The Scrum Guide defines a product as a vehicle to deliver value, with a clear
boundary, known stakeholders and well-defined users or customers. Vision sits
above that definition. It describes where the product is going over a horizon
longer than any single Product Goal.
What the boundary decides
Where the boundary is drawn determines what belongs in one Product Backlog, who
the Product Owner is, and which Product Goal applies. A boundary drawn around a
team rather than around a product tends to produce several backlogs for what
users experience as one thing.
Vision, Product Goal, Sprint Goal
These form a chain of decreasing horizon. Vision describes the future state over
the long term. The Product Goal is the single objective the Scrum Team is
currently working toward, and it lives in the Product Backlog. The Sprint Goal is
the single objective for one Sprint. Only the latter two are defined by the Scrum
Guide.
Abstract products
A product may be a service or something less tangible than software. The test is
whether it has a boundary, stakeholders and identifiable users, not whether it
ships in a box.
Common misconceptions
“A product must be something customers buy.”
A product may be a service, a physical product, or something more abstract. An internal platform with known users is a product.
“Product vision is a formal Scrum artifact.”
Scrum defines three artifacts, and vision is not among them. Vision is widely used alongside Scrum, and the Product Goal is the commitment that the Scrum Guide does define.
“The boundary of a product is decided by team structure.”
The boundary is a property of the product, who its users are and what value it delivers. Team structure follows from it, not the other way round.
3 questions test this concept
A CSPO course asks you to explain the relationship between a product vision and a Product Goal. Which explanation is correct?
AThey are two names for the same statement, one used internally and one externally.
BThe Product Goal is set first and the vision is derived from it once several goals have been achieved.
CThe vision is a Scrum artifact and the Product Goal is a stakeholder document.
DVision describes the long term future state of the product. The Product Goal is the single objective the Scrum Team is currently working toward on the way there, and it lives in the Product Backlog as its commitment.