Glossary
A simple lexicon for common functions and teams within several technology companies.
Please note this is not an exhaustive list and will be routinely updated.
Analytics & Data Science​
Business Operations
Customer Support
Customer Success
Deal Desk
Design
The function of examining past data to identify trends and patterns to inform current and future business decisions.
The team responsible for analyzing data, optimizing processes across different departments like sales, marketing, and product, and driving overall business growth by identifying and executing strategic initiatives. They serve as a bridge between strategy and execution across the company by leveraging data-driven insights.
The team of people who provide help when customers have trouble with a company's products or services.
The function of actively helping customers achieve their goals by fully utilizing a company's products or services, building strong relationships, and ensuring their long-term satisfaction. This ultimately leads to customer retention and loyalty, and drives business growth through upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
A centralized, cross-functional team that manages and optimizes complex or high-value sales deals by collaborating with departments like sales, finance, and legal to ensure contracts are structured correctly, meet company policies, and are approved efficiently. It is a central hub to navigate the approval process for large or intricate sales transactions, especially for non-standard deals.
The process of strategically applying creative thinking and visual aesthetics to develop products, services, experiences, and even internal operations, with the goal of improving user experience, brand perception, and ultimately, driving business success; essentially, it's not just about making things look good, but also about making them function well and meet customer needs effectively, often incorporating design thinking methodologies to understand user pain points and create impactful solutions across various aspects of the business.
Engineering
Finance & Accounting
Legal
Legal Operations
Marketing
The department or team within a business that applies engineering principles and expertise to design, develop, test, and improve products, systems, or processes, ensuring they meet functional requirements while considering factors like safety, cost, and regulatory compliance
Finance focuses on managing a company's money, including cash flow, budgets, and capital investments. Finance professionals use financial information to analyze a company's performance and strategize for future growth.
Accounting focuses on recording and reporting a company's financial transactions, such as income, expenses, inventory, assets, and liabilities. Accountants confirm the company's financial records are accurate and ensure compliance with laws and standards.
A company's legal department can include roles like General Counsel, Corporate Lawyers who advise on business decisions, Paralegals who perform legal research and document preparation, Compliance Officers who monitor regulatory adherence, and Litigation Managers who handle legal disputes.
A dedicated function that aims to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of the legal department by managing processes, data analysis, technology, and budgeting, essentially allowing lawyers to focus on legal work rather than administrative tasks, ultimately delivering legal services more strategically to the business.
the process of promoting a business's products or services to consumers. It involves many activities, including:
Understanding customers: Researching and analyzing the market to understand the needs and wants of the target audience
Creating products: Developing goods and services to meet those needs
Communicating: Informing potential customers about the products and services
Distributing: Ensuring that products are delivered to customers when needed
Building relationships: Creating appealing experiences to inspire customer loyalty
People
Product Management
Product Marketing
Risk & Compliance
A "people team" in a company refers to a department focused on managing and optimizing the employee experience, often seen as a more modern and strategic approach to traditional Human Resources (HR), prioritizing employee well-being, development, and alignment with company goals rather than just administrative tasks like payroll and benefits; essentially putting the "people" at the center of their focus
the process of overseeing the development, launch, and ongoing improvement of a product, ensuring it meets customer needs and aligns with business objectives by identifying market opportunities, defining product strategy, collaborating with design and engineering teams, and monitoring its performance after release
the strategic process of promoting and selling a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product by highlighting its unique value proposition to a target audience, focusing on driving user adoption, retention, and ultimately, business growth through tactics like content creation, market research, and customer engagement across various channels, all while emphasizing the subscription-based nature of the service
the practice of identifying potential threats and hazards that could impact the business (risks), while also ensuring the company adheres to all relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards (compliance), aiming to mitigate negative consequences and maintain a positive reputation by proactively managing both aspects.
Saas
Sales
Sales Engineering
Sales Operations
"Software as a Service" is a cloud-based model that allows users to access applications over the internet instead of downloading them to their devices. Common examples are email, calendar
The department or team responsible for actively promoting and selling the company's products or services to customers, which involves identifying potential leads, understanding their needs, presenting solutions, negotiating terms, and ultimately closing deals to generate revenue for the business
a technical specialist on the sales team who possesses deep knowledge of the company's software platform and how it integrates with customer systems, effectively acting as a bridge between the sales team and technical aspects of the product, explaining complex features to potential clients and tailoring solutions to their specific needs to close deals; they are often called "solution engineers" as well.
The function responsible for optimizing the sales process by managing data, utilizing technology, and streamlining procedures to ensure sales teams are efficient and effective in achieving their sales targets; essentially, it's the behind-the-scenes work that supports the sales team by providing them with the tools and insights needed to sell effectively, including tasks like lead generation, sales forecasting, territory management, and performance analysis.
Security
the set of measures and strategies implemented to protect the data, user identities, and applications within a Software-as-a-Service platform, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive information by managing access controls, data encryption, network security, and compliance with relevant regulations, with the primary responsibility lying with the SaaS provider to secure their infrastructure while users also play a role in managing their access and data handling practices.
UI/UX Design
the design of the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) for the cloud-based software application, focusing on creating a visually appealing and intuitive interface that allows users to easily navigate and accomplish tasks within the software, ultimately impacting user adoption and retention by ensuring a smooth and efficient experience across all interactions.