What is a Product Goal according to Scrum? How is it developed? What purpose does it have?
In the new Scrum Guide edition of November 2020, the Product Goal is explicitly mentioned for the first time, to which the Product Backlog commits.
Referring to the desired future state of a product that a Scrum team works towards, a Product Goal has come to be known as the defining characteristic of a Product Backlog. In other words, all Product Backlog Items (PBIs) share the same purpose of helping to achieve a Product Goal.
Being a long-term objective, a Product Goal must either be attained or given up on before a Scrum team can move on to another objective.
Dave West, Product Owner and CEO at scrum.org
The Scrum Guide doesn’t offer an exact formula for what can and can’t constitute a Product Goal. This gives Scrum teams the freedom they need to identify and work towards their own respective goals in a way that suits them. A Product Goal, however, has a few fundamental properties:
A Product Strategy or Product Roadmap can provide a directional plan for the realization of a Product Goal.
I find, however, that a product goal is best used to describe a specific and measurable benefit or outcome a product should create in the course of the next two to six months. A sample goal might be to acquire users, increase conversion, generate revenue, or reduce technical debt. Such a goal aligns the stakeholders and development teams, and it directs their work.
What’s more, I like to ensure that product goals are connected to the product strategy and its user and business goals. This helps me choose the right product goals and it ensures that meeting a product goal is a step towards creating the desired value for the users and the business.
From: Product Goals in Scrum
Product Goals are measurable stepping stones designed to push the threshold of knowledge towards our Product Vision.
Chris Lukassen, The Product Samurai
Product Goals provide a means of orientating towards the overarching direction of a Product Vision. Goals also join the work that takes place at lower levels of abstraction in a project, such as user stories, with the highest level of a project’s abstraction: the Product Vision. In addition, the achievement of a Product Goal contributes to the fulfilment of a Product Vision.
A Product Goal is defined by the team that works towards it and will be stated clearly in the Product Backlog. Goals are not determined according to the work itself, rather by the requirements of the market, which themselves are influences on the latter. Plausibility and achievability are also necessary components when determining goals, and every PBI must work be working in the same direction towards the same goal.
As already mentioned, Product Goals can change, and this is a natural part of Scrum methodology. Adjustments are made by the Scrum team according to whatever the novel circumstances demand. The overall development and communication of a product goal, however, remains the purview of the Product Owner.
Product Goals are mostly written in a way that implies that multiple Sprints are needed to realize them. When a Sprint is over, a review is compiled that documents the progress made in that respective Sprint. A Product Goal can be realized without all PBIs having been completed. Once a Product Goal has been achieved, a Scrum team should move on to another objective.
In its essence, a Product Goal is a simple guiding statement that provides a Scrum Team and Stakeholders of a project with a common context and purpose.
Scrum Guide 2020
