What is value?

Simple words like "value" are usually thrown around without definition.

As I recently asserted on the Product in LA podcast, product management is fundamentally about value creation. A working offer must always create more value than it captures. (Easily forgotten in late stage products where incentives often center around optimizing value capture/extraction.)

But simple words like "value" are usually thrown around without definition.

So what is value?

Value is the progress people want to make in their lives.

Extending the idea of simple definitions being useful, here are my current working definitions of five commonly used terms:

(1) *Business* = a system of exchanging value where everyone is left better off

(2) *Product* = the medium for the exchange

(3) *Sales* = ethically earning the opportunity to deliver value, i.e. to help people make progress

(4) *Value* = the progress people want to make in their lives

(5) *Revenue* = "thank you for that value (progress)"

While there are plenty of alternative definitions, these have proven to be useful, well-integrated, and supportive of a win-win mindset.