Speak the language
The PMM glossary
The words that make you make sense in an interview. Use these correctly and you already sound like you belong.
- Positioning
- the market context you deliberately choose to be judged in.
- Messaging
- the words that carry your positioning to a specific audience.
- Go-to-market (GTM)
- the plan for how a product reaches and wins its market.
- Launch tiers
- sizing a launch (tier 1, 2, 3) so effort matches impact.
- Sales enablement
- the assets and training that help reps sell (battlecards, decks, one-pagers).
- Battlecard
- a one-page cheat sheet for beating a specific competitor.
- Win/loss analysis
- interviews with won and lost deals to learn why you win or lose.
- ICP (ideal customer profile)
- the specific type of company you're built to serve.
- Persona
- the specific human you're selling to, with their goals and fears.
- Value proposition
- the one clear reason a buyer should choose you.
- Competitive intelligence
- tracking competitors' moves, claims, and pricing.
- Category
- the mental box buyers put you in before they start comparing you.
- TAM / SAM / SOM
- total, serviceable, and obtainable market size.
- PLG (product-led growth)
- the product itself drives acquisition and expansion.
- ARR / MRR
- annual and monthly recurring revenue.
- Churn
- the rate at which customers leave.
- Activation
- the moment a new user first gets real value.
- Time to value (TTV)
- how fast a customer reaches that first value.
- One-pager
- a single-page summary of a product's value for buyers or reps.
- Objection map
- a ranked list of the reasons buyers hesitate, with an answer to each.
- Competitive alternative
- what a buyer would do if your product did not exist, including a rival, a spreadsheet, or nothing. In an interview: "The real competitive alternative here is the spreadsheet, not the other vendor."
- ICP vs persona
- the ICP is the type of company you sell to. A persona is the person inside it. In an interview: name both before you talk about messaging.
- Attach rate
- the share of customers who buy an add-on along with the main product. In an interview: use it when asked how you would measure a packaging change.
- Message house
- a one-page structure with one core message on top, three supporting points beneath, and proof under each. In an interview: offer to sketch one for their product.
- Proof point
- a fact, number or customer quote that backs up a claim. In an interview: say which proof point carries each claim.
- Claims matrix
- a table that lists each claim, who it is for, the evidence behind it, and where it can be used. In an interview: show that you know a claim without proof gets cut by legal or sales.
- GEO (AI-search visibility)
- making sure AI assistants describe your product accurately when buyers ask them. In an interview: mention you checked what ChatGPT and Perplexity say about the company.
- Technical PMM
- a PMM for a product built for engineers or other technical buyers, who need the details to be right. In an interview: show you can read docs and ask an engineer a good question.
- Developer marketing
- reaching developers through docs, samples, community and open source rather than ads. In an interview: be ready to say why developers distrust marketing and what earns their trust.
- PQL (product-qualified lead)
- a user who has used the free product enough to look ready to buy. In an interview: say which in-product actions you would count.
- Sales play
- a packaged set of talking points, assets and steps for one sales situation. In an interview: describe one you would build for a launch.
Page updated October 6, 2026.