Capacity allocation
An explicit decision about how much time, money and team capacity will be assigned to different goals or types of work.
Reference
Glossary
Clear definitions of product management, strategy, and leadership terms used throughout this blog.
Glossary terms
DACI framework
A decision framework that assigns a Driver, Approver, Contributors and Informed stakeholders.
Decision log
A written record of important decisions, including what was decided, why it was decided and the context available at the time.
Decision rights
An explicit agreement about who makes a decision, who contributes context and who must be informed after it is made.
Disagree and commit
A decision-making principle where people challenge a decision before it is made, then support it once the decision is final.
Fake comparability
The illusion that unlike investments become comparable because they have been placed in the same spreadsheet and given scores.
Founder bottleneck
A situation where too many product decisions depend on the founder, slowing the team and limiting its ability to operate independently.
Fractional product leadership
Senior product leadership embedded part-time in a company without the cost or commitment of making an immediate full-time hire.
HEART framework
A framework for measuring user experience through Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention and Task Success.
ICE framework
A lightweight way to compare product ideas using Impact, Confidence and Effort.
Jobs to Be Done
A framework for understanding the progress a customer is trying to make and why they choose one solution over another.
Kano model
A framework that groups product attributes by how their presence or absence affects customer satisfaction.
Mandatory work
Work that must happen to meet legal, regulatory, contractual, security or operational obligations, even when it creates no visible growth.
MoSCoW method
A prioritisation method that groups work into Must Have, Should Have, Could Have and Won't Have categories.
Never list
A written record of ideas the organisation has deliberately decided not to build, pursue or investigate.
North Star Metric
A measure intended to represent the core value customers receive from a product over time.
Objectives and Key Results
A goal-setting framework that pairs a clear objective with measurable results showing whether progress was made.
One-way door and two-way door decisions
A way to separate difficult-to-reverse decisions from decisions that can be changed relatively easily.
Opportunity cost
The value of the best alternative given up when people, money or time are committed to one option.
Outcome ownership
Accountability for moving a customer or business result, rather than merely completing a feature or project.
Outcome vs output
The difference between completing work and creating the customer or business change the work was intended to produce.
Portfolio roadmap
An executive view of major investments, intended outcomes, committed capacity and the next decision, rather than a timeline of every feature.
Product delivery
The work required to turn an approved product decision into something customers can use.
Product discovery
The work used to understand a problem, test assumptions and reduce uncertainty before making a larger product investment.
Product function
The people, responsibilities and decision mechanisms that turn customer and business context into product direction.
Product judgement
The ability to make sound product decisions when the evidence is incomplete, conflicting or impossible to reduce to a framework.
Product motion
A distinct way a company creates, delivers and captures value. Software, consulting and bespoke work may sit in one business but run on different economics.
Product operating model
The way product decisions, responsibilities, teams and workflows are organised across a company.
Product operating rhythm
The recurring cadence through which a company reviews evidence, makes product decisions, reallocates capacity and checks results.
Product roadmap
A view of the product investments, problems or outcomes a team expects to work on over time.
Product strategy
A set of choices about where a product will compete, which problems it will focus on and how it expects to win.
Product Strategy Canvas
A one-page structure for organising and communicating the choices, assumptions and actions behind a product strategy.
Product-market fit
The point at which a product is solving a meaningful problem for a market strongly enough to create sustained demand.
RICE framework
A prioritisation framework that compares ideas using Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort.
SCQA framework
A writing and communication structure built around the Situation, Complication, Question and Answer.
Shape Up
A product development method built around shaped pitches, fixed time budgets and deliberate bets rather than an endless backlog.
Strategic bet
A deliberate investment based on a belief about the market, customer or business that has not yet been fully proven.
Trust battery
A metaphor for how repeated interactions increase or reduce the trust between people, teams and leaders.
Work in progress
Work that has been started but has not yet reached a useful finished state.
