Glossary

by ProductPlan

The following are some basic terms and definitions you should be familiar with. We also threw in a bunch of our own terms that will speed up your efficiency in ProductPlan.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

A/B Test

An A/B test aims to compare the performance of two items or variations against one another. In product management, A/B tests are often used to identify the best-performing option. For example, two variations of a new user interface could be tested, and, in this case, the variation that receives the most user engagement would win the A/B test.

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Acceptance Criteria

In agile methodologies, acceptance criteria refers to a set of predefined requirements that must be met in order to mark a user story complete. Acceptance criteria are also sometimes called the “definition of done” because they determine the scope and requirements that must be executed by developers to consider the user story finished.

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Acceptance Test

In software development, an acceptance test refers to the process of testing a new system, feature, or functionality against predefined acceptance criteria. In other words, an acceptance test evaluates whether or not the product has met predefined requirements.

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Adaptive Software Development (ASD)

Adaptive Software Development (ASD) is a direct outgrowth of an earlier agile framework, Rapid Application Development (RAD). It aims to enable teams to quickly and effectively adapt to changing requirements or market needs by evolving their products with lightweight planning and continuous learning. The ASD approach encourages teams to develop according to a three-phase process: speculate, collaborate, learn.

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Affinity Grouping

Affinity grouping can be used as a collaborative prioritization activity. It works by having a group of participants brainstorm ideas and opportunities on Post-It Notes. The team then works to put the sticky notes into groups of similar items. Once the groups are created, the team votes on the groups to rank them.

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Agile

Agile is an iterative product-development methodology in which teams work in brief, incremental “sprints,” and then regroup frequently to review the work and make changes. The agile methodology encourages frequent feedback and the ability to switch focus and priority quickly. This is in contrast to the more traditional, sequence-based, Waterfall methodology, where product managers set long-term plans in discrete phases for development teams to execute.

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Agile Framework

An agile framework is one of many documented software-development approaches based on the agile philosophy articulated in the Agile Manifesto.

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Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is a brief document built on 4 values and 12 principles for agile software development. The Agile...

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Agile Principles

There are 12 agile principles outlined in The Agile Manifesto in addition to the 4 agile values. These 12 principles for...

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Agile Values

Agile Values refers to the set of 4 values outlined by the Agile Alliance in The Agile Manifesto. This set...

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Alpha Test

An alpha test is typically conducted by a product manager at the point when development is near completion. It generally occurs before any beta testing but has a similar purpose. These tests are most commonly run in the software industry, and they include a small group of users who test the product for bugs or other issues.

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B

Backlog

A backlog is a list of task-level details required to execute on a larger strategic plan. A quick glance at a prioritized backlog conveys the next items on a project's to-do list.

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Backlog Grooming

Backlog grooming, also referred to as backlog refinement or story time, is a recurring event for agile product development teams. The primary purpose of a backlog grooming session is to ensure the next few sprints worth of user stories in the backlog are prepared for sprint planning. Regular backlog grooming sessions also help ensure the right stories are prioritized and that the product backlog does not become a black hole.

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Beta Test

A beta test is a widespread pre-launch distribution of a product (typically software), in which users are asked to try the product and provide feedback to help the product team improve it before general availability. If both forms of testing are deployed, beta testing occurs once alpha testing is complete.

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Bill of Materials (BOM)

A bill of materials (BOM) is a complete list of the materials needed to build a product. A BOM typically lists all the parts needed in their necessary quantities.

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Burndown Chart

A burndown chart is a visual display of work completed and remaining in a project, sprint, or iteration. In most cases the x-axis of the chart represents time, while the y-axis represents work either completed or remaining.

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Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI), is a method of compiling, analyzing and interpreting business data to make better-informed decisions. BI data is typically compiled through extensive research across a wide range of sources — including industry reports, customer feedback, actual usage data of the company’s products, and competitive research.

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Business Model Canvas

A business model canvas is a one-page summary describing the high-level strategic details needed to get a business (or product) successfully to market. The typical use case for this tool is to outline the fundamental building blocks of a business, but it can be used effectively for individual products as well.

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Buy-a-Feature

Buy-a-Feature is one of many prioritization frameworks product managers can use. It's commonly used to help organizations identify the features that customers and key stakeholders value the most. Product managers can leverage Buy-a-Feature to directly engage stakeholders and even customers to help shape their products, and to prioritize features based on their expected value return.

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Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is often created by product teams to describe the broad cohort of individuals who have a say in the purchasing process. This can include a number of influencers and decision makers who might not even be using the product upon purchasing. Aside from being a larger demographic, this persona will likely differ from the user persona in regards to their goals and needs.

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C

Cannibalization

In product management, cannibalization is when two different products from the same company compete with one other. Product managers are often responsible for an entire line or suite of products so that cannibalization can be kept to a minimum, or avoided altogether.

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Churn

Churn is a measurement of the percentage of accounts that cancel or choose not to renew their subscriptions. A high churn rate can negatively impact Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and can also indicate dissatisfaction with a product or service.

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Continuous Delivery

In software product development, continuous delivery is the successful execution of continuous deployment. Whereas continuous deployment aims to reduce the...

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Continuous Deployment

In software product development, continuous deployment refers to a strategy that aims to reduce the amount of time between writing code and pushing it live. Common practices under this agile-inspired strategy may include automated testing and automated releases.

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Continuous Integration

Continuous integration or CI, refers to an engineering practice that is said to help automate certain pieces of work and identify bugs early in the process. Engineers practicing continuous integration merge their code to a shared repository several times each day. That code is then passed through several automated tests to help identify any errors.

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Cross-Functional Team

A cross-functional team refers to a group which contains expertise or representation from various "functional" departments. For example, an agile cross-functional team may consist of a product manager, product owner, scrum master, engineers, QA, and design.

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Crystal Agile Framework

Crystal is an agile framework focusing on individuals and their interactions, as opposed to processes and tools. In other words,...

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Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost, or CAC, measures how much you’re spending to acquire new customers. Analyzing CAC in conjunction with LTV or MRR is a common way to discover whether or not a company is operating efficiently.

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Customer Advisory Board

A customer advisory board is a group of customers who come together on a regular basis to share insights and advice with an organization. Usually, the members of a customer advisory board are high-level executives at their organizations and therefore can provide in-depth market insight.

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Customer Development

Customer development is a framework for validating customer needs when founding a new business or considering a new product. The...

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Customer Journey Map

Customer journey maps are visual depictions of the various touch points customers make over time when interacting with an organization. They can outline various stages and steps such as the "first touch," information-gathering process, sales interactions, buying decision etc.

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D

DEEP Backlog

A DEEP Backlog is one of the suggested objectives of a product backlog grooming session. DEEP is an acronym used to indicate a few key traits of an effective product backlog.

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Definition of Done

In the Scrum agile framework, Definition of Done describes the requirements that must be met in order for a story to be considered complete. Definition of Done is typically used by the entire team to agree on the overall quality and completeness that a finished product must exhibit. This concept differs from acceptance criteria in that it is a wide-ranging set of requirements that can apply to all items in the backlog (i.e. quality).

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Definition of Ready

In the Scrum agile framework, Definition of Ready describes the requirements that must be met in order for a story to move from the backlog to development. In keeping with agile tradition, Ready is often defined as a story that can be acted on immediately.

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Dependency

In project management, a dependency describes a relationship between two initiatives that must be executed in a particular order. If...

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Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a problem-solving methodology that can be used by product managers and designers alike. With Design Thinking, teams...

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DevOps

Similar to Marketing Ops and Product Ops, DevOps is a combination of development and operations, DevOps is a software development...

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Disciplined Agile (DA)

Disciplined Agile (DA), is a process decision framework that puts individuals first and offers only lightweight guidance to help teams...

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Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive innovation is a term coined by Clayton M. Christensen to describe any type of innovation that creates a new...

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Documentation

Documentation, in a software context, refers to information either embedded into code or published separately that describes what the code...

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Dynamic Systems Development Method (DDSM)

The Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is an agile framework that addresses the entire project lifecycle and its impact on...

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E

Engineering Backlog

The engineering backlog lists and prioritizes the stories, epics, and/or initiatives that are to be worked on by the engineering team for a given sprint. Typical items in an engineering backlog include stories, bug fixes, and other engineering-related tasks.

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Epic

An epic, like a theme, is typically a group of features or stories with a common strategic goal. Note that an epic is one level of detail below a theme, considering a theme might be comprised of several related epics.

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eXtreme Programming (XP)

eXtreme Programming (XP) is an agile framework that emphasizes both the broader philosophy of agile—to produce higher-quality software to please...

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F

Feature Bloat

Feature bloat is a term to describe the result of packing too many features and functionalities into a product. Usually...

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Feature Driven Development (FDD)

Feature Driven Development (FDD) is an agile framework that, as its name suggests, organizes software development around making progress on...

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Feature Flag

A feature flag refers to a team’s ability to turn a feature or functionality “on” or “off” at their discretion....

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Features

Features are a product’s traits or attributes that deliver value to end users and differentiate a product in the market....

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G

General Availability (GA)

General Availability (GA) is the release of a product to the general public. When a product reaches GA, it becomes...

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Go-to-Market Strategy

A product’s Go-to-Market strategy (GTM) is a plan encompassing the strategies and tactics involved in the release, promotion, and sale...

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I

Iteration

In agile software development, an iteration is a set amount of time reserved for development. Typical iterations last 1-2 weeks,...

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Iterative Testing

Iterative testing refers to the process of making small changes or updates to a product and testing them against predefined...

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J

Jira

Jira is a project management tool developed by Atlassian, an Australian software company. Jira is widely used by agile development...

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K

Kanban Board

A kanban board is a type of workflow that is commonly used to manage initiatives in project management. Kanban boards...

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Kanban Roadmap

A Kanban roadmap can help product managers leverage the Kanban methodology in their strategic planning. The Kanban technique involves grouping...

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Kano Model

The Kano Model is one of many prioritization frameworks designed to help product teams prioritize initiatives. Kano can help teams...

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Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

A key performance indicator, or KPI, refers to a metric which is used to determine performance or progress toward a...

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L

Lean Software Development

Lean Software Development (LSD) is an agile framework based on optimizing development time and resources, eliminating waste, and ultimately delivering...

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Lifetime Value (LTV)

Lifetime Value (LTV) is an estimate of how much revenue an account will bring in over its lifetime. LTV, when used alongside an efficiency metric like Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), is a critical metric when gauging the cost efficiency of a given acquisition strategy.

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M

Market Requirements Document (MRD)

A market requirements document, or an MRD, is a strategic document written by a product manager to help define the...

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Market Validation

Market validation is the process of determining whether a product is of interest to a given target market. Market validation...

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Minimum Viable Feature (MVF)

A Minimum Viable Feature (or MVF) is similar to a minimum viable product, but at the feature level. While a...

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Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

An MVP, or minimum viable product, represents the earliest stage in the product’s development cycle at which the company believes...

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Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is a measurement of revenue generation by month. This metric is often considered “the holy grail...

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MoSCoW Prioritization

MoSCoW prioritization, also known as the MoSCoW method or MoSCoW analysis, is a popular prioritization technique for managing requirements. The...

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N

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a tool used to gauge customer satisfaction with a product or service. With NPS, users...

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O

Objectives and Key Results

Objectives and key results, or OKRs, are a model for setting business objectives and measurable outcomes. The objectives, or the "O" are high-level goals, while the "KR" represent measurable key results. Objectives and Key Results help teams come up with ambitious but measure-able objectives.

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Opportunity Scoring

Opportunity scoring is one of several popular strategies for prioritizing features on a product roadmap. Product teams use this strategy...

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P

Pair Programming

Pair programming is an agile software development practice in which two programmers team up at one workstation to maximize efficiency. With pair programming, one of the two programmers (the driver) writes the code while the other watches and reviews (the observer). The two programmers switch roles frequently.

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Persona

In product management, a persona is a profile of a product’s typical user. Personas are used to help a product manager (and others in the organization involved with the product’s development) understand key traits, behaviors, goals, responsibilities, and needs of a specific type of user. Product managers often document various personas, such as buyer personas, customer personas, and decision-maker personas, to better understand how to meet the needs of these constituencies.

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Pivot

Pivot in a product management context may refer to a shift in the strategic direction of the business. Usually the decision to pivot a product is the result of competitive changes, new findings about the market, or shortcomings in the original strategy.

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Prioritization

Prioritization is the process by which a set of items are ranked in order of importance. In product management, initiatives that live in the backlog must be prioritized as a means of deciding what should be developed next. There are a number of prioritization methods commonly used by product managers, such as the Kano Model, Weighted Scoring, and Opportunity Scoring.

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Product Backlog

A product backlog lists and prioritizes the task-level details required to execute on the strategic plan set forth in the...

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Product Differentiation

What is product differentiation? Product differentiation refers to a process used by businesses to distinguish a product or service from...

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Product Management Audit

A product management audit is a complete, objective review of a company's product strategy and product management processes. Each aspect of the product strategy and process is numerically rated to identify areas of weakness that would benefit from improvement, as well as any areas that are completely lacking.

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Product Manager

A product manager drives the development of products, and is ultimately responsible for the success of those products. Product managers are information gatherers, defining the strategic direction of the product by focusing on their business’s strategic goals, the market’s demands and opportunities, and the technological and financial resources available to them to make the product a reality.

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Product Marketing Manager

A product marketing manager’s (PMM) primary responsibility is to communicate the product’s value to the market. A PMM’s responsibilities could include training the sales force on how to sell the product, creating marketing materials that communicate product features, and developing the marketing tools and campaigns to attract new prospects and customers.

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Product Ops

Product ops, or product operations, is a relatively new discipline somewhat similar to marketing ops. Product ops builds a foundation for excellence by reinforcing product strategy with metrics, infrastructure, business processes, best practices, budgeting, and reporting. In short, product ops teams serve to support the product team and help build better products.

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Product Owner

The product owner bridges the gap between product strategy and development. They are usually responsible for the product backlog, organizing sprints, and are expected to be available to answer questions from developers as needed. In comparison to the strategy-focused role of the product manager, the product owner generally takes on more tactical duties.

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Product Portfolio Management

Product portfolio management refers to the practice of managing an organization’s entire product portfolio, which consists of all the products the organization has. A product portfolio manager may be responsible for allocating resources for optimal ROI, identifying areas of improvement, and keeping the products aligned with the organization’s broader strategy.

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Product Vision

A product vision, or product vision statement, describes the overarching long-term mission of your product. Vision statements are aspirational and communicate concisely where the product hopes to go and what it hopes to achieve in the long term.

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Program Manager

A program manager coordinates the interdependencies among projects, products, and other important strategic initiatives across an organization. This role requires one to focus closely on a lateral view across the organization.

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Project Manager

A project manager oversees many of the logistical aspects of the product development process. They differ from product managers in that they oversee the execution of plans that have already been developed and approved. Unlike product managers, they are generally less focused on high-level goals and strategy. Instead, a project manager focuses on tangible things like budget, resources, and personnel.

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R

Rapid Application Development (RAD)

Rapid Application Development is an agile framework focused primarily on rapid prototyping of software products, frequently iterating based on feedback,...

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Rapid Experimentation

Rapid experimentation is an agile approach to the product development process. With this approach, frequent experiments are deployed in an attempt to discover new, innovative ideas. Experiments can range in severity, from simple A/B tests to larger field experiments.

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Rapid Prototyping

Rapid prototyping is an agile strategy used throughout the product development process. With this approach, 3-dimensional prototypes of a product or feature are created and tested in an attempt to optimize characteristics like shape, size, and overall usability.

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Refactoring

Refactoring is the process by which development teams clean up a codebase or change the internal structure of a piece of software to improve it. Refactoring is intended to not make any noticeable impact on the user's end, but can make it easier for development teams to continue working on the code and adding new functionalities in the future.

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Release Demo

A release demo is typically given by agile teams at the end of a sprint. These demos are used to...

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Release Notes

Release notes are documentation produced and distributed alongside a product update or launch. They typically describe what changes come with...

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Release Plan

A release plan is a tactical document designed to capture and track the features planned for an upcoming release. A...

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Retrospective

A retrospective is a brief meeting for teams to get together and discuss their most recent projects. During a retrospective,...

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Roadmap

A roadmap is a high-level strategic document that is created and maintained to communicate the strategic vision and objectives of...

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S

Scaled Agile Framework

The Scaled Agile Framework, or SAFe, methodology is an agile framework for development teams built on three pillars: Team, Program,...

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Scope Creep

Scope creep refers to the process by which the breadth of a project slowly increases over time. It is a...

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Scrum Agile Framework

In an agile context, Scrum is an approach to project management. Typically the Scrum agile framework favors moving projects forward...

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Scrum Master

A scrum master is a facilitator for an agile team working under the scrum methodology. The scrum master serves as...

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Scrum Meeting

Scrum meeting is a catch-all term for the various different meetings practiced by agile scrum teams. Examples of scrum meetings...

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Sprint

In agile methodology, a sprint is the time period (e.g., 14 days) in which an agreed-upon set of development tasks...

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Sprint Backlog

A sprint backlog lists and prioritizes the stories and initiatives that are to be completed by a Scrum team. A...

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Sprint Goal

In the scrum methodology for agile, sprint goals are clear objectives set before the beginning of a sprint. They are...

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Sprint Planning

Agile teams under the scrum methodology host sprint planning sessions to map out the upcoming sprint’s work, flesh out the...

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Stakeholder

In a product management context, a stakeholder is any person or group of people who have interest in the product....

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Standup

A daily standup is a quick session where each member of the team shares what they accomplished yesterday, what they’ll...

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Story Mapping

Story mapping is a method for arranging user stories to create a more holistic view of how they fit into...

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Story Point

A story point is a unit of measurement used by development teams to estimate the amount of effort required to...

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T

Technical Debt

Technical debt describes what results when development teams take actions to expedite the delivery of a piece of functionality or a project which later need to be refactored. In other words, it's the result of prioritizing speedy delivery over perfect code.

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Technical Product Manager

A technical product manager is a product manager who has a technical background. There is generally not a large difference...

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Theme

A theme in product management is a high-level objective for the product, usually built on a related set of features...

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Top-Down Product Strategy

A top-down product strategy is one where high-level objectives and a long-term vision are defined first and then used to...

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U

Unique Selling Proposition

A product’s unique selling proposition (USP), is its unique competitive advantage, or the reason a customer would select the product...

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Usability Testing

Usability testing is the process by which product designers and user interface designers can evaluate how users interact with a...

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Use Case

A use case is a hypothetical (but plausible) scenario showing how a product’s user might interact with the product to...

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User Experience

User Experience refers to the feeling users experience when using a product, application, system, or service. It is a broad...

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User Interface

A user interface, or UI, is any part of a product or system which the end user interacts with. Users...

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User Persona

A user persona is a composite biography (or series of biographies) drafted based on market research and experience to describe...

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User Story

A user story is a small, self-contained unit of development work designed to accomplish a specific goal within a product....

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UX Designer

The primary focus of a UX designer (short for User Experience Designer) is on overall user satisfaction and usability with a product. UX designers continually look for ways to improve how the product experience feels to the user — improvements such as making using the product faster, easier, or more intuitive.

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V

Value Proposition

A value proposition is a high-level statement, often written as a promise to the customer, about how a product will...

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Value vs. Complexity

Value vs. complexity is a prioritization framework that allows a product team to evaluate each initiative according to how much value the initiative will bring, and how difficult or complex it will be to implement. Initiatives are then plotted on a quadrant and prioritized accordingly.

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Vanity Metrics

Vanity metrics are statistics that look positive, but don’t necessarily translate to any meaningful business results. Examples include quantity of...

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Velocity

Velocity is a metric used to measure the speed of a development team’s delivery for a given cycle. Velocity is...

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Voice of Customer (VoC)

Voice of customer, or VoC, refers broadly to the various processes by which organizations gather feedback from their customers. It...

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W

Waterfall

Waterfall is a long-term method of product development characterized by a sequential series of stages such as conception, initiation, analysis,...

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Weighted Scoring

Weighted scoring prioritization uses numerical scoring to rank your strategic initiatives against benefit and cost categories. It is useful for...

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Wireframe

A wireframe is a visual prototype that displays the layout of a web page or application. It is a rough...

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