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Speak revenue, earn a seat at the table.
In an earlier issue, I talked about the importance of revenue fluency for product managers. In short, product managers who connect features to money drive strategy. Those who don’t get stuck in tactics.
In that same article, I did a deep-dive on ARR, ACV, TCV, and bookings — what they are and how PMs can use them for product decisions, stakeholder buy-in, and elevating their own credibility and impact.
Today, I’m going to teach you about about:
GAAP Revenue (it ain’t ARR)
Gross Merchandise Value (GMV — for platforms and marketplaces)
Deferred Revenue (least understood, but strategically important)
Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO)
Accounts Receivable (A/R)
Why? Because you need to know how to connect the dots from your product work to revenue for the business you’re in.
Remember: not all revenue is created equal. Understanding how revenue works affects everything you do — from feature requests, roadmap priorities, trade-offs, to your entire product strategy.
And like that earlier article, I’ve packed this one with additional learning materials, frameworks, and templates so you can apply the lessons immediately to your work (for paid subscribers and Inner Circle Members).
What You’ll Learn Today:
The different types of revenue across businesses
Why they matter for product strategy
How revenue types influence retention, renewals, and churn
How to use revenue types for product decision-making
Connecting product work to revenue outcomes
How to understanding these revenue concepts elevates your product impact
I get some PMs work on non-revenue items — digital initiatives, “internal products,” reducing operational costs, to name a few. I’ll get to those in future articles. (Spoiler: they’re all tied to revenue or P&L in some form too.)
Table of Contents
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