Product Operations Glossary

B2B refers to commerce between businesses, such as a manufacturer selling to a wholesaler, rather than between a business and individual consumers.

B2C refers to commerce between a business and individual consumers, such as retail stores selling products directly to customers.

Business transformation is the process of fundamentally changing an organization's operations, products, or business model to improve performance.

Specialized marketing and sales approaches for products targeting software developers and technical users.

Strategies for humanizing business interactions and creating more personal customer experiences.

Buy-a-Feature is a prioritization technique where stakeholders "buy" features using a limited budget to determine their relative importance.

Buy-in is the agreement and support from stakeholders for a product strategy, roadmap, or decision, essential for successful implementation.

Understanding customer decision-making processes, motivations, and behaviors to improve product success.

Buyer experience encompasses all interactions a buyer has with a company throughout the purchasing process, shaping their perception of the brand.

A buyer persona is a detailed profile representing a company's ideal customer based on market research and data about existing customers.

The buyer's journey is the process a customer goes through, from recognizing a need to making a purchase decision and becoming a loyal advocate.

Effectively communicating with and selling to executive-level decision makers in organizations.

CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and CAE (Computer-Aided Engineering) are software tools used for designing, simulating, and optimizing products.

Managing long-term investments in product development, infrastructure, and business growth.

Automated system for continuously integrating and deploying code changes.

CRC (Class-Responsibility-Collaboration) cards are a brainstorming tool used in object-oriented software design to define classes and their interactions.

Customer Success Management (CSM) software helps businesses manage and optimize customer relationships to increase retention and loyalty.

Cadence in Agile refers to the regular rhythm or frequency of events, such as sprints or releases, that provide structure and predictability.

Process of determining which marketing efforts contribute to desired outcomes and conversions.

Technique of rolling out changes to small user groups before full deployment to reduce risk.

Cannibalization is when a company's new product takes sales away from its existing products rather than expanding the overall market.

Approach to ensuring IT resources meet business demands efficiently.

Capacity planning is the process of determining the resources (e.g., people, equipment) needed to meet demand for a product or service.

Method for determining future resource needs based on growth projections.

Captive product pricing is a strategy where the core product is priced low, but essential accessories have high profit margins.

In Agile, the "Card, Conversation, Confirmation" concept represents user stories on cards, discussions to clarify details, and acceptance tests.

Percentage of support cases resolved through self-service before reaching human agents.

Average duration between support case creation and successful resolution.

Documenting customer success stories to demonstrate product value and build credibility with prospects.

Cash flow is the total amount of money being transferred into and out of a business, representing the operating activities of an organization.

A cash flow budget is a financial planning tool used to estimate the timing and amounts of cash inflows and outflows over a specific period.

Centralized unit providing leadership and best practices in specific focus areas.

A Certified Product Manager has earned a professional certification demonstrating their knowledge and skills in product management.

Group evaluating proposed changes to IT systems for risk and impact.

Strategy for informing stakeholders about organizational changes effectively.

Group reviewing project changes for scope, schedule, and deliverable impacts.

System for managing and tracking changes to products or systems.

Change enablement involves providing the skills, tools, and processes to help individuals and organizations adapt to and embrace change.

Evaluation of how proposed changes affect various organizational aspects.

Change management is the process of planning, implementing, and monitoring changes to minimize disruption and ensure successful adoption.

Structured approach to transitioning people and organizations through change.

Change management principles are guidelines for effectively managing the people side of change to achieve desired outcomes.

Measure of organization's ability to implement and adopt changes successfully.

A changelog is a record of notable changes made to a software project, typically included with each release to inform users of new features, fixes.

Channels of distribution are the paths or routes that products take from the manufacturer to the end customer, such as wholesalers or retailers.

Role developing excellence within functional areas in agile organizations.

A Chief Experience Officer (CXO) oversees all aspects of customer interaction to ensure seamless, positive experiences across touchpoints and drive loyalty.

A Chief Product Officer (CPO) is an executive responsible for overseeing all aspects of an organization's product strategy and development.

Churn, or attrition, is the rate at which customers stop using a product or service over a given period, usually expressed as a percentage.

Churn analysis involves examining data to identify patterns and reasons behind customer attrition in order to develop strategies for retention.

Churn analytics is the process of measuring, analyzing and identifying customer churn rates using data to inform retention strategies.

Churn management is the proactive process of identifying and addressing the causes of customer churn to improve retention rates.

Statistical tools identifying customers likely to stop using products/services.

Churn rate is the percentage of customers who discontinue using a product or service within a specific time period, such as a month or year.

Churn rate calculation determines the percentage of customers lost over a time period by dividing churned customers by total customers.

Churn reduction are strategies aimed at decreasing customer attrition and increasing retention, often by improving the product or customer experience.

The circles method is a prioritization framework that plots initiatives on a four-quadrant matrix based on their impact and effort.

Click through rate (CTR) is the ratio of users who click on a link to the total number of users who view it, expressed as a percentage.

Study of users' clicking patterns on websites/apps to understand behavior.

Client retention refers to a company's ability to keep its paying customers over time, often measured by repeat purchases or engagement.

The percentage of clients who continue to use a company's services or make repeat purchases over a given time period, indicating loyalty and satisfaction.

A cloud adoption roadmap outlines an organization's strategy and timeline for migrating its IT infrastructure and services to the cloud.

Plan for moving applications and data to cloud platforms efficiently.

Design approach for applications built specifically for cloud environments.

Statistical method grouping similar data points into meaningful categories.

Co-branding is a marketing partnership where two brands collaborate to create a shared product or promotion, leveraging their combined audiences.

Measure of source code executed during testing to identify gaps.

Code review is the process of examining source code to identify defects, improve quality, and share knowledge among a development team.

Standards for evaluating code changes before integration into main codebase.

Optimizing user experience by managing the mental effort required to use your product.

Mental effort required to process information or complete tasks in an interface.

Cohort analysis examines user groups sharing common characteristics over time to uncover trends, engagement, and opportunities to optimize the user experience.

Study of color relationships and effects on human perception in design.

Sharing a simplified, high-level version of the product roadmap with customers builds trust and aligns expectations for future enhancements.

Schedule of communication activities and deliverables across organization.

Structure for planning and executing organizational communications effectively.

Tool mapping stakeholders to appropriate communication methods and frequencies.

Process of building and maintaining relationships with product/brand user community.

Testing approach ensuring software works across different platforms and configurations, validating functionality and identifying potential compatibility issues.

A competitive advantage is a factor that allows a company to outperform its competitors, such as lower cost or differentiated product.

Competitive analysis involves researching and comparing competitors' strategies, products, and market position to inform business decisions.

Competitive differentiation is the process of distinguishing a product from competitors' offerings in a way that provides unique value.

Equipping teams with intelligence and tools to win against competitors in the market.

Competitive intelligence is the process of gathering and analyzing information about competitors to support strategic decision-making.

A database collecting competitor and market information, enabling strategic analysis and decision-making through organized industry intelligence data.

A structured process for gathering, analyzing, and acting on competitive information across an organization, guiding decisions with actionable market insights.

A methodology for systematically gathering and analyzing market intelligence to inform business strategy through competitor insights and market trend analysis.

The competitive landscape refers to the current market conditions and existing players competing for the same customers or market share.

A competitive matrix is a tool to compare a company's product against competitors' offerings across key dimensions such as features or price.

Competitor analysis involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors to inform a company's strategy.

The complete product experience encompasses all interactions a user has with a product, including discovery, purchase, usage, and support.

A plan for creating and managing reusable software components, defining standards for development, documentation, and integration across system architecture.

A concept map is a visual diagram that organizes and represents relationships between ideas or information, often used for brainstorming or planning.

Concept review is the process of evaluating and refining a proposed product concept based on research, feedback, and alignment with strategy.

Concept testing evaluates potential customer reception of a new product or service idea before investing in its development and launch.

Process for maintaining product consistency through documented changes, version control, and tracking of system configurations throughout their lifecycle.

Repository tracking configuration items, relationships, and changes in IT infrastructure, enabling efficient system management and change control processes.

Understanding how thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions influence consumer behavior.

Framework managing containerized applications and infrastructure, defining deployment strategies and orchestration methods for optimal system operation.