Product goal

What It Means

The Product Goal is the long-term objective a Scrum TeamScrum teamThe small, self-managing group that does the work in Scrum: one Product Owner, one Scrum Master and the Developers, typically 10 or fewer people. See more works toward. In the 2020 ScrumScrumA lightweight framework, defined in the Scrum Guide, in which a small team delivers work in fixed-length Sprints of one month or less and adjusts after each one. See more Guide's words, it describes a future state of the product that the team can plan against. It lives in the Product BacklogProduct backlogIn Scrum, the ordered list of everything needed to improve a product, and the single source of work for the Scrum Team. See more as that artifact's commitment, and the rest of the backlog fills in what it will take to get there. A team works on one Product Goal at a time, fulfilling or abandoning it before taking on the next.

How People Say It

• "Does this item even serve the product goal?"
• "We hit the product goal, what's the next one?"
• "Every sprint goal should move us toward the product goal."

The Breakdown

How to set a Product Goal

1. The Product OwnerProduct ownerThe one person on a Scrum Team accountable for maximizing the value of the product and for managing the Product Backlog, including the order of its items. See more drafts where the product should be in a few months: a future state, written in plain words.
2. Talk it through with the Scrum Team and the key stakeholders until it's clear.
3. Write it at the top of the Product Backlog.
4. Check each backlog item against it, and raise any that don't serve it with the Product Owner.
5. At every Sprint PlanningSprint planningThe Scrum event that starts each Sprint, where the whole Scrum Team agrees why the Sprint is valuable, what can be done in it and how the work will get done. See more, set a Sprint GoalSprint goalThe single objective a Scrum Team sets for one Sprint, agreed at Sprint Planning, which gives the team a shared focus while leaving room in the exact work. See more that moves the team toward it.
6. Use every Sprint Review to discuss how far the product has come.
7. When it's reached, or no longer worth pursuing, close it and set the next one.

Product Goal and Sprint Goal

Example goals (Buhata's own)

Short version to try today. Write one sentence describing where your current project should be in three months, then cross out any task on your list that doesn't move toward it.

Where It Comes From

The Product Goal was added to the Scrum Guide by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland in the November 2020 edition. That edition gave each artifact a commitment, and the Product Goal became the Product Backlog's, per Scrum.org.

Good to Know

The 2020 Scrum Guide keeps teams to one Product Goal at a time: they fulfill it or abandon it before starting another. Abandoning a goal is an outcome the guide names outright, so a team can drop a target that has stopped making sense and set a better one. The rest of the Product Backlog emerges to define what will fulfill the goal, so a new goal usually means reordering the list. You can read the guide free at scrumguides.org.

Related Terms and Categories

• Sprint goal

  The single objective a Scrum Team sets for one Sprint, agreed at Sprint Planning, which gives the team a shared focus while leaving room in the exact work.

• Product backlog

  In Scrum, the ordered list of everything needed to improve a product, and the single source of work for the Scrum Team.

• Product owner

  The one person on a Scrum Team accountable for maximizing the value of the product and for managing the Product Backlog, including the order of its items.

• Definition of done

  In Scrum, the formal description of the quality a piece of work must reach before it counts as part of the Increment.

• OKRs

  Objectives and Key Results: a goal-setting method that pairs a clear objective with a few measurable results showing whether it was reached, usually set each quarter.

Productivity methods and focus