A critical success factor (CSF) is an essential element, methodology, management tool, or design technique that plays a vital role in the successful development and deployment of a project or process. It is a specific activity or component considered crucial for an organization to accomplish its mission or goal. In product management, CSFs encompass the key actions taken by a product team to deliver successful products that effectively address user problems. Unlike critical success criteria and key performance indicators (KPIs), CSFs are action-oriented statements that can be assigned to a responsible owner. They can be seen as tasks or actions that must be executed for the product to achieve success. The term "critical success factors" was first introduced by Ronald Daniel in a 1961 Harvard Business Review article, and since then, CSFs have evolved to assist project managers in identifying the necessary actions to attain product and business objectives on a larger scale.