Product Management Terms: A to Z Glossary
Common product management terms to know for certification prep, interviewing, and resume writing.
Product Management is a crucial organizational role that focuses on guiding the success of a product by leading the cross-functional team responsible for improving it. It involves setting the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for a product or product line. The position may include marketing, forecasting, and profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities. Product managers meet business and customer experience goals while balancing various constraints and priorities. This glossary serves as a resource to familiarize you with standard product management terms, enhancing your understanding and communication within the field.
Product Management Terms
Common product management terms to know for certification prep, interviewing, and resume writing.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is a method used in product management to compare two versions of a product feature among different segments of users simultaneously to determine which version performs better on specified metrics.
Learn more: Optimize product decisions by mastering A/B Testing techniques with available courses.
Backlog
A backlog is a prioritized list of tasks teams maintain for systematically executing work items, including new features, bug fixes, and other activities needed to effectively manage a product's lifecycle.
Churn Rate
The churn rate measures the number of individuals or items moving out of a collective group over a specific period. Product management is often used to discuss the rate at which customers stop using a product.
Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users who have completed a desired action on a digital platform. In product management, tracking conversion rates can help determine the effectiveness of features and overall user engagement.
Cross-Functional Team
This term refers to a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. In product management, these teams often include members from development, design, marketing, sales, and other departments.
Epic
An epic is a large body of work that can typically be broken down into smaller tasks (called stories) and may encompass multiple projects. Epics are often used to organize work under a broader strategic goal.
Feature Creep
Feature creep refers to the excessive ongoing expansion or addition of new features in a product, which can result in a complicated product that strays from its original purpose and complicates user experience.
Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that specifies how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage. Its purpose is to provide a blueprint for delivering a product or service to the end customer, taking into account factors like pricing and distribution.
Iteration
Iteration is repeating a set of operations until a specific condition is met. In product management, it refers to the cyclical process of planning, developing, testing, and releasing iterations of a product.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
KPIs are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively a company achieves key business objectives. In product management, KPIs measure the success of product performance against expected results.
Lean Product Development
Lean product development focuses on creating new products with minimal waste of resources. It emphasizes the lean principles of delivering value with fewer resources by optimizing the efficiency of development practices and processes.
Market Segmentation
Market segmentation divides a target market into approachable groups based on demographics, needs, priorities, shared interests, and other psychographic or behavioral criteria used to understand the audience better.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
MVP is a development technique in which a new product is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product's initial users.
Persona
In product management, a persona is a semi-fictional character based on research to represent the different user types who might use a company's product similarly.
Product Lifecycle
The product lifecycle describes a product's stages, from concept to discontinuation. This lifecycle includes the introduction, growth, maturity, and decline phases.
Product Vision
The product vision is a brief statement describing the product's overarching long-term mission. It guides the development process, outlining what the team should aim to achieve and why it matters.
Roadmap
A roadmap is a strategic plan that defines a goal or desired outcome and includes the necessary steps or milestones. It can also serve as a communication tool, a high-level document that helps articulate strategic thinking—the why—behind both the goal and the plan for getting there.
Scrum
Scrum is an Agile framework used by teams to manage product development. It is designed for teams of three to nine members, who break their work into actions that can be completed within timeboxed iterations, called sprints, reviewed through daily progress meetings and a retrospective meeting to review the results and process.
Sprint
A sprint is a set period during which specific work has to be completed and made ready for review. Sprints are part of the Agile development methodology, commonly used in product management to organize tasks into manageable intervals.
Stakeholder
Stakeholders are individuals or groups interested in any decision or activity of an organization. In product management, stakeholders include anyone impacted by the development or commercialization of a product.
User Experience (UX)
User experience involves people's behaviors, attitudes, and emotions about using a product, system, or service. UX highlights human-computer interaction's experiential, affective, meaningful, and valuable aspects.
Learn more: Enhance your product's usability and customer satisfaction with User Experience Design Courses.
User Story
A user story is an informal, general explanation of a software feature written from the end-user's perspective. Its purpose is to articulate how a software feature will provide value to the customer.
Value Proposition
A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered to the customer. It is a statement that explains how a product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation, delivers specific benefits, and tells the ideal customer why they should buy from this product and not from the competition.
Wireframe
A wireframe is a simple visual guide representing a digital application's skeletal framework. It is used early in the development process to establish a page's basic structure before visual design and content are added.
Learn more: Learn to create effective blueprints for digital projects with Wireframing Courses.
Ready to elevate your product management career?
Advance your skills in product management with courses available now. Whether you're just starting or refining your expertise, these courses provide the knowledge and tools to drive successful products from conception to launch. Explore product management courses today and begin your journey to mastering the art of delivering outstanding products.
Coursera
Writer
Coursera is the global online learning platform that offers anyone, anywhere access to online course...
This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.