TLDR - My podcast interview with Scrum.org CEO Dave West on the Product Goal - what is it, how do I work with it.

In November 2020 Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber introduced a new version of the Scrum Guide. There are a number of changes they introduced to Scrum in the update, including the topic of Product Goal.

Here is what the Scrum Guide says about Product Goal:

“The Product Goal describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Scrum Team to plan against. The Product Goal is in the Product Backlog. The rest of the Product Backlog emerges to define “what” will fulfill the Product Goal.

A product is a vehicle to deliver value. It has a clear boundary, known stakeholders, well-defined users, or customers. A product could be a service, a physical product, or something more abstract.

The Product Goal is the long-term objective for the Scrum Team. They must fulfill (or abandon) one objective before taking on the next.”

Initially, I found this mildly at odds with respect to how I tend to think of the Product Backlog - as a set of options... all the things we could do. And the more I tried to understand it, the more I felt it slipping through my fingers.

I've raised my concerns about the Product Goal in a few other interviews recently, but I got to a point where I knew I needed help getting my head around it. So I reached out and I am deeply indebted to the folks from Scrum.org who were kind enough to share their time and wisdom with me.

This interview with Scrum.org CEO, Dave West, is one in a series of podcasts I am going to post on the topic. Dave not only helped me get a better understanding of the concept, but he challenged me with something towards the end of the interview that helped me shake off my dogmatic blues and re-embrace the idea of Scrum being a framework that is meant to be adapted.

Links from the podcast

- The Scrum Guide: https://scrumguides.org

- What is Scrum at Scrum.org https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-scrum

- Ralph Jocham's Product Goal Canvas https://bit.ly/3eRu519

- The Professional Product Owner: Leveraging Scrum as a Competitive Advantage by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham https://amzn.to/33c2n9Z

Previous Interviews that involve Product Goal:

- The Product Goal w/ Ryan Ripley: https://soundcloud.com/drunkenpmradio/the-product-goal-w-ryan-ripley

- Scrum Guide 2020: Scrum Artifacts w Chris Li: https://soundcloud.com/drunkenpmradio/scrum-guide-2020-scrum-artifacts-w-chris-li

If you'd like to contact Dave West you can find him here:

- Email: [email protected]

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjustinwest/

- Scrum.org: https://www.scrum.org/scrumorg-staff

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidJWest