# The Team That Decided Sprint Goals Were Optional | Alf Dobbert-Baums

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/scrum-master-toolbox-podcast-agile-storytelling-from-the-trenches-445588/the-team-that-decided-sprint-goals-were-optional-alf-dobbert-baums.md
Podcast: [Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches](https://stenobird.com/podcast/scrum-master-toolbox-podcast-agile-storytelling-from-the-trenches-445588)
Published: 2026-07-21T10:05:00+00:00
Episode link: https://scrummastertoolbox.libsyn.com/the-team-that-decided-sprint-goals-were-optional-alf-dobbert-baums
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Duration seconds: 1046

## Resource

Alf Dobbert-Baums: The Team That Decided Sprint Goals Were Optional Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes . "Everything was a golden route. It was kind of like a little feature factory." - Alf Dobbert-Baums Alf coached three teams. None of them cared about THE sprint goal. Most sprints had five or six "goals" — which is to say, none. The Product Owner was a proxy PO, no authority to say no, so anything that landed in the inbox got pulled into the sprint. The team had several applications to support on top of feature work. Missing a sprint goal had no consequences, so the question stopped being asked. When Alf pushed for a single, focused goal — concrete or abstract, didn't matter — the team would shrug and add three more stories to the cluster. Asked which item mattered most, they answered: "all of them." Alf names the dynamic precisely: short-term personal urgency replaced the team goal, and "all of them" became the death of focus. The cost wasn't just the missed goals — it was the missed collaboration . With a sprint goal, the team works together on one thing. Without one, they cooperate on parallel tracks and call it a sprint. There's a difference. Sprint goals create focus, predictability, and the rare feeling of finishing something together. In this segment, we talk about the difference between cooperation and collaboration and why sprint goals are the lever that turns one into the other. Self-reflection Question: If you asked your team this sprint "what's the most important thing we'll finish?" — and they answered "all of them" — what would you do next? Featured Book of the Week: Humble Consulting by Edgar Schein and Don't…

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## Transcript

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