Business Glossary

Browse 21 business terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

21 Business Terms

AI Pricing
The pricing model used for AI products or APIs, such as per token, per request, per seat, per image, or usage-tiered billing. AI pricing shapes product design...
AI Strategy
A plan for how an organization will use AI to create value while managing risk, cost, and operational constraints. AI strategy includes decisions about...
Bean Counter
A mildly mocking term for someone perceived as overly focused on budgets, metrics, or financial controls at the expense of broader judgment or craft. In tech...
Client Facing
Describing work, roles, or materials that are directly visible to customers or clients rather than purely internal. In tech culture, client-facing often...
Commercial Software
Software sold or licensed commercially rather than offered only as a hobby project, internal tool, or purely free public artifact. In culture discussions the...
Competitive Advantage
A meaningful edge that makes an organization harder to outcompete, such as better distribution, lower cost, stronger product fit, proprietary data, or unusual...
Corporate Innovation
Innovation efforts inside established companies, often involving labs, incubators, internal startups, or special programs meant to produce new products or...
Cost Center Culture
A workplace culture where a team is viewed primarily as an expense to control rather than a source of leverage, growth, or strategic value. Cost center culture...
C Suite
The top executive layer of a company, including roles like CEO, CTO, CFO, and other chief officers. In workplace culture the phrase often implies strategic...
Data Driven
Describing decisions or processes that are strongly informed by data, metrics, or analysis rather than intuition alone. In tech culture the phrase is often...
Digital Innovation
Innovation driven by digital technology, software, data, or connected systems rather than purely physical or analog change. In corporate culture the phrase...
Digital Platform
A platform that enables digital interaction, services, transactions, or ecosystems across users, developers, partners, or businesses. In culture and business,...
Digital Product
A product delivered through software or digital channels rather than primarily through physical goods alone. In product culture the term covers apps,...
Digital Strategy
A plan for how an organization will use digital technology to improve operations, customer experience, business models, or competitive position. In practice,...
Dotcom
A shorthand term for internet-era companies, especially those associated with the dot-com boom and bust around the turn of the century. In culture, dotcom...
Entrepreneur
A person who starts and builds a business venture, usually by taking on uncertainty around product, market, and execution. In startup culture the term carries...
Keep the Lights On
To do the routine reliability, support, and maintenance work required to keep an existing system or business running. It usually contrasts with new feature or...
Pain Point
A specific frustration, cost, delay, or annoyance users or teams experience that a product or process should ideally relieve. It is common in product, UX, and...
peering
An arrangement between two networks (typically ISPs or content providers) to exchange traffic directly rather than paying a third-party transit provider....
ROI
ROI, or Return on Investment, is a financial metric that measures the profitability of an investment by comparing the gain or loss relative to its cost,...
Run the Business
Work required to keep an existing business or product operating reliably, as opposed to net-new feature or innovation work.

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