Product Goals: One or Many?
I have to say I am a bit confused on this point.
The Scrum Guide suggests that there should only be one Product Goal and at any one time.
“The Product Goal is the long-term objective for the Scrum Team. They must fulfill (or abandon) one objective before taking on the next”
However, the Scrum.org Learning Series suggest multiple Product Goals:
“Product Goals are hypotheses that a Scrum Team uses to progress toward their Product Vision. They can change as the team learns more about stakeholder and customer needs”
So two questions:
1. Do we think it is advantageous to hold multiple Product Goals?
2. I am currently helping people to pass their PSM exams and not sure what to tell them.
There can be as many Goals for a Product as are valuable, but only one at a time.
The Scrum Guide also includes the following sentences:
It is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.
and
The Product Goal is the long-term objective for the Scrum Team. They must fulfill (or abandon) one objective before taking on the next.
Both of these statements support the team having one "active" Product Goal at a time. However, they may be thinking about other Product Goals that can be started if needed. The first would be either finished or abandoned before adopting a new Product Goal.
"I focus on two goals at the same time."
This seems paradoxical to me.
Yeah, this part can be confusing!
The Scrum Guide is pretty clear — there should only be one Product Goal at a time so the team stays focused on one direction.
The Scrum.org Learning Series just means that over time, a product can have many Product Goals, one after another, as the team learns and evolves the product.
So basically — multiple goals across the product’s life, but only one active goal right now.
For the PSM exam, definitely go with the Scrum Guide definition.
You should find this blog helpful about the introduction of the Product Goal into the Scrum Guide: https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-guide-2020-update-introducing-product-goal
Thanks everyone. The consensus is: Many Product Goals but only one at a time. Case closed!