CPM

CPM stands for Cost Per Mille. It is the cost that advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions. It is a commonly used metric in digital marketing to measure ad efficiency.

• Used in display & video advertising.
• Measured in cost per 1,000 views.
• Lower CPM = Lower cost per impression.

CPC

CPC stands for Cost Per Click. It measures how much advertisers pay per click on their ad. It is widely used in search engine advertising.

• Common in Google Ads & Facebook Ads.
• Directly tied to user engagement.
• Lower CPC = More clicks for the budget.

CPA

CPA stands for Cost Per Acquisition. It calculates the cost to acquire a customer through paid marketing campaigns. It is a crucial metric in performance marketing.

• Common in performance-based advertising.
• Lower CPA = More efficient ad spend.
• Tied directly to conversions.

CPM vs CPC vs CPA

When it comes to digital advertising, advertisers can choose from multiple pricing models based on their goals.
Each model has its own strengths and best use cases.

• CPM (Cost Per Mille) – Pay per 1,000 impressions. Best for brand awareness.
• CPC (Cost Per Click) – Pay only when users click the ad. Best for traffic generation.
• CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) – Pay when a user converts (purchase, sign-up, etc.). Best for ROI-driven campaigns.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC represents the average cost of acquiring a new customer. It includes expenses such as marketing, sales efforts, and operational costs.

• CAC Formula: CAC = Total Marketing & Sales Expenses / Number of New Customers Acquired
• Lower CAC = More efficient customer acquisition
• Higher CAC = Higher costs, may impact profitability

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV represents the total revenue a business expects from a single customer over their entire relationship.

• LTV Formula: LTV = Average Order Value × Purchase Frequency × Customer Lifespan
• Higher LTV = Higher long-term profitability
• Optimizing LTV helps businesses justify acquisition costs

LTV:CAC Ratio

The LTV to CAC ratio is a critical metric for evaluating business profitability and growth efficiency.

• LTV:CAC Formula: LTV:CAC = LTV / CAC
• A healthy LTV:CAC ratio is greater than 3
• Lower ratios indicate high acquisition costs compared to customer value

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)

ARPU measures the average revenue generated per user or customer over a given period.

• ARPU Formula: ARPU = Total Revenue / Total Users
• Helps businesses analyze revenue performance across different customer segments.
• Important for subscription models, SaaS, telecom, and streaming services.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

MRR tracks the predictable revenue generated every month from customers.

• MRR Formula: MRR = Number of Subscribers × Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
• Used by SaaS, subscription-based, and recurring revenue businesses.
• Helps in financial forecasting and growth tracking.

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures the percentage of users who complete a desired action (purchase, sign-up, download, etc.).

• Conversion Rate Formula: CR = (Total Conversions / Total Visitors) × 100
• High conversion rates indicate effective marketing and user experience.
• Used in e-commerce, SaaS, landing pages, and sales funnels.

Churn Rate

Churn rate measures how many customers stop using a product or service over a period.

• Churn Rate Formula: Churn Rate = (Lost Customers / Total Customers at Start) × 100
• High churn rates indicate poor retention and customer dissatisfaction.
• Crucial for SaaS, subscription businesses, and long-term retention strategies.

Retention Rate

Retention rate measures how many customers continue using a product over a period.

• Retention Rate Formula: Retention Rate = 100% - Churn Rate
• High retention means better customer loyalty and long-term revenue.
• Important for subscription models, SaaS, and e-commerce businesses.

North Star Metric (NSM)

A North Star Metric (NSM) is the single key metric that best represents a company’s long-term growth and success.

• Why it matters? Helps align teams on business goals and strategy.
• NSM Examples:
  • Uber → "Number of Rides Completed"
  • Airbnb → "Nights Booked"
  • Facebook → "Daily Active Users (DAUs)"
• NSM is different from KPIs & OKRs.

A/B Testing

A/B Testing is a controlled experiment where two versions of a webpage, feature, or ad are compared to determine which one performs better.

• Why it matters? Helps in UX improvements, conversion rate optimization, and feature validation.
• Example: Version A (old landing page) vs. Version B (new landing page).
• Key metric: Choose an outcome like CTR, conversion rate, or engagement.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable metrics that help organizations measure progress toward business goals.

• Why it matters? Helps track performance, efficiency, and success.
• Examples of KPIs:
  • Sales KPIs: Revenue Growth, Lead Conversion Rate
  • Marketing KPIs: Click-Through Rate (CTR), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
  • Product KPIs: Monthly Active Users (MAU), Feature Adoption Rate
• KPIs should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations define, track, and achieve business objectives.

• Why it matters? Aligns teams with clear, measurable goals.
• OKRs Structure:
  • Objective: A broad, ambitious goal
  • Key Results: Measurable outcomes that track progress toward the objective
• Used by companies like Google, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking:
"On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our product to others?"

• Why it matters? Identifies promoters, passives, and detractors.
• Formula: NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors
• Used for: Measuring brand perception & customer sentiment.

Virality & Viral Coefficient

Virality measures how quickly a product spreads organically through user referrals.

• Why it matters? Helps scale user acquisition at low cost.
• Formula: Viral Coefficient = (Invites Sent per User × Conversion Rate)
• Used for: Growth hacking, referral programs, and network effects.

Cohort Analysis

Cohort analysis groups users based on shared characteristics to track their behavior over time.

• Why it matters? Helps understand retention, churn, and engagement trends.
• Types: Acquisition Cohorts, Behavioral Cohorts.
• Used for: Retention tracking, A/B testing, lifecycle analysis.

Customer Segmentation

Customer segmentation divides users into distinct groups based on demographics, behavior, or preferences.

• Why it matters? Enables personalized marketing & product strategies.
• Types: Demographic, Behavioral, Geographic, Psychographic.
• Used for: Targeting the right users & improving engagement.

Funnel Analysis

Funnel analysis tracks user progression through a sequence of steps, helping identify drop-off points.

• Why it matters? Helps improve conversion rates and user experience.
• Common Funnels: Sign-up flow, checkout process, onboarding journey.
• Used for: Optimizing drop-offs in sales & marketing pipelines.

Burn Rate

Burn rate measures how quickly a company is spending its cash reserves before becoming profitable.

• Why it matters? Indicates financial health and runway.
• Formula: Burn Rate = Cash Spent per Month
• Used for: Startups, financial forecasting, investor evaluations.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

NRR measures how much revenue a company retains from existing customers, including upsells and expansions.

• Why it matters? Indicates sustainable growth and customer satisfaction.
• Formula: NRR = (Starting Revenue + Expansion - Churn) / Starting Revenue × 100
• Used for: SaaS businesses, subscription models, customer retention strategies.

High Intent vs Low Intent Users

Understanding user intent is crucial for optimizing marketing strategies, product engagement, and conversions. Users can be classified into high intent and low intent based on their likelihood of taking meaningful actions.

• High Intent Users: Users who are ready to take action, such as making a purchase or signing up.
• Low Intent Users: Users who are exploring options but are not yet ready to commit.

User Segmentation

User segmentation is the process of dividing users into groups based on shared characteristics to provide personalized experiences and targeted marketing.

• Demographic Segmentation: Age, gender, income, location.
• Behavioral Segmentation: Product usage, engagement level.
• Psychographic Segmentation: Interests, values, personality traits.

Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis testing is a statistical method used to determine whether there is enough evidence to support a claim or reject a null hypothesis.

• Null Hypothesis (H₀): The assumption that there is no effect or no difference.
• Alternative Hypothesis (H₁): The claim that there is a significant effect or difference.
• P-value: Determines statistical significance of the result.

RICE Framework

The RICE framework is a prioritization method used to evaluate and rank product initiatives based on four factors: Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort.

• Reach: How many users will be affected?
• Impact: How significant is the impact on each user?
• Confidence: How sure are we about the impact?
• Effort: How much work is required?

MoSCoW Prioritization

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization framework used in product development to categorize requirements into four groups:

• Must-Have: Critical features without which the product fails.
• Should-Have: Important but not urgent features.
• Could-Have: Nice-to-have features that enhance the product.
• Won’t-Have: Features that are out of scope for now.

Technical Debt & Trade-offs

Technical debt is the cost of choosing a quick and easy solution instead of a more time-consuming but sustainable one.

• Intentional Technical Debt: When teams knowingly take shortcuts for speed.
• Unintentional Technical Debt: When poor decisions lead to long-term inefficiencies.
• Trade-offs: Balancing speed, cost, and maintainability.

Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD)

The Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) framework helps product teams understand why users "hire" a product to accomplish a specific task.

• Functional Jobs: Tasks users need to complete.
• Emotional Jobs: How users feel when using a product.
• Social Jobs: How the product affects their status or relationships.

SQL Query Optimization

Optimizing SQL queries is essential for improving database performance and reducing execution time.

• Indexes speed up searches but can slow down inserts.
• **Avoid SELECT *** to reduce unnecessary data retrieval.
• Use proper JOINs to minimize redundant calculations.

SQL Keywords & Commands

SQL provides a powerful set of commands to interact with databases. Understanding these keywords is essential for querying and managing data.

• DDL (Data Definition Language): Commands that define database structures.
• DML (Data Manipulation Language): Commands to retrieve and modify data.
• DCL (Data Control Language): Commands for access control and security.

Types of Joins in SQL

SQL JOINs are used to combine rows from multiple tables based on a related column.

• INNER JOIN: Returns matching records from both tables.
• LEFT JOIN: Returns all records from the left table and matching records from the right.
• RIGHT JOIN: Returns all records from the right table and matching records from the left.
• FULL JOIN: Returns all records when there is a match in either table.

Python Basics

Python is a high-level, interpreted programming language known for its simplicity and readability.

• Dynamically typed: No need to declare variable types.
• Indentation-based syntax: Code blocks are defined using indentation.
• Extensive libraries: Python has a rich ecosystem for various applications.

Daily Active Users (DAU)

DAU measures the number of unique users who engage with your product or service on a daily basis.

• Why it matters? Indicates user engagement and product stickiness.
• Formula: DAU = Number of unique users per day
• Used for: Tracking user retention, engagement, and growth.

Monthly Active Users (MAU)

MAU measures the number of unique users who engage with your product or service on a monthly basis.

• Why it matters? Indicates user engagement and product growth.
• Formula: MAU = Number of unique users per month
• Used for: Tracking user retention, engagement, and growth.

Weekly Active Users (WAU)

WAU measures the number of unique users who engage with your product or service on a weekly basis.

• Why it matters? Indicates user engagement and product growth.
• Formula: WAU = Number of unique users per week
• Used for: Tracking user retention, engagement, and growth.

Customer Churn Prediction

Customer churn prediction involves using data analysis and machine learning to identify customers who are likely to stop using a product or service.

• Why it matters? Helps in retaining customers and reducing churn.
• Techniques: Logistic regression, decision trees, neural networks.
• Used for: Improving customer retention strategies.

Customer Segmentation with RFM Analysis

RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) analysis is a method used to segment customers based on their purchasing behavior.

• Why it matters? Helps in targeting marketing efforts and improving customer retention.
• RFM Factors: Recency, Frequency, Monetary.
• Used for: Personalized marketing and customer segmentation.

Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is the process of visualizing the steps a customer takes to engage with a product or service.

• Why it matters? Helps in understanding customer experiences and identifying pain points.
• Steps: Awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, advocacy.
• Used for: Improving customer experience and optimizing touchpoints.

Net Dollar Retention (NDR)

NDR measures the percentage of revenue retained from existing customers over a specific period, including upsells and expansions.

• Why it matters? Indicates sustainable growth and customer satisfaction.
• Formula: NDR = (Starting Revenue + Expansion - Churn) / Starting Revenue × 100
• Used for: Evaluating customer retention and revenue growth.

Product-Market Fit

Product-market fit is the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand.

• Why it matters? Indicates the potential for growth and success.
• Indicators: High customer satisfaction, rapid growth, low churn.
• Used for: Validating product ideas and scaling businesses.

Customer Feedback Loops

Customer feedback loops involve collecting, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback to improve products and services.

• Why it matters? Enhances customer satisfaction and product quality.
• Methods: Surveys, interviews, feedback forms.
• Used for: Continuous improvement and customer engagement.

User Onboarding Metrics

User onboarding metrics measure the effectiveness of the onboarding process for new users.

• Why it matters? Ensures users understand and engage with the product.
• Key Metrics: Time to First Value, Activation Rate, Drop-off Rate.
• Used for: Improving user experience and retention.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES measures the ease of customer interactions with a product or service.

• Why it matters? Indicates customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Formula: CES = Sum of Effort Scores / Number of Responses
• Used for: Improving customer experience and reducing churn.

Customer Health Score

Customer Health Score measures the overall health and engagement of a customer with a product or service.

• Why it matters? Predicts customer retention and identifies at-risk customers.
• Factors: Product usage, customer satisfaction, support interactions.
• Used for: Improving customer retention and proactive engagement.

Feature Adoption Metrics

Feature adoption metrics measure how effectively users are adopting and using new features in a product.

• Why it matters? Indicates user engagement and product value.
• Key Metrics: Adoption Rate, Time to Adopt, Usage Frequency.
• Used for: Improving feature adoption and user experience.

Customer Success Metrics

Customer success metrics measure the effectiveness of customer success efforts in ensuring customer satisfaction and retention.

• Why it matters? Indicates customer satisfaction and business growth.
• Key Metrics: Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Customer Health Score.
• Used for: Improving customer success strategies and retention.

Customer Retention Strategies

Customer retention strategies focus on keeping existing customers engaged and satisfied to reduce churn and increase loyalty.

• Why it matters? Enhances customer loyalty and long-term revenue.
• Key Strategies: Personalized communication, loyalty programs, proactive support.
• Used for: Improving customer retention and reducing churn.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Optimization

CLV optimization focuses on maximizing the total revenue a business expects from a single customer over their entire relationship.

• Why it matters? Enhances long-term profitability and customer loyalty.
• Key Strategies: Upselling, cross-selling, improving retention.
• Used for: Increasing customer lifetime value and business growth.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

ARR measures the predictable revenue generated annually from customers.

• Why it matters? Indicates business growth and financial health.
• Formula: ARR = Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) × 12
• Used for: Financial forecasting, growth tracking, and investor evaluations.

Product Roadmapping

Product roadmapping is the process of creating a strategic plan that outlines the vision, direction, and progress of a product over time.

• Why it matters? Aligns teams on product goals and priorities.
• Key Components: Vision, goals, timeline, features.
• Used for: Strategic planning, stakeholder communication, and progress tracking.

User Story Mapping

User story mapping is a visual exercise that helps product teams understand the user journey and prioritize features based on user needs.

• Why it matters? Enhances user-centric product development and feature prioritization.
• Key Components: User activities, tasks, stories.
• Used for: Product planning, backlog management, and user experience improvement.

Lean Product Development

Lean product development is a methodology that focuses on delivering value to customers through iterative development and continuous improvement.

• Why it matters? Reduces waste, accelerates time-to-market, and enhances customer value.
• Key Principles: Build-Measure-Learn, MVP, continuous improvement.
• Used for: Efficient product development, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

JIRA

JIRA is a popular project management tool used for issue tracking, agile project management, and bug tracking.

• Why it matters? Enhances team collaboration and project visibility.
• Key Features: Issue tracking, agile boards, reporting.
• Used for: Agile project management, bug tracking, and team collaboration.

Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice where developers integrate code into a shared repository frequently, leading to multiple integrations per day.

• Why it matters? Detects integration issues early and improves code quality.
• Key Practices: Automated builds, automated tests, frequent commits.
• Used for: Improving code quality, reducing integration issues, and accelerating development.

Continuous Deployment

Continuous Deployment (CD) is a software development practice where code changes are automatically deployed to production after passing automated tests.

• Why it matters? Accelerates the release process and ensures rapid delivery of features.
• Key Practices: Automated deployments, continuous delivery pipeline, monitoring.
• Used for: Rapid feature delivery, reducing manual deployment efforts, and improving deployment reliability.

What is Cloud?

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet, including storage, processing power, and applications.

• Why it matters? Provides scalable, flexible, and cost-effective IT resources.
• Key Features: On-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling.
• Used for: Hosting applications, data storage, and processing.

Different Types of Cloud Strategies

Cloud strategies include various deployment models such as on-premises, private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud.

• Why it matters? Helps organizations choose the right approach for their needs.
• Key Strategies: On-premises, private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, multi-cloud.
• Used for: Optimizing IT infrastructure, improving scalability, and enhancing security.

Cloud Migration Strategies

Cloud migration strategies involve moving applications, data, and workloads from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud.

• Why it matters? Enhances scalability, reduces costs, and improves performance.
• Key Strategies: Rehosting, replatforming, refactoring, repurchasing, retaining, retiring.
• Used for: Modernizing IT infrastructure, improving agility, and optimizing costs.

Product Analytics

Product analytics involves collecting and analyzing data on how users interact with a product to inform decision-making and improve user experience.

• Why it matters? Provides insights into user behavior and product performance.
• Key Metrics: User engagement, retention, conversion rates.
• Used for: Improving product features, user experience, and business outcomes.

Agile Methodologies

Agile methodologies are iterative and incremental approaches to software development that emphasize flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback.

• Why it matters? Enhances team collaboration, adaptability, and product quality.
• Key Practices: Scrum, Kanban, Lean.
• Used for: Efficient project management, continuous improvement, and delivering value to customers.

Stakeholder Management

Stakeholder management involves identifying, engaging, and communicating with stakeholders to ensure their needs and expectations are met throughout a project.

• Why it matters? Ensures project success and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Key Practices: Stakeholder identification, communication planning, engagement strategies.
• Used for: Building strong relationships, managing expectations, and achieving project goals.

What is an API?

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other.

• Why it matters? Facilitates integration, enables automation, and enhances functionality.
• Key Concepts: Endpoints, requests, responses, authentication.
• Used for: Connecting different systems, enabling third-party integrations, and building scalable applications.

API Management

API management involves designing, deploying, and monitoring APIs to ensure they are secure, reliable, and performant.

• Why it matters? Facilitates integration, enhances security, and improves developer experience.
• Key Practices: API design, versioning, security, monitoring.
• Used for: Enabling integrations, managing API lifecycle, and ensuring API performance.

System Design Principles

System design principles involve creating scalable, reliable, and maintainable systems by following best practices and architectural patterns.

• Why it matters? Ensures system scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Key Principles: Scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, maintainability.
• Used for: Designing robust systems, improving performance, and ensuring long-term success.

Pre-Money Valuation

Pre-Money Valuation is the valuation of a company before it goes public or receives external funding or financing.

Post-Money Valuation

Post-Money Valuation is the valuation of a company after it has received external funding or financing.

Market Capitalization

Market Capitalization (Market Cap) is the total market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock.

Venture Evaluation Matrix

Venture Evaluation Matrix is a tool used to assess and compare the potential of different investment opportunities.

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis is a valuation method used to estimate the value of an investment based on its expected future cash flows.

Net Present Value (NPV)

Net Present Value (NPV) is a financial metric used to evaluate the profitability of an investment by calculating the difference between the present value of cash inflows and outflows over a period of time.

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is a financial metric used to evaluate the profitability of an investment by calculating the discount rate that makes the net present value (NPV) of the cash flows equal to zero.

Capitalization Table

A capitalization table (cap table) is a spreadsheet or table that shows the ownership stakes, equity dilution, and value of equity in a company.

Dilution

Dilution occurs when a company issues new shares, reducing the ownership percentage of existing shareholders.