Go-To-Market — the glossary
All 78 terms from the book’s appendix, defined exactly as the volume uses them. Published in full.
- Accepted-configuration lifecycle
- The permitted states of an accepted GTM configuration: Accepted, Operating, Under review, Superseded, and Retired.
- Activation event
- The observable event or verified condition admitted as evidence for one named decision; it is narrower than engagement and does not prove intent or value.
- Activation path
- The recorded sequence from the declared starting event to the activation event.
- Activation Specification
- The versioned record of the event, eligible cohort, subject, source, completion rule, exclusions, latency, downstream test, owners, and redefinition trigger.
- Activation-latency distribution
- The distribution showing how time to activation varies across activated subjects.
- Approved Frame Brief
- The controlled record of frame meaning, permitted proof, prohibited implications, objection tags, owner, version, window, and decision rule.
- Campaign or test run
- One dated execution of a GTM configuration, recorded separately from the offer and the accepted configuration.
- Channel
- A specific exposure or interaction surface within a commercial motion.
- Channel authority map
- The record assigning which acquisition surface may support which learning claim.
- Channel interference
- Shared acquisition activity that changes another configuration's exposure, interpretation, response, or spend.
- Channel test plan
- The record of included and contextual exposures, cohorts, budget, identity, attribution, treatment, measurement, and review authority for a channel decision.
- Cohort
- Eligible subjects evaluated under the same material conditions.
- Commercial motion
- The configured path by which buyer and seller encounter one another, recorded through initiation, interaction, distribution, and conversion assistance.
- Configuration identifier
- The versioned label connecting one configuration's offer, population, path, message, channel plan, activation rule, window, and decision criteria.
- Contention
- Two configurations requiring the same scarce input at the same time.
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Declared acquisition cost divided by the new customers admitted under the same boundary and period.
- Decision card
- The record of the decision, version, population, threshold, deadline, minimum evidence, authority, disposition, reset target, and effective date.
- Decision horizon
- The period available for signal arrival, relevant downstream observation, analysis, and an authorized decision while conditions remain comparable.
- Decision latency
- Elapsed time from evidence readiness to the recorded disposition.
- Decision rights
- The named authority to recommend, approve, implement, accept, or reopen a material GTM choice.
- Definition window
- The period during which decision-bearing definitions remain unchanged for a comparison.
- Degradation signal
- An observation that crosses a declared review condition; it prompts investigation but is not a lifecycle state or proof of cause.
- Design change
- A change to motion, segment, message, channel authority, activation, or operating range that requires a new version and GTM re-entry.
- Design re-entry
- Reopening an accepted GTM decision because evidence challenges its underlying motion, segment, message, channel, activation, or range.
- Design-assumption failure
- Evidence that an accepted GTM premise no longer holds after known execution defects are contained.
- Disposition rule
- The predeclared evidence that leads to continue, reset, stop, stabilize, or inconclusive.
- Engagement
- The broad set of recorded interactions that may occur before or around a decision-bearing event.
- Evidence interference
- Aggregation of results from different definitions or populations as if they described one configuration.
- Evidence readiness
- The point at which the required observation window and downstream latency have elapsed and the data are adequate for review.
- Execution failure
- A broken implementation or capacity condition while the accepted design assumptions remain plausible.
- Execution repair
- Correction of routing, capture, tooling, capacity, delivery, or rule application when the accepted GTM decision remains plausible.
- Failure containment
- Limiting the affected operating range, classifying the breakdown, and assigning the owner authorized to correct it.
- Framing hypothesis
- A testable prediction that a defined articulation will be associated with the declared response in a stated segment and motion.
- Go-to-market (GTM)
- The work of choosing and testing how a defined offer reaches a defined buyer and produces evidence for an investment decision.
- Go-to-market (GTM) configuration
- The offer version, segment, commercial motion, channel role, message frame, activation rule, evidence window, and disposition rule evaluated together.
- GTM configuration
- Short form for go-to-market configuration; the current set of offer, population, path, message, channel, evidence, and decision rules evaluated together.
- GTM dashboard
- A compact decision view that keeps test integrity, buyer interpretation, decision cadence, and readiness or limits separate.
- GTM decision cycle
- A time-bounded market-entry test that ends in a recorded continue, revise, stabilize, stop, or inconclusive decision.
- GTM One-Sheet
- The compact index to one configuration’s current decision, definitions, evidence, owners, disposition, and effective version.
- Handoff
- The receiving owner’s recorded acceptance of a versioned configuration for named operating uses.
- Handoff acceptance gate
- The test that confirms a receiving owner can operate the approved range without inventing a rule.
- Hybrid motion
- One buyer path that deliberately combines two or more motion components.
- Inconclusive
- A disposition used when missing data, contamination, execution defects, or inadequate evidence prevent the declared inference.
- Interference
- A shared input or condition that changes a result or makes its source unclear.
- Key performance indicator (KPI)
- A defined measure tied to a named business decision.
- Kill criteria
- Predetermined conditions showing when continued testing is no longer justified under the current configuration and which disposition follows.
- Learning review record
- The review record joining the hypothesis, cohort, evidence, uncertainty, deviations, recommended disposition, authority, and decision date.
- Learning velocity
- Elapsed time from a declared market-entry question to a recorded disposition supported by evidence adequate for that decision.
- Message frame
- The stable problem, consequence, promised outcome, proof limit, alternative, and next action the buyer is asked to interpret.
- Motion Decision Record
- The pre-exposure record of the selected buyer path, rejected alternatives, economics, activation event, owners, lock date, and review rule.
- Observation window
- The dated period during which eligible evidence is collected under comparable conditions.
- Offer version
- The identified package of promise, price basis, rights, delivery obligations, and limits that the company is prepared to sell and deliver.
- Operating boundary
- The declared offer, population, configured path, evidence window, authority, and specialist limits within which one GTM decision cycle runs.
- Operating change
- An execution improvement that preserves the accepted GTM meaning and operating range.
- Operating range
- The exposure, segment, price, effort, capacity, risk, and exception conditions a receiving owner agrees to run.
- Portfolio
- Distinct GTM configurations run as separate learning and resource-allocation decisions.
- Primary channel
- The acquisition surface designated to support the declared GTM learning claim.
- Re-entry
- A bounded reopening of one accepted GTM decision when later evidence challenges its assumption.
- Re-entry ticket
- The record of the challenged decision, evidence, containment scope, locked fields, owners, new test, and permitted outcomes.
- Repair
- Correction of an implementation defect while the accepted GTM assumptions and configuration version remain in force.
- Rerun
- A new GTM effort opened under a new identifier because conditions changed enough that the prior configuration cannot simply continue.
- Reset
- A return to the nearest upstream decision that could plausibly correct the observed problem while other accepted choices remain fixed.
- Resource interference
- A shared budget or capacity change that alters execution conditions.
- Retirement
- The effective end of new use after affected routes are disabled and required history is preserved.
- Return on investment (ROI)
- A comparison of a stated return with a stated investment basis over a stated period.
- Rule interference
- Reuse of one label for events or states with different meanings.
- Segment
- The enforceable buyer-population rule to which one set of test conditions and results applies.
- Segment Decision Record
- The pre-exposure record of inclusion, exclusion, buyer role, trigger, authority, timing, reachable population, edge-case treatment, and decision rule.
- Segment drift
- An unversioned change in industry, company size, buyer role, or another population boundary during a comparison.
- Stabilization
- A bounded repeatability review conducted before an operating owner accepts a configuration.
- Stabilize
- A disposition that freezes core definitions and opens a bounded repeatability review after the positive rule is met.
- Stop
- A disposition that ends exposure when the configuration crosses a declared viability, cost, time, capacity, customer, or specialist limit.
- Sunset
- The decision and schedule to end new use while completing required customer, contract, data, and workflow obligations.
- Tactic
- A specific action performed on a channel, such as one partner webinar invitation or one outbound sequence.
- Test-run lifecycle
- The permitted states of one dated GTM execution: Draft, Approved, Active, Paused, Complete, and Cancelled.
- Time to activation
- Elapsed time from the declared starting event to activation.
- Unit Map
- The upstream Revenue Design record that separates what the buyer values from what the company prices, bills, entitles, and delivers.
- Validity horizon
- The scheduled date on which the configuration's core assumptions must be reviewed; it is a trigger, not an automatic expiration.