A practice of performing testing activities earlier in the software development lifecycle to identify and address issues sooner. Essential for improving software quality, reducing defects, and accelerating development cycles in digital product design.
A decision-making tool that helps prioritize tasks or projects based on specific criteria, such as impact and effort. Essential for effective project management and resource allocation.
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.
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.
A strategic planning tool that outlines the future direction of a project or product using Kanban principles, emphasizing continuous delivery and improvement. Important for aligning team efforts and maintaining focus on long-term goals.
A strategic planning tool that focuses on outcomes and objectives rather than specific features, allowing for flexibility in achieving goals. Important for maintaining strategic focus and adaptability in product development.
A fictional representation of a user segment, created based on user research to guide design decisions and ensure the product meets the needs of its target audience. Crucial for keeping design efforts focused on user needs and preferences.
Elements of a service or product that are not visible to the user but are essential for delivering the front-stage experience. Crucial for understanding and designing the full user experience, including behind-the-scenes elements.
The study of how people make choices about what and how much to do at various points in time, often involving trade-offs between costs and benefits occurring at different times. Crucial for designing systems that account for delayed gratification and long-term planning.
Proof of Concept (PoC) is a demonstration, usually in the form of a prototype or pilot project, to verify that a concept or theory has practical potential. Crucial for validating ideas, demonstrating feasibility, and securing support for further development in product design and innovation processes.
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 distributed version control system for tracking changes in source code during software development. Essential for collaborative development and managing codebase evolution in digital product design.
A Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) chart is a project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project, representing the project timeline and dependencies graphically. Essential for planning and managing complex projects efficiently.
An iterative design process that uses algorithms and computational tools to generate a wide range of design solutions based on defined constraints and goals. Crucial for exploring innovative and optimized design solutions.
A strategic plan that outlines the goals, milestones, and steps needed to deliver a product that achieves desired outcomes incrementally, providing a clear path forward. Essential for guiding product development and ensuring alignment with strategic objectives.
A list of tasks and deliverables that a team commits to completing during a sprint, providing a clear focus and scope for the sprint's duration. Essential for organizing and prioritizing work within an Agile sprint.
A type of bar chart that represents a project schedule, showing the start and finish dates of elements within the project. Important for planning and visualizing project timelines and dependencies.
Walk the Wall (WTW) is a practice where team members physically move along a wall displaying their project's progress, discussing and updating tasks. Essential for fostering team collaboration and ensuring transparency in project status.
A comprehensive review of a brand's design assets and practices to ensure consistency and effectiveness. Important for maintaining a cohesive and effective brand identity.
A framework that outlines how a product is developed, managed, and delivered, including roles, processes, and tools used throughout its lifecycle. Crucial for ensuring efficient and effective product management and development.
A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller tasks or user stories, used in agile project management to organize work. Essential for managing and organizing large projects in agile development.
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.
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 process of identifying unusual patterns or outliers in data that do not conform to expected behavior. Crucial for detecting fraud, errors, or other significant deviations in various contexts.
The systematic computational analysis of data or statistics to understand and improve business performance. Essential for data-driven decision making in design, product management, and marketing.
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is a language for specifying business process behaviors based on web services. Important for defining and automating complex business processes in digital product workflows.
A document that provides a high-level overview of a product, including its objectives, target market, key features, and requirements, used to guide development efforts. Essential for ensuring that all stakeholders have a clear and consistent understanding of the product.
Software agents that can perform tasks or services for an individual based on verbal commands. Crucial for enhancing user experience through hands-free interaction and automation.
A structured framework for organizing information, defining the relationships between concepts within a specific domain to enable better understanding, sharing, and reuse of knowledge. Important for creating clear and consistent data models, improving communication, and enhancing the efficiency of information retrieval and management.
The use of touch sensations to communicate information to users, often through vibrations or other tactile responses in devices. Essential for enhancing user interaction and providing sensory feedback.
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.
An event where developers, designers, and other stakeholders collaborate intensively on software projects, typically within a short timeframe. Important for fostering innovation, team collaboration, and rapid prototyping of new ideas in digital product development.
Actions, messages, or visuals that do not align with the established brand identity and values. Important for identifying and correcting deviations from brand standards.
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a productivity methodology that emphasizes capturing tasks, organizing them, and taking action. Essential for improving personal and team productivity and task management.
The integration and application of knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines to enhance understanding and innovation. Crucial for fostering a holistic approach to problem-solving and design.
A graphical representation showing the amount of work remaining versus time, used in agile project management to track progress. Crucial for managing project progress and ensuring timely completion of tasks.
A visual representation of the stages a sales opportunity goes through, helping to track progress and forecast revenue. Important for managing sales processes and predicting future sales.
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.
A brainstorming technique that involves listing all possible attributes of a product or problem to generate new ideas and solutions. Useful for generating creative solutions and improving product features.
The orchestration and optimization of design operations to improve efficiency, quality, and impact of the design function within an organization. Crucial for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of design teams.
The process of anticipating, detecting, and resolving errors in software or systems to ensure smooth operation. Important for creating reliable and user-friendly software applications.
A phenomenon where vivid mental images can interfere with actual perception, causing individuals to mistake imagined experiences for real ones. Important for ensuring that marketing and product design set realistic user expectations to avoid disappointment and maintain brand integrity.
A meeting at the end of a sprint where the development team presents their completed work to stakeholders. Crucial for gathering feedback and demonstrating progress.
A time-constrained, intensive process that helps teams quickly design, prototype, and test ideas. Important for rapidly developing and validating design solutions.
The process of making small, continuous improvements to products, services, or processes over time. Important for sustaining growth and maintaining competitiveness through ongoing improvements.
Measurements used to evaluate the success of an organization, employee, or process in meeting goals. Necessary for assessing performance and driving continuous improvement.
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 structured routine for continuous improvement based on a scientific approach to problem-solving and process optimization. Crucial for fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within product design teams.
A symbol, word, or words legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product. Crucial for protecting brand identity and ensuring legal rights to brand elements.
Enterprise Project Management (EPM) is a comprehensive approach to managing projects across an entire organization. Essential for coordinating complex, cross-functional projects and achieving organizational objectives.
A field research method where researchers observe and interview users in their natural environment to understand their tasks and challenges. Crucial for gaining authentic insights into user behavior and needs.
An agile methodology focused on delivering value to the customer through principles such as eliminating waste, amplifying learning, and delivering as fast as possible. Crucial for improving efficiency and effectiveness in software development processes.
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a comprehensive management approach focused on continuous improvement in all aspects of an organization. Essential for ensuring high-quality products and services and achieving customer satisfaction.
Minimum Viable Experience (MVE) is the simplest version of a product that delivers a complete and satisfying user experience while meeting core user needs. Essential for rapidly validating product concepts and user experience designs while ensuring that even early versions of a product provide value and a positive impression to users.
The practice of ensuring that all brand activities and communications are consistent with the brand's values, mission, and identity. Essential for maintaining a cohesive brand image and fostering trust and loyalty among customers.
A prioritized list of tasks, features, and technical debt items that need to be addressed by the engineering team. Essential for managing and organizing work in software development projects.
A consensus-building technique where participants show their level of agreement or support by raising zero to five fingers. Useful for quickly gauging team agreement and making collaborative decisions in product design and development meetings.
A creative thinking technique where the typical process is reversed to generate new ideas by considering the opposite of conventional assumptions. Useful for fostering innovation and challenging existing assumptions in problem-solving.
The process of identifying, assessing, and controlling dependencies between tasks or projects to minimize risks and ensure smooth project execution. Crucial for effective project management and delivery.
Quantitative data that provides broad, numerical insights but often lacks the contextual depth that thick data provides. Useful for capturing high-level trends and patterns, but should be complemented with thick data to gain a deeper understanding of user behavior and motivations.