Etym.from Middle English road plus map, literal cartography elevated to managerial jargon in the late twentieth century by consultants who preferred implication to obligation; see H. L. Quimby, Corporate Cartography, 1998.

A prioritized sequence of nonbinding milestones and vague timelines that converts specific commitments into negotiable intentions, facilitating blame diffusion and delayed delivery.

'Can you circulate the roadmap by Friday, even if it is high level?' - Q3 All-Hands Transcript

Etym.from Old French aligner, later anglicized as align and repurposed in Silicon Valley circa 2014 by a strategy consultant who needed a softer synonym for compliance, see R. Hargrove, 'Terms for Transformation,' 2016.

A rhetorical maneuver that professes shared priorities to postpone substantive decisions and shift accountability into future milestones.

'Can everyone confirm shared priorities by EOD' - Proceedings of the 2019 All-Hands Meeting

Etym.from mid-20th-century aviation jargon, repurposed in early 21st-century venture discourse to quantify company survival in investor communications, see Sommers, Venture Language, 2011.

A single-number projection, expressed in months of funded operation, that reduces cash on hand and burn rate to a negotiable timeframe used to justify spending, hiring, or fundraising.

'We need to extend runway by 12 months to hit the growth inflection' - Q2 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.from a literal juxtaposition of common nouns, first attested as 'growth hack' in early 2010s startup blogs, see H. Patel, 'Viral Mechanisms', 2011.

A label applied to short-term promotional or product tweaks intended chiefly to inflate superficial user metrics while deferring substantive improvement.

'We ran a growth hack to lift sign-ups before the funding update' - Pre-Seed Investor Update