goga-define-goals

goga-define-goals

Purpose

Define the product outcomes that should be achieved by solving the identified problem for the relevant users.

Transform the established understanding of the product, problem, and users into a small set of clear product goals.

Goals describe the change we want to create, not the features or implementation used to create it.

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Contract

consume:
  - product
  - problem
  - users

produce:
  - goals

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Core Principle

A goal describes an outcome, not a solution.

The skill must answer:

What should become different if we successfully solve the problem?

Do not turn the user's requested feature into a goal.

For example:

"Build an export to Excel."

is not a goal.

A better goal is:

"Allow operations managers to easily share the relevant order data with colleagues who do not use the product."

The specific mechanism used to achieve this belongs to later stages.

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Product Interview

Goals are product decisions and must not be inferred from the requested feature alone.

Use the problem and users to formulate candidate outcomes, then validate the intended outcome with the user.

Interview the user when necessary to determine:

• what should change as a result of solving the problem;
• which outcome is most important;
• whether there are multiple competing outcomes;
• what should explicitly not be optimized;
• whether the requested feature is actually the intended outcome.

Do not assume that the requested solution represents the user's actual goal.

If multiple reasonable goals would lead to materially different solutions, present the distinction and ask the user to choose.

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Process

1. Connect goals to the problem

Review the established problem.

For each proposed goal, verify:

Problem
  ↓
Goal

The goal must directly contribute to solving the problem.

Do not create goals merely because they sound beneficial.

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2. Consider the relevant users

Use users to determine what outcome matters to the people affected by the problem.