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Custom Vocabulary

Peerdom uses a set of terms throughout its interface (circles, roles, peers) but your organization may use different language. Custom vocabulary lets you replace these terms with words that fit your culture and framework.

The Vocabulary settings page showing dropdown menus to customize terms for peers, groups, roles, representatives, goals, and subgoals.

Customize your terms

  1. Go to Settings > Vocabulary
  2. Select your preferred term for each concept
  3. Save

Your choices apply across the entire Peerdom interface: the map, the Inspector, profiles, apps, and exports.

Available terms

  • Peers can be called: peer, colleague, contributor, coworker, member, or person
  • Circles can be called: group, circle, team, domain, cell, bubble, or pod
  • Roles can be called: role or position
  • Representatives can be called: representative, leader, link, coach, manager, or spokesperson
  • Goals can be called: goal, SMART goal, objective, epic, initiative, outcome, and more
  • Subgoals can be called: subgoal, task, key result, KPI, user story, and more

Vocabulary changes apply everywhere in Peerdom, including the map, Inspector panel, app interfaces, and data exports. All team members see the updated terms automatically.

Fixed terms

Some terms cannot be changed. These remain consistent regardless of your vocabulary settings:

  • Map (the main visualization)
  • Owner, Editor, Member, Guest (access levels)
  • Draft (unpublished changes)
  • Journal (the activity log)

Common framework defaults

Different organizational frameworks tend to use specific terminology. Here are common configurations:

  • Holacracy typically uses “circle” for groups, “role” for roles, and “link” for representatives
  • Sociocracy typically uses “circle” for groups, “role” for roles, and “representative” for representatives
  • Agile typically uses “team” for groups, “role” for roles, and “leader” for representatives

Choose the terms that match how your people already talk about their work. If your organization follows sociocracy or holacracy, you can select the matching vocabulary in just a few clicks.