Product management terms, explained plainly
Product management comes with a lot of acronyms, and most of them are simple ideas wearing a suit. Each page below takes one, says what it means in a sentence, and then shows it working on a real problem. Several have the same hands-on exercise the app uses, so you can try the idea instead of just reading about it.
OKRs vs KPIs: what’s the difference?
A number you watch vs a goal you chase, and how one becomes the other.
Leading vs lagging indicators
The number that warns you early and the one that proves it worked.
What is an MVP?
The smallest thing that answers one question, and the four kinds of fake.
What is a PRD?
What you’re building, what you’re not, and how you’ll know. On one page.
What is a value proposition?
Why someone would pick you over what they do today, in one sentence.
TAM, SAM and SOM, explained
Everyone, the part you can reach, and the slice you can win.
What is an ideal customer profile?
Who gets the most from your product, and why the user isn’t always the buyer.
Where these words come from
Most of these terms show up in the same few places: a planning meeting, a document somebody asks you to write, or a pitch for money. OKRs and KPIs are how a team says what it’s aiming at and how it’s doing. An MVP and a PRD are how it decides what to build first and writes that down. TAM, SAM and SOM, the ideal customer profile and the value proposition are how it explains who the product is for and why they’d pay.
Which one to read first
New to all of it
Start with the value proposition. Almost everything else is some way of checking whether that promise is true.
Planning a project
Read MVP, then PRD. One decides the smallest thing worth building. The other writes it down so everyone builds the same thing.
Setting goals
Read OKRs vs KPIs, then leading vs lagging indicators, which explains why the number you watch every week usually isn’t the one you care about most.
Pitching an idea
Read TAM, SAM and SOM, then the ideal customer profile. Together they answer “how big is this, and who exactly is it for?”
How these pages work
Each one opens with a one-paragraph answer, then shows the idea on a real problem, with the questions people ask about it at the end. Some have the same exercise the app uses, like building an OKR or cutting an MVP down to size, so you can try it instead of reading about it.
Learn it by doing it
Product Management is a course for curious teens, in five-minute lessons with something to play with in every one. Part I is free on iPhone, iPad and Android. No account, no ads.