PM Glossary

A growth funnel: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, Referral.

A controlled experiment where users see one of two versions; the winner is chosen by statistical significance on a metric.

Entry-level PM role, typically 0-2 years experience, often part of a rotational program at FAANG.

The subscription revenue a SaaS product would generate in a year at current run rate.

The point where a new user experiences core product value for the first time (the "aha" moment).

Business-to-Business — products sold to companies rather than end consumers.

Business-to-Consumer — products sold directly to individuals.

An Amazon interviewer, external to the hiring team, with veto power to maintain hiring quality.

A sales/adoption motion where individual users adopt first and then influence org purchase.

The total sales & marketing spend divided by the number of new customers acquired.

The rate at which users stop using or paying for a product.

Analyzing users grouped by a shared characteristic (e.g., signup week) over time to compare behavior.

The practice of increasing the % of users completing a target action.

Daily / Monthly Active Users — the standard engagement metric for consumer products.

A user-centered problem-solving framework: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.

Research work done before committing to build a feature; validates the problem and solution direction.

A large body of work made up of multiple stories; usually spans multiple sprints.

A test set used to evaluate an ML/AI model or feature. The single most important artifact in AI PM.

Additional revenue from existing customers via upsell, cross-sell, or usage growth.

Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google. Shorthand for top-tier US tech employers.

A runtime toggle that turns a feature on/off, enabling gradual rollout and instant kill.

The onboarding a new user sees on first login.

The plan to launch and grow a product — target segments, positioning, pricing, channels.

The total value of goods sold through a marketplace, before fees or refunds.

A framework for identifying the underlying progress customers hire products to make.

The primary metric a team is graded on. Should be small in number and directly ownable.

The total revenue a customer generates before churning. Paired with CAC as the growth health check.

Prioritization framework: Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have.

The smallest version of a product that delivers real value and validates a hypothesis.

A survey metric asking "would you recommend?" scored -100 to +100.

The revenue retained from an existing cohort of customers over a period, including expansion and churn.

A goal-setting framework: qualitative Objective paired with measurable Key Results.

A go-to-market motion where the product itself is the primary driver of acquisition and expansion.

The state where a product satisfies a market's need well enough to drive organic pull.

The primary spec document for a feature or product.

Prioritization framework: (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort.

The percentage of users who return to a product over a defined period (D1, D7, D30 are common).

Interview answer format: Situation, Task, Action, Result — the default for behavioral questions.

A committed uptime or performance guarantee to customers, often 99.9%+.

Total, Serviceable, and Obtainable Addressable Market — the standard market sizing triple.

Base salary + bonus + equity + benefits. The number to negotiate.

A metric that looks good on a slide but doesn't reflect real business health (raw pageviews, follower count).