A
Actionable Insights
Data someone has formatted into a slide. The insights are rarely acted upon. The slide, however, is forwarded widely.
Adjusted EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and everything else that makes the number inconvenient. Also known as "earnings before bad stuff."
Agile
A software development methodology originally designed to reduce bureaucracy. Now primarily a source of additional meetings, certifications, and a new bureaucracy layered on top of the old one.
AI-First
A corporate strategy in which the letters "AI" are added to existing products, press releases, and job titles. The technology stack remains unchanged. The valuation does not.
Alignment
The state of everyone agreeing, or at least no longer openly disagreeing, with a decision that has already been made. Achieved through meetings. Maintained through exhaustion.
B
Bandwidth
The amount of additional work a person can absorb before something breaks. Often assessed by people who have never checked.
Best Practice
Something another company did that worked once, in a different context, under different conditions, which consultants now recommend you adopt universally.
Bias Toward Action
A cultural value meaning "do something, anything, before fully understanding the problem." Responsible for a meaningful share of the work that later requires a restructuring.
Boil the Ocean
Attempting something unrealistically ambitious. Used as a warning by the same leaders who set the unrealistic targets.
C
Capital Efficient
Spending has stopped. Growth has also stopped. Whether these are related is not discussed.
Circle Back
To revisit a topic at a later time that will never be specified and will never arrive. A polite burial.
Core Competency
The one thing a company does that it hasn't yet outsourced, offshored, or automated. Subject to annual review.
Cross-Functional
Involving people from multiple departments, none of whom have the authority to make a decision, all of whom have the authority to block one.
Culture Fit
A hiring criterion that means the candidate reminds the interviewer of themselves. Occasionally used as a reason to reject people who ask difficult questions.
D
Data-Driven
Making decisions based on data that supports the decision already made. Data that contradicts the decision is reclassified as "noisy" or "not yet mature."
Deep Dive
A meeting longer than thirty minutes about a topic that could have been an email. Depth is measured in duration, not understanding.
Digital Transformation
A multi-year initiative to achieve the same dysfunction using newer, more expensive technology. Average cost: $11.2 million. Average outcome: a new logo and a Kubernetes cluster.
Disciplined Growth
No growth, but on purpose.
Double-Click
To examine something in greater detail. Used by people who want credit for asking a follow-up question without formulating one.
Downsize
See: Right-sizing, Workforce Optimization, Restructuring, Reduction in Force. The vocabulary changes. The severance packages do not.
E
Ecosystem
A collection of products, partners, and integrations that individually underperform but collectively justify a platform narrative.
Exploring Options
The company has hired bankers but hasn't found a buyer. An earlier and more optimistic stage than "Strategic Review."
F
Flywheel
A self-reinforcing business model, as described in a Jim Collins book, and as drawn on a whiteboard by a CEO who has not read the Jim Collins book.
Full-Stack
A developer who is expected to do the work of three specialists at the salary of one. Also used to describe companies that have vertically integrated past the point of competence.
G
Growth Hacking
Marketing, but performed by someone who does not want to be called a marketer. Techniques include A/B testing, referral loops, and renaming the marketing department.
H
Headwinds
External conditions blamed for internal failures. Revenue missed target because of headwinds. The target itself is never questioned.
Holistic
Considering the whole picture. In practice, a way of saying "we don't have a specific plan" while implying that the lack of specificity is intentional and strategic.
I
Ideation Session
A meeting where people say ideas out loud so that leadership can select the one they already preferred and credit the group with generating it.
Impact
The measurable result of work, as defined after the work is completed, using whichever metric makes the result look best.
K
KPI
Key Performance Indicator. A number that goes on a dashboard. Whether anyone changes behavior based on the number is a separate and largely unrelated question.
L
Lean
An operational philosophy that eliminates waste, as interpreted by organizations that define "waste" as "headcount" and "philosophy" as "a reason to cut budgets."
Learnings
Failures, rebranded. "We gathered important learnings" means "we failed, and we have noted that we failed." The learnings are rarely applied to subsequent decisions.
Let's Take That Offline
This topic is inconvenient and will not be revisited. A verbal delete button for uncomfortable questions raised in front of senior leadership.
Low-Hanging Fruit
Easy wins that should be tackled first. In year three of the initiative, the fruit has not gotten any lower. The tree may not exist.
M
Move the Needle
To produce a measurable change in a metric. The needle in question is usually so small that only the person presenting the dashboard can see it move.
MVP
Minimum Viable Product. The version of a product with the fewest features that can be shipped and called a launch. Often neither minimum nor viable.
N
Net New
Additional, as opposed to replacement. Used to make ordinary activity sound like growth. "We added three net new customers" means "we lost forty and gained forty-three."
North Star Metric
The single number that guides all company decisions. Selected because it is currently trending upward. Replaced quarterly.
O
OKRs
Objectives and Key Results. A goal-setting framework borrowed from Google by companies that share none of Google's structural preconditions. Set quarterly. Forgotten biweekly. Scored 0.7.
One-Time Costs
Recurring expenses that investors are asked to ignore. Appear in financial statements annually, sometimes quarterly, always described as non-recurring.
Operational Excellence
Doing the same work with fewer people until quality collapses, customers leave, and a consultant is hired to determine what went wrong.
P
Path to Profitability
A projected future state in which the company stops losing money. The path extends forward indefinitely, receding as the company approaches it.
Pivot
Abandoning the original business plan and pursuing a different one, described as a strategic evolution rather than an admission that the first plan did not work.
Platform Play
A strategy in which a company that could not build one successful product decides to build an ecosystem where others can fail alongside them.
R
Right-Sizing
Firing people. The prefix "right-" implies the previous size was wrong, which raises the question of who set it. That question is not asked.
Runway
The number of months a startup can operate before running out of money. Discussed with the casual detachment of a pilot mentioning fuel levels mid-flight.
S
Scalable
Can theoretically serve more customers without proportional cost increases. Whether it currently serves any customers is a separate conversation.
Strategic Review
The company has hired investment bankers. A buyer has not been found at the desired price. Hope and spreadsheets are all that remain.
Synergies
Cost savings projected during an acquisition and partially realized afterward. The projected savings justify the premium. The realized savings justify the layoffs.
T
Take That Offline
See: Let's Take That Offline. The addition of "let's" is optional and does not affect the outcome.
Thought Leadership
Content marketing written by someone with a title that includes "VP" or above. Distinguished from regular content by its length and the author's willingness to present opinions as frameworks.
Total Addressable Market (TAM)
The largest number that can be placed on a slide without triggering visible disbelief. Calculated by multiplying the world's population by a per-capita spending assumption.
V
Value Creation
In private equity: leverage, multiple expansion, and cutting R&D. In startups: growing revenue. In consulting: the invoice.
Vertical Integration
Owning every step of the value chain, typically acquired through a series of acquisitions that do not integrate with each other.
W
Workforce Optimization
See: Right-Sizing. A newer term for the same practice, chosen because "optimization" sounds like mathematics rather than personnel decisions.
Z
Zero-Based Budgeting
A budgeting method where every expense must be justified from scratch each year. In practice, last year's budget with a 10% cut applied uniformly and a new name.