If you've ever sat through a technical meeting while secretly making a list of terms to search afterward, you're not alone.
I've spent years working between business and engineering teams. Few things feel more draining than sitting in a meeting where the entire conversation goes over your head.
Even worse is realizing several meetings later that you didn't know enough to ask the right questions when they mattered most.
So, when someone says something like, "We'll refactor it after regression testing passes," what does that actually mean?
Here are five engineering terms product managers hear regularly, translated into plain English.
1. "We'll release it after regression testing passes."
What engineers mean
We've changed the code, but before we combine it with everything else, we need to make sure those changes didn't accidentally break existing features.
Plain English
"We're double-checking that fixing one thing didn't create three new problems."
Why it matters to Product Managers
If regression testing fails, your release date may slip even if the new feature itself works perfectly.
Questions you could ask
- What's the risk if regression fails?
- Is this blocking the release?
- Is there a workaround?
2. "We need to refactor the authentication code."
What engineers mean
We're reorganizing the existing code to make it cleaner and easier to maintain. We're not adding new features, but we're improving how it's built behind the scenes.
Plain English
"It's like remodeling the kitchen without changing where the sink or refrigerator goes."
Why it matters
Customers probably won't notice anything different today.
But future features become faster to build, bugs are easier to fix, and engineers spend less time working around old code.
Questions to ask
- Does this reduce future development time?
- Will customers experience downtime?
- Does this affect our roadmap?
3. "The feature is behind a feature flag."
What engineers mean
The code is already deployed, but only certain users can access it.
Plain English
"The light switch is installed, but we just haven't turned it on for everyone."
Why it matters
Marketing may think a feature is live when only internal testers can actually see it.
Questions to ask
- Who currently has access?
- When does everyone get it?
- Can we test with beta customers?
4. "There's some technical debt."
What engineers mean
We took shortcuts earlier to move faster, and eventually we'll need to clean them up.
Plain English
"It's like borrowing time now and paying it back later. With interest."
Why it matters
Technical debt often slows future features and increases bugs.
Questions to ask
- How much risk does this create?
- Can we delay fixing it?
- What happens if we don't?
5. "We're waiting on an API."
What engineers mean
Our software depends on another system sharing information before we can continue.
Plain English
"It's like waiting for someone else to hand you the paperwork before you can finish your part."
Why it matters
Even if your team is ready, another team's work can delay your launch.
Questions to ask
- Is this blocking development, testing, or just the release?
- Can our team continue working while we wait?
- What's our backup plan if the API is delayed?
The goal isn't to know every engineering term
No one can download years of engineering experience overnight.
On top of learning your own role, every company has its own technical jargon, acronyms, and internal language.
Now imagine hearing all of that in a fast-paced 30-minute meeting where people are interrupting each other, changing topics, and assuming everyone already understands.
It's overwhelming.
No matter how many years I've worked with technical teams, I still find myself in those meetings.
In fact, just last week a colleague told me they left a meeting feeling completely lost. They weren't sure what had been decided, didn't know what several of the engineering terms meant, and barely had any notes.
Thankfully, AI meeting summaries exist.
They've saved me more than once.
But here's the problem.
A meeting summary can tell you exactly what was said.
If you don't understand the technical language in the first place, you're still stuck reading a summary full of unfamiliar terms.
I've lost count of how many times I've used a meeting summary as a checklist for my next conversation with an engineer:
"Can you explain what all of this actually means?"
Imagine if you didn't have to schedule that follow-up meeting.
Imagine if the explanations happened while the meeting was still happening.
That's why we're building hmm.
hmm translates technical conversations into plain English in real time, helping product managers, consultants, executives, and anyone working with engineering understand what's being discussed before the meeting moves on.
Because the goal isn't to know every engineering term.
It's to leave every meeting with the confidence that you understood the conversation.