The Product Lexicon (v1)

There are a lot of terms tossed around when you work in product, and whether you’re new to the PM role or recently joined a company where they have their own interpretation, it helps to have a universal lexicon for clarity of communication.

I’m planning to reference these concepts regularly in future posts, so I figured I’d spell out my standard definitions. I may also occasionally append to this list…

Product Vision

The future state you’re trying to create / achieve by building your product, which is usually not an overnight proposition and requires a multi-year journey.

Product Strategy

The intentional steps you’ll take to achieve the product vision. Imagine there are a multitude of ways to get to the end-state vision - your product strategy is the explicit path you’ve chosen. A good product strategy serves as your decision-making framework, because you can easily answer whether a step makes sense to take (or not).

Product Principles

The manner in which you choose to build products, given …