reviewed, re-prioritized, broken down, and enriched with detail so they are ready for...
Grounding
Connecting AI model outputs to verified factual sources, databases, or real-time information to reduce hallucination and ensure responses...
Guardrails
Safety mechanisms and constraints built into AI systems to prevent harmful, inappropriate, or off-topic outputs and ensure model behavior...
H
HEART Framework
A user-experience metrics framework from Google that measures five dimensions: Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task success.
Hallucination
When an AI model generates false, fabricated, or unsupported information that appears plausible but is not grounded in its training data or...
Human-AI Interaction
The study and design of how humans and AI systems collaborate, communicate, and share control, encompassing interaction patterns, trust...
Human-in-the-Loop
A system design pattern where humans review, approve, or correct AI-generated outputs at critical decision points, balancing automation...
Hypothesis-Driven Development
An approach in which product teams frame every initiative as a testable hypothesis: \\"We believe that [action] will result in [outcome] as...
I
ICE Scoring
A lightweight prioritization method that scores ideas on three dimensions: Impact (how much will it move a key metric), Confidence (how...
Impact Mapping
A strategic planning technique created by Gojko Adzic that connects business goals to deliverables through a four-level map: Goal (why),...
Initiative Roadmap
A roadmap format that organizes planned work around strategic initiatives or themes rather than specific features or dates.
J
K
L
LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)
The total net revenue a company can expect from a single customer account over the entire duration of the relationship.
Landing Page Test
A discovery technique in which a purpose-built web page describes a proposed product or feature, measures interest through sign-ups or...
Large Language Model (LLM)
A type of AI model trained on massive text datasets that can understand and generate human language, powering applications like chatbots,...
Lean Startup
A methodology by Eric Ries centered on the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop.
M
Market Sizing (TAM / SAM / SOM)
Three nested lenses for estimating market opportunity.
Metric (Leading vs. Lagging)
Leading metrics predict future outcomes while lagging metrics measure past results. Product teams track both to understand performance and...
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
The smallest version of a product that can be released to test a key business hypothesis with real users.
MoSCoW Prioritization
A prioritization technique that categorizes requirements into four buckets: Must Have (non-negotiable for launch), Should Have (important...
Model Distillation
A technique for creating smaller, faster, and cheaper AI models by training them to replicate the behavior of larger, more capable models...
Model Drift
The gradual degradation of an AI model performance over time as real-world data patterns, user behavior, and business conditions change...
Multi-Agent Systems
Architectures where multiple specialized AI agents collaborate, delegate, and coordinate to solve complex tasks that exceed the capability...
Multimodal AI
AI systems that can process, understand, and generate multiple types of data including text, images, audio, video, and code within a...
Multimodal UX
The design of user experiences that seamlessly combine multiple input and output modalities -- text, voice, image, gesture, and video --...
N
NPS (Net Promoter Score)
A customer loyalty metric calculated by asking users \\"How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend?\\" on a 0-10 scale.
Network Effects
A phenomenon in which a product becomes more valuable as more people use it.
North Star Framework
A strategic framework in which a team identifies a single \\"North Star Metric\\" that best captures the core value the product delivers to...
O
P
PM Career Ladder
A structured progression framework that defines product management levels from APM through CPO, including the skills, scope, and impact...
PM Portfolio
A curated collection of case studies, product teardowns, and side projects that demonstrates product management thinking and skills to...
PRD (Product Requirements Document)
A document that articulates the purpose, features, behavior, and constraints of a product or feature for the development team.
Persona
A research-based archetype representing a segment of the target user population.
Platform Strategy
A business model in which the company creates value by facilitating interactions between two or more distinct user groups (e.
Positioning
The deliberate process of defining how a product should be perceived in the minds of the target audience relative to competitors.
Prioritization
The process of deciding what to build next from a pool of competing opportunities, balancing factors like user impact, business value,...
Problem Statement
A concise articulation of the user problem a team is trying to solve, typically framed from the user's perspective.
Product Ops (Product Operations)
A function that supports product teams by streamlining tools, processes, data access, and communication so PMs can focus on discovery and...
Product Sense
The ability to identify problems worth solving, evaluate solutions users will adopt, and make sound product decisions without complete data.
Product Strategy
The plan that connects a company's vision and business objectives to the specific product decisions the team makes.
Product Trio
A cross-functional leadership model in which the product manager, the tech lead (or engineering manager), and the product designer...
Product-Led Growth (PLG)
A go-to-market strategy in which the product itself is the primary driver of acquisition, conversion, expansion, and retention.
Product-Market Fit
The state in which a product satisfies a strong market demand, evidenced by organic growth, high retention, and enthusiastic word-of-mouth.
Prompt Engineering
The practice of designing and refining inputs to AI models to elicit more accurate, relevant, and useful outputs for specific tasks and use...
Prototype
A preliminary model of a product or feature used to explore ideas and test assumptions before building production code.
Q
Qualitative Research
Research methods that explore the \\"why\\" and \\"how\\" behind user behavior through open-ended techniques such as interviews, contextual...
Quantitative Research
Research methods that measure user behavior and attitudes at scale through structured data collection such as analytics, surveys with...
R
RICE Framework
A prioritization framework developed at Intercom that scores initiatives on four factors: Reach (how many users will be affected), Impact...
Red-Teaming
An adversarial testing methodology where testers deliberately attempt to find vulnerabilities, failure modes, and harmful outputs in AI...
Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF)
A training method where human evaluators rate AI model outputs, and those preference signals are used to fine-tune the model to produce...
Release Train
A fixed-cadence delivery model where multiple teams align on a shared schedule to release increments of a product together at regular...
Responsible AI
Frameworks and practices ensuring AI systems are developed and deployed ethically, fairly, transparently, and with accountability for their...
Retention Rate
The percentage of users or customers who continue to use a product over a defined period.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
An AI architecture pattern that combines large language models with external knowledge retrieval to generate responses grounded in...
Retrospective (Retro)
A team meeting held at the end of a sprint or project in which participants reflect on what went well, what did not, and what should be...
Revenue Per User (ARPU)
Average Revenue Per User is calculated by dividing total revenue by the number of active users or accounts over a given period.
Roadmap
A strategic communication artifact that conveys the planned direction and priorities for a product over time.
S
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework)
A framework for scaling Agile practices across large enterprises with many teams.
STAR Method
A structured response format — Situation, Task, Action, Result — used for behavioral interview answers and resume bullet points in product...
Scope Creep
The gradual, unplanned expansion of a project's scope after work has begun, typically through incremental additions that each seem small...
Scrum
An Agile framework that structures work into fixed-length iterations called sprints (typically two weeks).
Shape Up
A product development methodology created at Basecamp that organizes work into six-week cycles followed by a two-week cooldown.
Spike
A time-boxed research or investigation task in Agile development, used to answer a question or resolve uncertainty before committing to a...
Sprint
A fixed-length iteration, usually one to four weeks, during which a Scrum team commits to completing a set of backlog items and delivering...
Sprint Planning
A Scrum event held at the start of each sprint in which the team selects items from the product backlog, discusses how they will be...
Stakeholder Management
The practice of identifying, communicating with, and influencing the people and groups who have an interest in or authority over a...
Stand-up (Daily Scrum)
A brief daily meeting -- typically 15 minutes or less -- in which each team member shares what they did yesterday, what they plan to do...
Story Mapping
A technique developed by Jeff Patton in which user stories are arranged in a two-dimensional map.
Story Points
A unit of measure for estimating the relative effort, complexity, and uncertainty of a user story.
Survey
A quantitative research method that collects structured responses from a large number of users through a set of questions, often delivered...
Switching Cost
The effort, expense, or inconvenience a customer incurs when changing from one product to a competitor.
Synthetic Data
Artificially generated data that mimics real-world data patterns, used to train, test, and validate AI models when authentic data is...
Synthetic Users
AI-generated simulations of user personas that can be interviewed, surveyed, or tested against to supplement real user research, with...
T
Technical Debt
The accumulated cost of shortcuts, expedient decisions, and deferred maintenance in a codebase.
Temperature
A parameter that controls the randomness and creativity of AI model outputs, where lower values produce more deterministic responses and...
Time to Value (TTV)
The elapsed time between a user's first interaction with a product and the moment they experience its core value.
Tree Testing
A usability method that evaluates the findability of topics in a product's information architecture.
U
Usability Testing
A research method in which representative users attempt to complete realistic tasks with a product or prototype while researchers observe...
User Story
A short, informal description of a feature or requirement written from the end user's perspective, typically in the format: \\"As a [type...
V
Value Proposition
A clear statement of the tangible outcomes a customer can expect from using a product and why those outcomes are superior to alternatives.
Vector Database
A specialized database designed to store, index, and efficiently query high-dimensional vector embeddings, enabling fast similarity search...
Velocity
The average number of story points (or other units of work) a Scrum team completes per sprint, measured over several sprints.
W
Weighted Scoring
A prioritization method in which potential features or initiatives are scored against multiple criteria (e.
Wizard of Oz Test
A product discovery technique in which users interact with what appears to be a fully functional product, but behind the scenes a human...
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