Glossary Terms

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

33 terms and counting.

Today’s term

Disagree and Commit

A team norm where people argue openly before a decision, then fully back it once it is made, even if they argued against it. It keeps debate honest without letting every decision be reopened, and it only works if dissent was genuinely heard first.

A

A/B Testing Showing two versions of something to randomly split groups of users at the same time, then comparing one metric chosen in advance. It answers…
Activation Rate The share of new sign-ups who reach the first moment of real value, the point where they do the thing the product exists for.…

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

Churn Rate The share of customers or revenue you lose over a period. Customer churn counts the accounts that leave; revenue churn counts the money they…
Cohort Analysis Grouping users by when they started, or by another shared trait, and tracking each group separately over time. It stops a growing user base…
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…

D

Disagree and Commit A team norm where people argue openly before a decision, then fully back it once it is made, even if they argued against it.…

F

Feature Factory A team that measures success by how many features it ships instead of by the outcomes those features achieve. Work moves from request to…
Fractional Product Manager An experienced product manager who works with a company part-time, usually a few days a week, instead of as a full-time hire. It suits…

I

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) A description of the type of company or person that gets the most value from your product and is most valuable to you in…

J

Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) A framework that looks at the progress a customer is trying to make in a given situation, rather than at their demographics or the…

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

Meeting Cost The real price of a meeting: the combined hourly cost of everyone in the room multiplied by its length, plus the focus time lost…
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…

N

North Star Metric The single metric that best captures the value a product delivers to customers, used to align the whole team on what success means. A…
Now/Next/Later A prioritization format that groups work into three time horizons instead of fixed dates: what the team is building now, what comes next, and…

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…
Opportunity Solution Tree A visual map, popularised by Teresa Torres, that links a desired outcome to the customer opportunities (needs and pain points) that could drive it,…

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.
Pivot A deliberate change to one core part of a startup's strategy, such as the customer, the problem or the business model, while keeping what…
Product Discovery The work of figuring out whether an idea is worth building, before you build it. This includes talking to users, understanding their problems, testing…
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 Trio A product manager, a designer and a tech lead who share responsibility for discovery and decisions on one product area. Each covers a different…
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…
Product-Market Fit The point where a product satisfies a clear market demand strongly enough that customers stay, pay and bring others without being pushed. It shows…
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,…

T

Technical Debt The future cost created when a team chooses a quicker or simpler technical solution now instead of a better one. Like financial debt it…

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.

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