Product Goals And Sprint Goals
The latest version of the Scrum Guide introduces something called the Product Goal:
And:
The Product Goal – also known as the Product Vision – acts as the overarching goal for the team. The Product Goal communicates the essential purpose of the product. It provides focus on what is really important, and provides direction for the team. At the same time the goal is broad enough to facilitate ongoing innovation.
During Sprint Planning the Product Owner sets a goal for the sprint, and ensures that attendees are prepared to discuss the most important Product Backlog items and how they map to the Product Goal.
If a team is unsure about the goal for the next sprint, simply try to answer: Why is it worthwhile undertaking the sprint? Or, How will the next sprint help us advance towards the Product Goal?
Sprint goals should be outcome-focused – that is, focused on delivering user-consumable value for users. Not just a set of outputs, i.e. a list of stories or development tasks. They should be readily understandable by a business stakeholder.
At the end of each sprint the plan to achieve the Product Goal – the Product Backlog – is potentially adapted based on an inspection of the latest Product Increment. This is the empirical core of Scrum.
Progress is made towards the Product Goal one Sprint Goal at a time, with course corrections applied at Sprint Reviews. (In a similar way, at the daily scrum, teams evaluate their progress towards the Sprint Goal for the current sprint, and if necessary, make adjustments to the sprint plan needed to achieve that goal).
The team delivers the Product Goal incrementally, via a series of smaller (sprint) goals. A goal is set for each increment – the Sprint Goal – and represents the next most important thing to be accomplished on the road to achieve the Product Goal. At the end of each sprint we conduct a Sprint Review where a team demonstrates what was accomplished in the sprint and, if necessary, adjustments to the Product Backlog are made in order to better align with the product goal.
From the Scrum Guide: The Product Owner is also accountable for effective Product Backlog management, which includes:
- Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal;
- Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items;
- Ordering Product Backlog items; and,
- Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood.
Having a clear Product Goal on which teams and stakeholders are aligned can help cut down on distraction and keep everyone focused on what’s important. The Product Goal can act as a filter for all incoming feature requests and can help a Product Owner say ‘No’ to anything that does not support the goal. Many teams are not aware of their Product Goal, and it is important to establish one, even late in the game.
