We just finished our sprint retrospective call inside The Focus Room, and I want to share an idea that was heavily discussed during today’s call.
We have goals. And then we have all the fluff surrounding those goals.
During the final week of the sprint, I always encourage people to differentiate between the core purpose of the goal and all the fluff we end up adding on top of it. We should let go of all the fluff and focus on the core idea.
Here’s the universal truth: our goals inevitably contain at least 50% fluff when we set them.
My hypothesis is that we love to dream about the future and don’t want it to be “basic.” We want it to be extraordinary, grand, and remarkable. And that’s what leads to the problem of creating unnecessary fluff around our goals.
I learned this from my experience as a product manager building software.
Let’s say you and I are building a new Facebook. One of the first things we want to create is the ability for people to sign up — a sign-up page.
When we set a sprint goal, we tend to focus on the most perfect version of our desired outcome:
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A user can create an account using an email, a phone number, an Apple account, or a magic wand.
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Then we’ll send all those verification emails to guarantee maximum security for our soon-to-be legendary product.
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We’ll also set up a follow-up sequence for when they don’t confirm their account.
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Someone will knock on their door with a freshly baked pie once they’ve successfully created an account.
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And OF COURSE, our page will look like Michelangelo’s masterpiece. People will be swept off their feet by this beauty.
When the last week of the sprint rolls around, you quickly realize that you can’t accomplish all of this in one sprint. So, you have to figure out what the core functionality of the thing you’re building is, and what’s just glorified fluff.
In this case, the core is simple: a user just needs to be able to set up an account. A simple black-and-white sign-up page with just an email option will do. Everyone has an email. It’s the simplest way to go about it. Everything else is nice-to-have-but-not-essential fluff.
Don’t get me wrong — you can always improve your sign-up page in the future. But you shouldn’t spend four sprints perfecting a sign-up page when you don’t even have active users yet.
Recent examples of goal fluff
A member of The Focus Room shared during our call, “I had to make a choice — I could either get an Honors Certificate at some unknown future, or I could be done with the course this sprint.”
We don’t fully realize that’s the choice we make when engaging in glorified fluff. Instead of being done with the goal this sprint, we postpone it to some vague future.
In my life, I’ve noticed that the idea of creating a featured image for my blog posts has become a big drag for me. I have so many ideas I want to write about, but the thought of creating a perfect picture to accompany each post started to slow me down a lot. But then I had this conversation with myself: “What is the core purpose of a weekly post, and what is glorified fluff?”
It was clear that my readers care more about the ideas written than about some fancy image. So, I let go of the need to create pictures for my posts. You’ll notice that the last few posts on my blog don’t have an image. And guess what? The world is still spinning, and you’re still reading this post.
Another example is the idea that I need to stick to a specific schedule. I can’t send a post on Saturday. I have to schedule it for Sunday because that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s good to be consistent. Glorified crap. Just post it when you finish writing it. The core idea is to publish and to publish regularly. Everything else is fluff.
This is how I can help you gain calm, clarity, and momentum:
- Go all in. One-on-one coaching for a full sprint. I’ll teach you how to apply the Agile framework to your goals and life conditions. Instead of using generic examples, we’ll work directly with what’s happening in your life right now, so you can start making progress right away.
- 1-hour coaching session
- Join The Focus Room for live group sprints.
