Thank you for your feedback Chris. Great to hear that you found the article helpful!

I just found your article, and it really struck a chord with me and some of the challenges we face. The way you have explained this is perfect. This will really help me in my current and future career. Thanks!

Hi Jackie,

Thank you for your feedback. I am glad that you enjoy reading my articles. You are right: Effective teamwork requires a shared goal. In a product context, teams benefit from several, cascading goals, as I argue in the article: a longer-term inspirational visionary goal, mid-term strategic goals, and short-term tactical ones. (I explain working with cascading gaols in more detail in my book “How to Lead in Product Management“.) But goals alone are not enough, of course. Having the right people on board and helping them do a great job is at least as important.

Hope this helps!

Two key takeaways for me in this post are
1: Teamwork needs a common goal .
2: The right team members are also very strong .

You’re very welcome Inna. Thank you for your feedback. I am glad that you found the article helpful.

Thank you for your feedback Virtue. I am glad that you found the article helpful.

Nice article. Its been helpful for me in my current job as a Product Manager especially in being goal-oriented in all product-related activities

Hi Rebecca,

Thanks for sharing your question. I find that sometimes people misinterpret the term stretch goal, so let me first quickly clarify what it is: It’s an ambitious goal that requires a special effort to be reached. Stretch goals usually involve radical expectations that go beyond current capabilities and performance, and they require new approaches in order to meet them (see “The Stretch Goal Paradox“).

Based on this definition, the vision makes a good stretch goal: It is an ambitious goal that wants to inspire people. Remember, though, that the vision cannot be measured and may never be fully reached. The other goals discussed in this article should all be realistic: You should be confident that the user, business, and release goals can be met, and so should be the development team and stakeholders. Formulating them as stretch goals risks demotivating the development team and losing the trust of the stakeholders. Sprint goals, finally, must be realistic and achievable. Otherwise, teams simply can’t, and shouldn’t, commit to them.

Hope this helps!

What do you think about stretch goals?
An Agile Coach recently introduced them to a colleague but I’m not so sure. Have read mixed opinions on them.

Many thanks,

Rebecca