In the 2020 release of the Scrum Guide, a new concept was introduced called the Product Goal, and although it’s several years old now, many people are still confused about the purpose and function of Product Goals.

The Product Goal is created by the Product Owner, and it’s a description of a future state of the product that your Scrum team is building. The purpose of the Product Goal is to create a target – something to focus around, so that when we agree to add a Product Backlog item to a Sprint, we should always be running it through the Product Goal filter: Is this Backlog item going to get us closer to the goal for the Product?

If any Backlog item is created that doesn’t move you towards your Product Goal, it probably shouldn’t be added to the Product Backlog, and it probably shouldn’t be planning it into a Sprint. As a Product Owner, you want to keep your entire development organization focused on that Product Goal.

Watch the video for real-world examples and additional tips for creating (and following!) a Product Goal.

Wondering how Product Goals and Sprint Goals relate to each other? Watch that video and others in our #AskArtisan video series!