Template5 min read
A starter tag taxonomy for product research
Twenty-two tags in four groups that cover most product studies — plus rules for when to add a new one and when to resist.
Ines AchterbergResearch Operations ·
Tags are the shared vocabulary of a research repository. Too few and everything lands in “feedback”; too many and nobody can find anything six months later. This starter set is deliberately small. Copy it, run one study, then adjust.
The four groups
| Group | Tags |
|---|---|
| Experience | Delight · Frustration · Confusion · Workaround · Abandonment · Trust |
| Need | Goal · Job to be done · Trigger · Constraint · Desired outcome |
| Product area | Onboarding · Core workflow · Reporting · Billing · Integrations · Mobile |
| Signal | Feature request · Pricing · Competitor mention · Churn risk · Expansion |
Rules that keep it healthy
- A new tag needs three highlights from at least two participants before it becomes permanent.
- Tags describe what was said, not what you think it means. Interpretation belongs in themes.
- Every tag has a one-sentence definition visible to everyone who tags.
- Review the list once a quarter: merge, rename or archive anything used fewer than five times.
Why “Product area” is its own group
Teams search by area far more often than by emotion. Keeping area tags separate means a PM can filter to “Billing” and then see which experience tags cluster there.
Naming conventions
Use plain nouns or short noun phrases, sentence case, no abbreviations. “Churn risk”, not “CR” or “churn-risky customers”. If two people would spell it differently, the tag will split in two within a month.
Before you share the taxonomy
- Every tag has a definition and an example highlight
- No two tags would apply to the same highlight more than half the time
- Product area tags match the names your team uses in planning
- Someone owns the quarterly review
Parley, its authors and the companies mentioned here are fictional. This article is demo content for the template and can be replaced with your own.