15 growth strategy terms you’ll hear all the time
When I started getting deeper into growth strategy, I realized there was a whole language behind the work.
A lot of these terms sound complicated at first, but most of them are actually pretty simple once you understand what they mean and where they fit.
So I put together 15 of the ones I think are worth knowing:
1. ICP — Ideal Customer Profile
The specific type of customer your product is best suited to serve.
Not "everyone who needs this."
The people most likely to need it, understand its value, and actually use it.
2. KPI — Key Performance Indicator
A measurable number that tells you whether you're moving toward a specific goal.
If your goal is community retention, total followers might not be the KPI you should care about.
3. GTM — Go-To-Market
The plan for getting a product in front of the right people and turning that attention into adoption.
Who are we targeting?
What are we saying?
Where are we reaching them?
How do we get them to act?
4. PMF — Product-Market Fit
The point where a product is solving a real problem for a market that genuinely wants the solution.
You can have great marketing and still have no PMF.
5. CAC — Customer Acquisition Cost
How much it costs, on average, to acquire one customer.
Spend ₦100,000 to acquire 50 customers?
Your CAC is ₦2,000.
6. LTV — Lifetime Value
The value a customer is expected to generate throughout their relationship with a product.
It helps answer a simple question:
"Is this customer worth what we're spending to acquire them?"
7. Funnel
The journey people move through from first discovering a product to becoming a user or customer.
Awareness → Interest → Action → Retention.
Every stage can have its own problem.
8. Conversion Rate
The percentage of people who complete a desired action.
If 1,000 people visit your landing page and 50 sign up, your conversion rate is 5%.
9. Activation
The point where a new user experiences the product's core value for the first time.
Getting someone to sign up isn't necessarily activation.
Getting them to the moment where they understand, "Okay, this is actually useful," is closer to it.
10. Retention
The percentage of users who continue coming back and using the product over time.
Acquisition brings people in.
Retention tells you whether they had a reason to stay.
11. Churn
The rate at which customers or users stop using a product.
If you're constantly acquiring new users but losing existing ones just as quickly, you're not really building sustainable growth.
12. North Star Metric
The main metric that represents the value your product creates for its users.
It gives the team a shared direction instead of having everyone optimize for a different number.
13. Growth Loop
A system where one user's activity helps generate another user or another growth action.
Unlike a simple funnel, the output can feed back into the system and create more growth.
14. Cohort Analysis
Looking at groups of users who share something in common, usually when they joined, and comparing how they behave over time.
It can show you whether newer users are actually staying longer or becoming more active than older ones.
15. AARRR — Pirate Metrics
Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue.
A framework for looking at the major stages of a user's journey and finding where growth is working or breaking down.
Knowing these terms doesn't make someone a growth strategist.
Knowing when to use them, what they reveal, and what decision they should influence is where the real work begins.
I'll probably do another one with more growth, marketing, project management, and Web3-specific terms.