Decoding the Jargon: A Glossary of Must‑Know Product Manager Acronyms & Terms
If you’ve ever sat through a stand‑up, roadmap review, or board meeting and thought the conversation sounded like alphabet soup, you’re not alone. Product Management (PM) is packed with shorthand that compresses big ideas into a few letters. This glossary explains the must‑know acronyms and terms-what they mean, why they matter, and how to use them-sprinkled with quotes, research, and pragmatic tips you can apply today.
Strategy & Alignment
OKR (Objectives & Key Results)
OKRs combine a qualitative Objective with 2–5 quantitative Key Results that indicate progress. Or as What Matters succinctly puts it: “OKRs are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals.” (What Matters)
Provenance: Popularized at Intel by Andy Grove and later brought to Google by John Doerr. (What Matters)
Use it when: You need focus, transparency, and alignment across teams for a quarter (or similar timebox).
Pitfall: Confusing KRs (outcomes) with tasks (outputs).
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A KPI is a quantifiable measure of performance against targets or peers-financial (e.g., gross margin) or operational (e.g., retention). They’re your vital signs; don’t set too many. (Investopedia)
NSM (North Star Metric)
A single metric that best captures the value your product delivers to customers and acts as the ultimate leading indicator for growth (e.g., “nights booked” for a marketplace). NSM should be stable over time and connected to customer value. (Amplitude)
How it differs from OKRs: NSM is persistent and strategy‑anchored; OKRs are time‑bound commitments to move inputs that drive the NSM. (Tim Herbig)
SMART goals
A mnemonic (widely credited to George T. Doran) for crafting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time‑bound. It’s a durable checklist to sanity‑check your OKRs and KPIs. (Wikipedia)
Customer & Problem Discovery
JTBD (Jobs To Be Done)
A theory and toolbox for understanding customer motivation: people “hire” products to make progress in a circumstance. “When we buy a product, we essentially ‘hire’ it to help us do a job.” (Harvard Business Review)
Look beyond demographics to the functional, social, and emotional “job” your product performs. (Christensen Institute)
PR/FAQ (Press Release & FAQ, a.k.a. “Working Backwards”)
An Amazon‑born practice: write a future press release + FAQ for your idea before you build, to align stakeholders around the customer outcome and clarity of the solution. (About Amazon)
TAM / SAM / SOM
TAM: Total Addressable Market (the full revenue opportunity).
SAM: Serviceable Addressable Market (the portion you can target with your model).
SOM: Serviceable Obtainable Market (what you can realistically capture soon). (HubSpot Blog)
SWOT & PESTLE
SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats-still a classic frame to map internal/external realities. (Harvard Business Review)
PESTLE: Macro forces-Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental-shaping your context. (Oxford College of Marketing Blog)
Building the Right Thing
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Eric Ries popularized MVP as a small, testable version to maximize validated learning with the least effort. His rule of thumb: “Remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek.” (Lean Startup Co.)
Tip: Prototype the riskiest assumption first (often about demand or usability), not the easiest feature.
PMF (Product‑Market Fit)
Marc Andreessen’s litmus test that customers are pulling the product from you: “The only thing that matters is getting to product/market fit.” (pmarchive.com)
Signal: Retention sticks, organic growth appears, support load shifts from “it doesn’t work” to “can it also do X?”
HEART (UX Metrics)
Google’s user‑centric measurement framework: Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task success-paired with Goals‑Signals‑Metrics to keep UX metrics actionable. (Google Research)
Growth, Experiments & Analytics
A/B Testing (a.k.a. Split Testing)
Randomly serve two variants to similar users and use statistics to see which wins on your goal metric. It’s now ubiquitous for product decisions. (Optimizely)
Proof point: The Obama 2008 campaign famously improved email sign‑ups by ~40% via A/B tests, a story that helped catalyze modern experimentation platforms. (WIRED)
Cohort Analysis
Group users by a shared start or action (e.g., “January sign‑ups”) to understand retention and behavior over time. Cohorts turn noisy averages into actionable insight. (Mixpanel Docs)
Pirate Metrics (AARRR)
Dave McClure’s funnel for product‑led growth: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue-a crisp way to pick the one stage you’ll improve next. (ProductPlan)
Engagement Activity Metrics
DAU / WAU / MAU: Daily/Weekly/Monthly Active Users.
DAU/MAU (“stickiness”): Frequency proxy-what share of monthly users return daily? Useful for consumer apps; pick the interval that matches your product’s natural rhythm. (Amplitude)
CX Metrics
NPS (Net Promoter Score): “How likely are you to recommend…?” A strong statistical correlate of growth in many industries; NPS leaders often outgrow peers 2×. (netpromotersystem.com)
CSAT: Customer Satisfaction-simple post‑interaction score. (Qualtrics)
CES: Customer Effort Score-how easy it was to accomplish a task or resolve an issue. Lower effort correlates with loyalty. (IBM)
Funnel & Ad Metrics (handy baselines)
CTR (Click‑Through Rate) = clicks ÷ impressions. (Google Help)
Conversion Rate = conversions ÷ interactions. (Google Help)
CPA / Cost‑per‑Action (or Acquisition) = spend ÷ actions (or customers). (Google Help)
Revenue & Unit Economics
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
All sales & marketing costs to acquire one new customer. Track by segment and channel. (Corporate Finance Institute)
LTV / CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)
The revenue (or gross profit) you expect from a customer over the relationship. Use it to guide acquisition spend and retention priorities. (Corporate Finance Institute)
LTV:CAC Ratio
A common SaaS heuristic is aiming for >3:1 (value created vs. acquisition cost), though context matters; early‑stage numbers are notoriously volatile. (For Entrepreneurs)
ARR / MRR (Annual / Monthly Recurring Revenue)
Normalized recurring revenue over a year or a month. MRR is your short‑term pulse; ARR is the long‑view. (Corporate Finance Institute)
ARPU (Average Revenue per User)
Revenue per user or account in a period-useful to track monetization upgrades and mix shifts. (Investopedia)
ACV (Annual Contract Value)
Average yearly value of a contract (often excludes one‑time fees). Handy for enterprise pipeline hygiene and forecasting. (Salesforce)
Churn (Customer & Revenue)
The rate at which customers (logo churn) or revenue (MRR churn) cancel or contract. Track both gross and net. Churn is a compounding headwind. (ChartMogul)
Why retention matters: “Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.” (Harvard Business Review)
Prioritization & Planning
RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort)
A scoring model from Intercom to reduce bias when ranking roadmaps. Formula:
RICE score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort. (Intercom)
Tip: Use consistent scales and review scores in discussion, not isolation.
MoSCoW
A requirement triage: Must‑have, Should‑have, Could‑have, Won’t‑have (this time). Helpful for scope management under time constraints. (agilebusiness.org)
WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First)
Prioritize by Cost of Delay ÷ Job Size to maximize economic throughput-especially in portfolio planning. (Scaled Agile Framework)
ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease)
A lightweight scoring model for growth experiments and quick wins. (Growth Method)
RACI / DACI
Clarify who does what on important decisions and deliverables.
RACI: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. (Atlassian)
DACI: Driver, Approver, Contributors, Informed. (Atlassian)
Delivery, Agile & Core Artifacts
PRD (Product Requirements Document)
Defines purpose, users, scope, and behaviors-your “single source of truth” for a release. Keep it concise and aligned to outcomes, not just features. (Atlassian)
MRD (Market Requirements Document)
Zooms out to the opportunity: market size, segments, competition, and high‑level capabilities customers need. (Aha!)
BRD (Business Requirements Document)
Captures the business problem, objectives, and constraints-often used with cross‑functional projects and vendors. (Asana)
Epic / Story / Story Points / Sprint / Velocity
Epic: Large body of work broken into stories.
User Story: End‑user‑framed requirement.
Story Points: Relative effort/complexity measure.
Sprint: Time‑boxed iteration in Scrum.
Velocity: Average story points completed per sprint-use for forecasting, not as a performance quota. (Atlassian)
Quick‑Reference Glossary (A→Z)
A/B Test – Controlled experiment comparing variants to a goal metric. (Optimizely)
ACV – Annual Contract Value per customer contract. (Salesforce)
AARRR (Pirate Metrics) – Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue. (ProductPlan)
ARR / MRR – Annual/Monthly recurring revenue. (Corporate Finance Institute)
ARPU – Average revenue per user. (Investopedia)
BRD – Business Requirements Document. (Asana)
CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost. (Corporate Finance Institute)
CES – Customer Effort Score (ease of completing a task). (IBM)
CLV / LTV – Customer Lifetime Value. (Corporate Finance Institute)
Cohort Analysis – Behavior of user groups over time. (Mixpanel Docs)
CPA / CPC / CTR – Cost per Action / Click; Click‑Through Rate. (Google Help)
DAU / WAU / MAU – Active users in daily/weekly/monthly windows. (Mixpanel)
DACI / RACI – Decision and responsibility frameworks. (Atlassian)
HEART – Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task success (UX metrics). (Google Research)
ICE / RICE – Prioritization scorecards. (Growth Method)
JTBD – Jobs To Be Done (the “hire” lens on customer needs). (Harvard Business Review)
KPI – Key Performance Indicator. (Investopedia)
MVP – Minimum Viable Product (maximize learning per unit effort). (Lean Startup Co.)
NPS – Net Promoter Score (loyalty & growth correlate). (netpromotersystem.com)
NSM – North Star Metric (single value metric to rally around). (Amplitude)
OKR – Objectives and Key Results (quarterly goal system). (What Matters)
PESTLE – Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental scan. (Oxford College of Marketing Blog)
PMF – Product‑Market Fit (customers pull; growth sticks). (pmarchive.com)
PR/FAQ – Press Release & FAQ (Amazon Working Backwards). (About Amazon)
PRD / MRD – Product / Market Requirements Documents. (Atlassian)
SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time‑bound goals. (Wikipedia)
SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. (Harvard Business Review)
TAM / SAM / SOM – Market sizing trio. (HubSpot Blog)
WSJF – Weighted Shortest Job First prioritization. (Scaled Agile Framework)
How to Put This Glossary to Work
Pick one “guiding star.” Decide your NSM and confirm it truly mirrors customer value. Then cascade OKRs to move its inputs. (Amplitude)
Measure what matters (lightly). Choose a small set of KPIs across AARRR, plus HEART for experience quality. Avoid vanity metrics. (ProductPlan)
Prioritize with economics. Use RICE for roadmap hygiene and WSJF when time‑to‑value and cost of delay dominate. (Intercom)
Test, don’t guess. Validate risky assumptions with MVPs and A/B tests; celebrate invalidated ideas early. (Lean Startup Co.)
Watch retention and payback. Track churn, LTV, CAC, and the LTV:CAC ratio; tune acquisition and onboarding accordingly. (Benchmarks vary, but many SaaS operators target >3:1.) (ChartMogul)
One last reminder from the trenches: “Net Promoter” leaders tend to grow faster, but causality isn’t guaranteed-pair NPS with hard behavioral metrics and actual retention. (netpromotersystem.com)
Keep this glossary handy, and you’ll translate the alphabet soup into precise conversations about outcomes, trade‑offs, and learning. That clarity is a PM’s real superpower.