Glossary Terms

One product or Agile term, in plain English, every day.

17 terms and counting.

Today’s term

Psychological Safety

A shared belief within a team that it is safe to raise concerns, admit mistakes, or challenge ideas without punishment or embarrassment. It is a precondition for real collaboration, not a soft nice-to-have.

B

Backlog Refinement The ongoing process of reviewing, clarifying, and reordering backlog items so they are ready to be picked up in a sprint. Also called backlog…

C

Cost of Delay A way of putting a number or urgency on how much value is lost for every week a feature or fix is delayed. It…

J

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) A way of understanding why customers buy a product by looking at the task or problem they are trying to resolve, not the product…

K

Kanban A method for managing work using a visual board and work in progress limits, without fixed time boxes. Work flows continuously rather than in…

M

MoSCoW Method A prioritization technique that sorts requirements into Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have for this release. It forces clear tradeoffs instead…
MVP (Minimum Viable Product) The smallest version of a product that lets you test a real assumption with real users. It is not a rough draft of the…

O

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) A goal-setting method with a qualitative objective (what you want to achieve) and two to four measurable key results (how you will know you…

P

Pirate Metrics (AARRR) A framework for tracking the customer lifecycle across five stages: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue. It helps teams see where users are dropping off.
Product Discovery The work of figuring out whether an idea is worth building, before you build it. This includes talking to users, testing assumptions, and checking…
Product Roadmap A plan that shows what a team intends to work on and in what order, tied to goals rather than fixed dates. A good…
Product Vision A short, clear statement of what the product should become and why it matters, usually spanning one to three years. It guides decisions without…
Psychological Safety A shared belief within a team that it is safe to raise concerns, admit mistakes, or challenge ideas without punishment or embarrassment. It is…

R

Retention Rate The percentage of users who continue using a product over a given period. It is usually a stronger signal of product health than signups,…
RICE Framework A scoring method for prioritization: Reach (how many people it affects), Impact (how much it helps them), Confidence (how sure you are), and Effort…

S

Scrum A framework for delivering work in fixed time boxes called sprints, with defined roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team) and events (sprint planning,…

U

User Story A short description of a feature written from the user's point of view, usually in the format: "As a [user], I want [goal], so…

W

WIP Limits (Work in Progress Limits) A cap on how many tasks can be in a given stage at once, used in Kanban to prevent overload and surface bottlenecks early.

Psychological Safety

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