30 Product Management Terms I Learned on My PM Journey

Roadmap
A roadmap visually communicates the product’s strategic vision, planned features, and timelines. Tesla’s roadmap for new vehicles shows anticipated launch dates, feature rollouts, and market expansion plans. Effective roadmaps guide strategic decisions and keep stakeholders aligned.

User Research
User research involves understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations. Airbnb conducts interviews and observes how guests search for accommodations. Insights from user research enable product managers to create products aligned with real user needs, reducing uncertainty and increasing satisfaction.

Market Research

Market Research involves systematically gathering and analyzing information about target markets, customers, competitors, and industry trends to inform product decisions. For example, before launching a fitness app, a PM might survey potential users, analyze competitors like Fitbit or Strava, and study industry reports on health tech trends. This helps in validating product ideas, minimizing risks, and aligning products with market needs.

Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis involves evaluating competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies to identify opportunities. For example, Uber regularly analyzes Lyft’s pricing, app features, and driver incentives to spot potential improvements or competitive threats. Product managers leverage competitor analysis to make informed decisions, position products effectively, and stay ahead in the market.

A/B Testing
A/B testing involves comparing two product versions to see which performs better. For example, Netflix might show two variations of a thumbnail for the same movie to users, measuring which one leads to more views. This allows product managers to make data-driven decisions rather than relying on assumptions, enhancing user satisfaction and engagement.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
An MVP is the simplest product version addressing core user needs. Dropbox initially launched an MVP through a demo video showing basic file synchronization, validating market interest without extensive development. This approach reduces risk and helps quickly gauge customer interest and gather feedback.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS measures customer likelihood to recommend a product on a scale from 0 to 10. If Spotify users rate their likelihood to recommend the app highly, resulting in a strong NPS, it indicates high customer satisfaction. Product managers use NPS to gauge loyalty, predict growth, and identify improvement areas.

Customer Journey Map
This map visualizes each step users take interacting with a product. For an online store, the journey might include discovering the website, browsing products, checkout, delivery, and post-purchase support. Product managers use journey maps to identify friction points and enhance user experience.

Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy
A GTM strategy outlines how a product is launched to customers. For instance, Apple's GTM strategy for a new iPhone includes product positioning, pricing strategy, distribution channels, and promotional activities. An effective GTM strategy ensures successful product launches and market acceptance.

Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD)
JTBD focuses on tasks users aim to accomplish rather than specific products. Customers don't buy drills; they buy the capability to make holes. Product managers use JTBD to develop solutions closely aligned with users' true goals, ensuring products deliver meaningful value and solve genuine problems.

Prototype
Prototypes are simplified product versions built to test concepts and gather user feedback. Apple creates initial prototypes of new products, like the Apple Watch, allowing internal teams to experience interactions and iterate quickly. Prototypes help avoid costly mistakes and ensure usability.

Design Thinking
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving involving empathy, defining problems, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing. For instance, Airbnb’s team initially explored users' frustrations in hotel bookings, prototyped a simple booking platform, tested extensively, and evolved continuously based on user insights.

Product Requirements Document (PRD)
A PRD outlines the detailed requirements of a product or feature. If Facebook plans to launch a dating feature, the PRD would clearly define the objectives, target audience, functionalities, user stories, and acceptance criteria. This ensures alignment among stakeholders throughout development.

Ideation
Ideation involves generating creative solutions to identified problems. A team at Netflix might ideate to improve user retention, brainstorming concepts like personalized notifications or new interactive content formats. Effective ideation fosters innovation and enhances competitive advantage.

Agile Methodology
Agile is an iterative project management approach emphasizing continuous improvement and adaptability. For instance, Spotify frequently releases small updates to its app, gathers immediate user feedback, and quickly adapts features. This reduces risk and helps teams deliver features users truly value.

Backlog
A backlog is a prioritized list of tasks or features a team plans to complete. For example, a ride-sharing app’s backlog might include tasks like "Integrate Google Maps," "Add fare estimation," and "Resolve driver-rating bug." Product managers continuously prioritize backlogs based on business and user impact.

Epic
An epic represents a large initiative broken into smaller tasks. Consider improving Uber's payment experience as an epic. It could include tasks like “Enable new payment methods,” “Optimize transaction speed,” and “Integrate discount systems.” This structuring aids clarity and manageable development.

User Story

A user story describes a product feature from the end-user’s perspective, capturing what users want and why. Typically structured as: "As a [user], I want [action/feature] so that [benefit/outcome]." For example, "As a Netflix subscriber, I want personalized movie recommendations so that I spend less time searching and more time watching content I enjoy." This helps teams prioritize features clearly around real user needs.

Acceptance Criteria
Acceptance criteria define conditions required for a feature to be considered complete. If building a login feature, acceptance criteria might state, "User can successfully log in within three seconds and receive clear error messages for incorrect passwords." This ensures clarity between product managers and developers, reducing miscommunication.

Jira
Jira is a widely used software tool for managing product development tasks and tracking issues in Agile teams. For instance, a product manager at Amazon uses Jira boards to track the development of new Alexa skills, helping the team visualize task progress, coordinate efforts, and meet deadlines effectively.

Objectives & Key Results (OKR)
OKRs are goal-setting tools that align team objectives with measurable results. An example objective might be “increase app engagement,” with key results like “raise daily active users by 15%” or “achieve 20% increase in average session duration.” OKRs provide clear alignment and accountability across teams.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs measure product success against defined objectives. Netflix tracks KPIs such as user retention rates, viewing hours per user, and content popularity. Monitoring KPIs allows product managers to evaluate success clearly, adjust strategies, and continuously drive improvements aligned with business goals.

Sprint
In Agile, a sprint is a fixed, short period (usually 1–4 weeks) when teams complete specific tasks. A team at Netflix might schedule a two-week sprint to develop and deploy improved recommendation algorithms, clearly defining tasks and reviewing progress daily, resulting in focused and productive development.

Technical Debt
Technical debt occurs when teams choose shortcuts for quick delivery, needing later fixes. If Instagram quickly rolls out a feature with imperfect code to beat competitors, later developers spend extra time fixing issues. Product managers balance speed and quality to minimize long-term negative impacts.

Waterfall
Waterfall is a traditional, linear project management method moving sequentially from requirements gathering to implementation. For construction projects or heavily regulated software, waterfall ensures detailed upfront planning, clearly defined phases, and predictable outcomes, although with less flexibility.

Daily Active Users (DAU)
DAU measures unique users actively engaging with a product each day. Instagram closely tracks DAU to monitor engagement and retention, identifying patterns or issues quickly. DAU insights help product managers assess product health and prioritize features improving daily engagement.

Feature
Features are specific product attributes designed to deliver value to users. Instagram Stories is an example feature enabling users to post temporary content that disappears after 24 hours. Product managers develop and refine features to enhance user engagement, meet market needs, and differentiate products.

Conversion Rate
Conversion rate measures the percentage of users taking a desired action. Amazon tracks how many visitors actually complete purchases; if 1,000 users visit a product page and 50 buy, the conversion rate is 5%. Product managers monitor and optimize conversion rates to maximize customer acquisition, revenue, and overall product success.

Product-Led Growth (PLG)
PLG is a growth strategy focusing on product usage to drive customer acquisition and expansion. Slack’s user-friendly experience naturally attracts new users through viral invitations from current users. Product managers employing PLG strategies prioritize intuitive onboarding, seamless experiences, and valuable features to organically grow user bases.

Lifetime Value (LTV)
LTV calculates the total revenue a company expects from a single customer over time. For instance, if an Amazon Prime customer pays a yearly fee and regularly makes purchases, their LTV increases significantly. Product managers closely monitor LTV to guide marketing spending, optimize product offerings, and make strategic decisions for sustainable long-term growth.