An open-ended and creative approach to problem-solving or planning, often involving brainstorming and envisioning future possibilities without constraints. Useful for fostering innovation and creative thinking in strategic planning and ideation sessions.
An organizational structure that emphasizes flexibility, employee initiative, and decentralized decision-making. Useful for fostering innovation and rapid response to changes within an organization.
The process of testing and evaluating a design to ensure it meets user needs and business goals before final implementation. Crucial for ensuring that designs are effective and meet intended objectives.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system. Essential for managing the complexities of software development and ensuring project success.
A system of design variables used to maintain consistency in a design system, such as colors, fonts, and spacing. Crucial for ensuring uniformity and scalability in design across different platforms and products.
A psychological phenomenon where a person who has done a favor for someone is more likely to do another favor for that person than if they had received a favor from them. Useful for building positive relationships and encouraging cooperative behavior in design and user interactions.
The strategies and tools used to ensure that sales, marketing, and customer service teams have the necessary resources to effectively promote and support a product. Essential for aligning internal teams and ensuring successful product adoption and customer satisfaction.
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a method used to transform customer needs into engineering characteristics for a product or service. Essential for ensuring that customer requirements are systematically incorporated into the design and development process.
A role in Agile project management responsible for ensuring the team follows Agile practices, facilitating meetings, and removing obstacles to progress. Essential for supporting Agile teams and ensuring successful implementation of Scrum practices.
A simplified, informal language used to describe the logic and steps of an algorithm or program, without syntax of actual programming languages. Useful for planning and communicating algorithms and program structures before implementation in digital product development.
eXtreme Programming (XP) is an agile software development methodology focused on customer satisfaction and continuous improvement. It enhances software quality and responsiveness to changing requirements through frequent releases of functional software.
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the process of managing the people side of change to achieve desired business outcomes. Essential for ensuring successful implementation of changes within an organization.
An Agile project management framework that uses iterative cycles, called sprints, to deliver incremental improvements and adapt to changing requirements. Crucial for managing projects in a flexible and iterative manner, ensuring continuous improvement and responsiveness.
A cognitive bias where people ignore general statistical information in favor of specific information. Critical for designers to use general statistical information to improve decision-making accuracy and avoid bias.
The competitive advantage gained by the initial significant occupant of a market segment, which can lead to brand recognition and customer loyalty. Important for understanding the benefits and risks of being an early entrant in a new market.
A structured evaluation process where a product's design, functionality, and user experience are assessed, often by peers or experts. Essential for identifying areas for improvement and fostering a culture of continuous enhancement.
A visual representation of a sequence of events or user interactions, used to plan and communicate the flow of a narrative or process. Important for visualizing and communicating design concepts and user journeys.
A cognitive bias where people favor members of their own group over those in other groups. Important for designing inclusive and equitable experiences for users.
Fundamental guidelines that inform and shape the design process, ensuring consistency, usability, and effectiveness in product creation. Essential for creating coherent, user-centered designs that align with organizational goals and user needs.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction based on their likelihood to recommend a product or service to others. Crucial for gauging overall customer sentiment and predicting business growth through customer advocacy.
Business-to-Business-to-Business (B2B2B), a business model where businesses sell products or services to other businesses that then sell them to additional businesses. Crucial for understanding multi-tiered business relationships and strategies.
A software development practice where code changes are automatically deployed to production without manual intervention. Important for maintaining a high level of productivity and quality in software development.
Information Visualization (InfoVis) is the study and practice of visual representations of abstract data to reinforce human cognition. Crucial for transforming complex data into intuitive visual formats, enabling faster insights and better decision-making.
The process of creating an early model of a product to test and validate ideas, features, and design choices before full-scale production. Essential for validating design choices and gathering user feedback early in the development process.
The process of creating a simplified visual guide or blueprint for the layout and structure of a webpage or app, focusing on functionality and content placement. Crucial for planning and communicating design structure before full development.
The level of sophistication and integration of design practices within an organization's processes and culture. Essential for assessing and improving the effectiveness of design in driving business value and innovation.
Node Package Manager (NPM) is a package manager for JavaScript, enabling developers to share and reuse code modules in their projects. Crucial for managing dependencies and streamlining development workflows in JavaScript applications.
Also known as feature creep, the continuous addition of new features to a product, often beyond the original scope, leading to project delays and resource strain. Important for managing project scope and ensuring timely delivery.
A cognitive bias where people overestimate the importance of information that is readily available. Essential for designers to understand and mitigate how easily accessible information can disproportionately influence decisions.
A dark pattern where availability is falsely limited to pressure users into making a purchase. Awareness of this deceptive practice is important to provide honest information about product availability.
Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR) are the four main principles of web accessibility. These principles are essential for creating inclusive digital experiences that can be accessed and used by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities.
Web Accessibility Initiative รป Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) is a set of guidelines for making web content and applications accessible. Essential for ensuring web accessibility and inclusivity for people with disabilities.
An enhanced version of the SCAMPER technique that includes additional prompts to further stimulate creativity and innovation. Useful for expanding the scope of ideation and generating more diverse ideas.
Portfolio Management is the process of overseeing and coordinating an organization's collection of products to achieve strategic objectives. Crucial for balancing resources, maximizing ROI, and aligning products with business goals.
A cognitive bias where people seek out more information than is needed to make a decision, often leading to analysis paralysis. Crucial for designing decision-making processes that avoid information overload for users.
The tendency to overestimate how much our future preferences and behaviors will align with our current preferences and behaviors. Important for understanding user behavior and designing experiences that account for changes over time.
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is a program developed by W3C to improve web accessibility. Essential for creating guidelines and resources to help make the web accessible to people with disabilities.
A cognitive bias where people ignore the relevance of sample size in making judgments, often leading to erroneous conclusions. Crucial for designers to account for appropriate sample sizes in research and analysis.
A moment of significant change in a process or system, where the direction of growth, performance, or trend shifts markedly. Important for recognizing critical transitions in design or business strategies, enabling timely adjustments and informed decision-making.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web. Essential for creating and maintaining protocols and guidelines that enable the Web to function and evolve.
The accumulated consequences of poor design decisions, which can hinder future development and usability. Crucial for understanding and addressing the long-term impact of design choices.
A set of ten general principles for user interface design created by Jakob Nielsen to improve usability. Essential for evaluating and improving user interface designs.
An overarching idea or theme that guides the design process, providing direction and coherence to the final product. Essential for ensuring that all design elements align with a central vision and purpose.
Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment or compare the efficiency of different investments. Crucial for assessing the financial effectiveness of business decisions, projects, or initiatives.
Emotional states where individuals are calm and rational, often contrasted with hot states where emotions run high. Important for understanding decision-making processes and designing experiences that accommodate both states.
A cognitive bias where individuals overestimate their own abilities, qualities, or performance relative to others. Important for understanding user self-perception and designing systems that account for inflated self-assessments.
An environment that replicates the production environment, used for final testing before deployment. Crucial for ensuring that digital products are thoroughly tested and perform as expected before going live.
User Experience (UX) refers to the overall experience of a person using a product, system, or service, encompassing all aspects of the end-user's interaction. Crucial for creating products that are not only functional but also enjoyable, efficient, and satisfying to use.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then provide feedback for future product development. Essential for validating product ideas quickly and cost-effectively, allowing teams to learn about customer needs without fully developing the product.
The process of managing multiple related projects in a coordinated way to achieve strategic business objectives. Crucial for ensuring alignment and efficiency across multiple projects to achieve broader goals.
Model-View-Controller (MVC) is an architectural pattern that separates an application into three main logical components: the Model (data), the View (user interface), and the Controller (processes that handle input). Essential for creating modular, maintainable, and scalable software applications by promoting separation of concerns.
A team responsible for developing and maintaining the foundational systems and services that support other teams and products. Crucial for ensuring scalability and efficiency across the organization.
A structured communication technique originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts. Important for gathering expert opinions and making informed decisions.
Market Requirements Document (MRD) is a comprehensive document that outlines the market's needs, target audience, and business objectives for a product. It serves as a crucial tool for aligning product development efforts with market demands and business goals, ensuring that the final product meets customer needs and achieves market success.
The systematic process of capturing, evaluating, and implementing ideas to drive innovation, reflecting a collective commitment to continuous improvement and product excellence. Essential for harnessing team creativity and maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes successful product development.
A prioritization framework used in product management to evaluate features based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. Crucial for making informed decisions about which product features to prioritize and develop.
Application Release Automation (ARA) is the process of automating the release of applications, ensuring consistency and reducing errors. Crucial for accelerating the delivery of software updates and maintaining high-quality digital products.
Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a visual representation of the relationships between entities in a database. Essential for designing and understanding the data structure and relationships within digital products.
A detailed description of a system's behavior as it responds to a request from one of its stakeholders, often used to capture functional requirements. Essential for understanding and documenting how users will interact with a system to achieve their goals.
A collective term for Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP), and Request for Quotation (RFQ) processes used in procurement. Crucial for managing vendor selection and procurement processes in digital product development.