Sprint Goals: Easier Than Falling Off a [noun]

Before you begin, I need you to jot down: an adjective, a vehicle, a relative, a type of doctor, and a mean adjective. 

Got your words? Okay, good. Pencils down, let’s begin.

Remember Mad Libs? Of course you do. Use the words you wrote down to finish this one. “Mad Libs were the ___[adjective]___ activity we used to do in the ___[vehicle]___ on family vacations, or while waiting for ___[relative]___ to finish up at the ___[type of doctor]___ ’s office.”

Fun right!? I talk about them as if they’re a thing of the past, like vinyl records or (wait… what!?). Anyway, for me, Mad Libs used to conjure up memories of being 9 years old and bored, long before smartphones were invented, but now they make me think of Sprint Goals. Yes, Sprint Goals. And maybe after you read this ___[mean adjective]___ blog, you will too. What!? How dare you say that about my writing! 

As Agile/Scrum trainers with time constraints in classes, we are forced to select materials we think are the most important. I try to stick with what I know. I prefer to use storytelling about how I applied a particular tool or technique. But there were some things that were required to teach where I didn’t have a wealth of experience. To that end, it always felt a little disingenuous for me to espouse the benefits of Sprint Goals when I never actually used them, nor did I coach teams to use them.

In fact, I’ll take it a step further. I thought they were ___[mean adjective] ___.

But like many things in life, it was my lack of understanding about them that formulated my opinion, not anything inherently wrong with them. Once I had a framework for how to build them, they became, dare I say, fun? And the framework was Mad Libs. I was reminded of all this because we’re currently working on a short case study here at Hard Yards that highlights the origins of our Accelerator product. This trip down memory lane prompted me to recall the challenge I faced of trying to explain Sprint Goals to someone who had never heard of Scrum. In my effort to grossly simplify them, I ended up, well, grossly simplifying them.

It goes like this: consider all the things your team might be able to accomplish and formulate a list of action verbs that describe the work. Then, consider all the areas where your team has influence; these might be systems, features, other teams… etc. These are all the things your team might be able to affect change in a sprint. Create a list of those nouns. Lastly, create a list of all the different ways you might be able to measure your team’s accomplishments during a sprint. They can be formal or informal. Sometimes getting the VP of Very Important Things to say “wow” is a really big win for a team. Let’s call those success measures. We might end up with lists like this:

Now, the Mad Libs part. Using the following template, create a Sprint Goal!

It doesn’t have to be any more difficult than that. Again, these verbs/nouns may not make sense in your context, so you’ll need to create your own. And like all Mad Libs, you can end up with some pretty nonsensical combinations. But that’s almost the point. As with many simple constructs like this, the purpose is not to get perfect words and structure, it’s to shift the thinking of your team and break patterns. Once your team gets in the habit of really focusing on what the outcome of the next sprint will be instead of just “deliver all the user stories,” the rest comes easy. Experiment with the model and see what works for your teams. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to listen to my favorite [band from the 1980’s] vinyl record.