Glossary

It's about being responsible for your decisions and results, without excuses. It's not just about completing tasks, but accepting the consequences of what you do or fail to do.

It's assigning tasks and responsibilities to other team members, giving them the authority and resources needed to complete them. It's not just 'passing work', it's developing your team.

It's giving your team the authority, resources, and trust to make decisions without needing your approval at every step. It's not delegating tasks, it's transferring real power.

It's the clear picture of the future you want to create. It's not a nice slogan, it's answering: Where are we going? Why does it matter? How will we know we got there?

It's a bridge that allows two applications to communicate with each other. Think of a waiter: you order food (request), the waiter takes the order to the kitchen, and brings you what you asked for (response). The API is the waiter between systems.

It's the process of taking your code from your computer (or test server) to the server where real users will use it. It's like taking a product from the factory to the store.

It's a pre-built structure that gives you tools and rules to develop applications faster. Like IKEA: it gives you the pieces and manual, you just assemble. You don't invent the chair from scratch.

It's reorganizing code to make it cleaner, more efficient and easier to maintain, without changing what it does. Like reorganizing your closet: the clothes are still the same, but now it's easier to find everything.

It's a fixed period (usually 1-2 weeks) where the team commits to completing a specific set of tasks. At the end, they show what they achieved. It's like a mini-project with clear start and finish.

A benchmark is a reference point or standard against which you can compare your performance, processes, or results. In business, it means comparing your metrics with those of competitors or industry leaders to identify areas for improvement and set realistic goals.

An insight is a deep and revealing understanding about something, usually obtained through data analysis, observation, or experience. It goes beyond a simple fact: it's when you connect scattered information and discover something meaningful that helps you make decisions or better understand a situation.

It's how much money your startup loses each month. If you have $500K in the bank and spend $50K more than you generate each month, your burn rate is $50K/month and you have 10 months of runway.

It's the percentage of customers who cancel your service in a specific period. If you have 100 customers and 5 cancel in a month, your monthly churn is 5%. It's your most important health indicator in subscription models.

It's the simplest version of your product that solves the main problem and allows you to validate if it works with real users. It's not your incomplete product, it's your essential product without decorations.

It's changing a fundamental part of your business model when you discover the current direction isn't working. It's not giving up, it's adjusting course with what you learned.

It's the money that comes into your company from sales, before subtracting expenses. It's not profit. If you sell 100 products at $50, your revenue is $5,000 even if your costs are $4,000.

Buy-in is the active agreement or commitment of a person or group to an idea, project, or decision. It's not just passive acceptance, but genuine support and willingness to contribute to success.

A feedback loop is a continuous process where the results of an action are used to improve future actions. In teams, it means regularly giving and receiving comments to improve performance. In products, it means using user data to iterate and constantly improve.

A Growth Mindset is the belief that your abilities can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence. Unlike a Fixed Mindset, where you believe your capabilities are static, with a Growth Mindset you see challenges as opportunities to improve.

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and aware in the current moment, without judgment. In the workplace, it translates to full attention, reduced multitasking, and better decision-making under pressure.

Formal exit process when an employee leaves the company, including knowledge transfer, equipment return, and exit interviews. A well-managed exit protects the company and maintains good relationships.

ROI (Return on Investment) is a metric that measures the profitability of an investment. It's calculated by dividing the profit obtained by the cost of the investment. A positive ROI means you earned more than you invested; a negative ROI means loss. It's the universal metric for justifying business decisions.