Recently, I shared my thoughts on the scientific foundation of SCRUM (you can read the post here: https://pozarzycki.pl/scrum-is-science/). As I continue my review of SCRUM fundamentals, I reflect on another principle that many tend to overlook: the Product Goal.
Not the sprint goal. Not the quarterly OKRs. The Product Goal.
It’s right there in the Scrum Guide as the formal commitment for the Product Backlog, yet most Product Owners couldn’t clearly articulate their Product Goal if you asked them right now. Let us see why treating the Product Goal lightly can be as dangerous as ignoring the low tyre pressure in your car.
What the Product Goal Actually Is
The Product Goal is the Scrum Team’s long-term objective. That’s it.
It’s not a list of features. It’s not a release plan. It’s the single, coherent answer to the question: “What are we trying to achieve with this product?” Everything in your Product Backlog should be stepping stones toward that goal. If an item doesn’t contribute to the Product Goal, it shouldn’t be in your backlog—or at least not prioritised.
The Product Owner is accountable for maximising the value delivered by the Scrum Team. But here’s the thing: you can’t maximise value if you don’t know what value looks like in the first place. The Product Goal is your definition of value. It’s your North Star.
Why We Lose Sight of It
I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly. A team starts a new product initiative with energy and clarity. Six months in, the Product Backlog is a mess—it’s got customer requests, technical debt items, compliance requirements, some ideas from that workshop three months ago, and features that someone important mentioned in passing.
What happened? The Product Owner got overwhelmed by the tactical. They became reactive instead of strategic.
Without a clearly articulated Product Goal, every request feels equally valid. Every stakeholder conversation becomes a negotiation about priorities without a shared framework. The team builds things, ships them, and wonders why it doesn’t feel like progress because there’s motion, but no direction.
The Transparency Problem
Here’s what the Scrum framework tells us: the Product Backlog must be transparent, visible, and understood by stakeholders. But transparency isn’t just about having your backlog in Jira for anyone to see. It’s about stakeholders understanding why certain items are prioritised over others.
And that only works if you’ve developed and explicitly communicated the Product Goal.
When I talk to Product Owners who are struggling with stakeholder management, it usually traces back to this. They’re trying to defend individual backlog decisions without the umbrella of a shared goal. Every conversation becomes a battle because there’s no agreed-upon context.
Compare that to when you’ve done the hard work of defining and socialising the Product Goal. Stakeholders might not always like your prioritisation decisions, but they can at least understand the logic behind them. “Yes, I hear that you want Feature X, but given that our Product Goal is to reduce onboarding time for new users by 50%, we need to focus on these other items first.”
The difference matters more than you think.
Getting Back to Basics
Effective Product Backlog management starts with the Product Goal. Not the other way around.
So if you’re a Product Owner, here’s my challenge: Can you write down your Product Goal right now in one or two sentences? Could your developers repeat it? Could your key stakeholders?
If not, that might be your most important work this week. Not refining the backlog and not writing more user stories. Defining—or redefining—what success actually looks like for your product.
The fancy stuff can wait. First, get clear on where you’re going.
Wojciech Pozarzycki, November 2025