The Product Goal is an objective that you define for your product. A product goal is a measurable, time-bound objective that supports a product’s vision. It defines what a product team wants to accomplish and how it will evaluate its success.
When the Product Vision defines a long-term objective for the product, the Product Goal is a step towards the Product Vision. It is useful to set a Product Goal that is time-bound: for example, a goal that you want to achieve with your product in the next 3 to 6 months. Once you achieve this goal, you can set the next Product Goal for the following 3-6 months period, and so on. This process continues until you have achieved your overall Product Vision.
The Product Goal allows you to do that. In addition, the Product Goal acts as a “guiding light” for your Product Backlog: it helps you to decide what PBIs to add (or remove) to the backlog, and what PBIs to focus on or prioritize, in order to achieve the Product Goal. Any PBIs that does not align to the goal can be removed – and can be re-evaluated at a future stage once you have a new goal. This helps to keep your Product Backlog focused and manageable.
Read more about the Product Goal in an article dedicated to this topic.
The Product Goal Canvas
When your Product Goal is clear, articulated, and aligned with your key stakeholders, all you need to do is to communicate and share it. The Product Goal Canvas is a collaborative template that you can use to define a Product Goal for your product together with your team or stakeholders.
The canvas is divided in a few sections, each one designed to spark thoughts and insights, and help you refine your goal.
How to use the Product Goal Canvas
The first step to use the Product Goal Canvas is to download it. Then, share the template in Miro (or other collaboration tool) or print it and stick it to a wall for in-person collaboration. Then, gather the people on your team, and start working!
The goal here is not to fill-in all the boxes or find the solution to a puzzle. The goal of this template is to give you the foundational blocks to frame your conversation around the product goal, so that you can define your goal and create alignment within your team. If some elements of the canvas don’t apply, skip them. Use what makes sense for you.
In general, it helps to follow these steps in the Product Goal Canvas:
Steps in the Product Goal Canvas
For some (relatively small) products, the Product Vision and the Product Goal are the same. Achieving the Product Goal satisfies the full vision for what we are tasked to do.
For bigger or more complex endeavors, the Product Goal is an objective that defines a piece of the product or an initial release of it. There will be more after the first goal has been achieved. Therefore, before you use the Product Goal Canvas, make sure you have defined the long-term vision for your product. The Product Goal should be a stepping stone toward that vision. But if you don’t have a vision or an overall objective for your product, it may become difficult to define shorter-term Product Goals.
Once you have alignment on the overall vision, you can define your Product Goal for the next 3-6 months. Consider working through each component of the canvas in order:
1 – Target customers
(START HERE) Your product may be used by a variety of customers over time. For this specific goal, which customers are you focusing one? Who are the customers that are having the problem identified earlier?
2 – Problem to solve
This sections helps to answer the question “What problem(s) are we trying to solve for our customers or for our business?”
Every successful product initiative starts with a deep understanding of the problem or pain point that the product will try to solve. Hence, by defining a Product Goal it should become clear what problem your product is trying to solve.
3 – Outcomes
In the end, you are building a product to deliver benefits to your customers, solve their problems or create a new opportunity. What outcomes do you want to deliver to your customers?
Also, you might want to consider the business outcomes that your product will deliver.
These outcomes define the objective that you want to achieve with your product. This is the meat of your Product Goal.
4 – Target Results
Goals are useless unless you have a way to measure if you have achieved them. So, here you want to establish key results that will help you measure if you have delivered the outcomes that your product promised to deliver, or maybe not.
With the metrics, you want to answer the question “What shall we measure and how will we know if we have achieved the outcomes?”.
And also, “What leading indicators define our starting conditions?”
To establish good metrics, you need to know your starting point. If you want to increase revenue by 25%, do you know the revenue today? Without these starting points the metrics become useless and then you don’t have a way to know if you have achieved your goal. Or even worse, you may cheat yourself and bend the results of your product toward an “unspecified goal”.
Instead, be clear about the starting point and the end goal from the beginning.
5 – Risks
In complex work, there are always risks. These are things that may get in the way and prevent you from building the product successfully. For example, the risk that the market changes before you complete your product; the risk that demand is not as strong as expected; or the risk that you may face a difficult technological choice that may derail your product development effort. These are examples, and you may want to look specifically at your product, your company, and your industry to identify possible risks.
6 – Timeframe
Define a specific timeframe for this goal. By when will you complete this goal and deliver the outcomes you have promised? Is it over the next 3 months? Or 6 months? Or is there a specific launch date?
7 – Product Goal description
[ONCE YOU HAVE ALL THE PIECES] Summarize and define your Product Goal so that anyone can understand it. Remember that a Product Goal should be actionable, measurable, and time-bound.
Objective-based Roadmaps
Defining your Product Goal for the next 3 months creates transparency and commitment toward that objective. You can take it a step forward and define objectives beyond the first Product Goal. When you do that, you create a series of objectives that span multiple quarters.
Learn more about the Product Goal here:
https://www.5dvision.com/post/the-product-goal/
Questions and Answers
What is the Product Goal Canvas?
The Product Goal Canvas is a visual tool used to define and refine the overarching objective of a product. It serves as a roadmap for the product development team, ensuring alignment and focus throughout the product’s lifecycle.
By completing the Product Goal Canvas, teams can gain a shared understanding of the product’s purpose, prioritize features, and make informed decisions during development.
What is the narrative behind the Product Goal?
The narrative behind the Product Goal describes the reason for the product and the expected improvement. It elaborates on what has been observed, what needs improvement, and why something needs to be done. The Product Goal is that it is a step towards achieving the Product Vision.
Read more about the Product Goal in an article dedicated to this topic.
Which valuable outcome will the product generate?
Valuable outcomes are the positive results expected from achieving the product goal. These can be user-centric metrics such as increased customer satisfaction or business-oriented metrics like revenue growth.
Who are our stakeholders?
Stakeholders are individuals or groups who are impacted by or have a stake in the product. This can include customers, end-users, product managers, developers, and executives.
What are the risks we are aware of?
Risks are potential events that could jeopardize the product goal. These should be identified and mitigated to ensure the success of the product.
When developing a product, various risks can hinder the achievement of its goals. Here are some common types: Technical Risks, Market Risks, Resource Risks, Operational Risks, Strategic Risks, External Risks.
You should start with creating a list of possible risks. Then, use the Risk Card to assess their potential impact.