Product Development Glossary
Clear definitions for the technical terms, frameworks, and concepts you'll encounter when building software products. No jargon, just useful explanations.
All terms
What Is a Fractional CTO for Startups?
A fractional CTO provides part-time technical architecture, vendor milestone audits, and VC technical diligence for seed-stage startup founders.
What Is AI-Native Application Architecture?
AI-native application architecture designs software around vector retrieval, structured JSON tool calling, and deterministic fallback guardrails.
What Are Stripe Connect Custom Accounts?
Stripe Connect Custom accounts let marketplace operators control 100% of vendor onboarding UI, split fee routing, and payout schedules via API.
What Is Headless Marketplace Architecture?
Headless marketplace architecture decouples a custom Next.js or React UI from transactional backend APIs like Sharetribe Flex and Stripe Connect.
What Is a Fixed-Price Milestone Contract?
A fixed-price milestone contract divides software scope into sequential sprints with capped pricing, objective test gates, and escrow IP release.
What is Blockchain?
A beginner-friendly guide on blockchain for startup founders, covering key concepts, benefits, challenges, and how to use it effectively.
What is Cloud Computing?
Learn how cloud computing helps startups scale faster, reduce costs, and stay agile. A founder-friendly breakdown of the essentials.
What is A SAFE Agreement?
Learn what a SAFE agreement is, how it works, and why it’s a popular choice for startup funding. A beginner-friendly guide for founders.
What Are Crowdfunding Basics Every Startup Founder Should Know?
Learn how crowdfunding can help your startup secure funding and validate your idea. A beginner-friendly guide for founders.
What is a Convertible Note?
Learn the basics of convertible notes, a flexible funding tool for startups, in this beginner-friendly guide.
What is Click Through Rate (CTR)?
Learn what click-through rate (CTR) means, how to calculate it, and practical ways to improve clicks across search, ads, email, and landing pages.
What is a Term Sheet?
Learn the essentials of term sheets in this beginner-friendly guide for startup founders, covering key terms, negotiation tips, and common pitfalls to avoid.
What Is Product Design? A Guide for Existing Software Teams
A practical guide to product design for live software: design debt, evidence, accessibility, engineering handoff, prioritization, and a fixed sprint.
Product roadmaps for existing software teams: Decisions, dependencies, and evidence
Build an evidence-led product roadmap for an existing software team using outcome decisions, dependencies, capacity, risk, and now-next-later governance.
What is Performance Marketing?
Learn how performance marketing can accelerate your startup's growth by focusing on measurable, ROI-driven campaigns.
What is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)?
A comprehensive guide for startup founders on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Learn how SaaS can transform your business operations and drive growth.
What Is B2C? Engineering a Consumer Product That Can Scale
B2C defined for established software teams, with practical guidance on identity, payments, privacy, operations, reliability, abuse, and backlog risk.
What is Venture Capital (VC)?
Learn how venture capital works, its benefits, and how to attract investors as a startup founder. Understand the VC process from a beginner’s perspective.