How a Crisp Vision Guides Every Scrum Sprint

When I first worked on a family-fitness tracker, we filled nine pages of market requirements—step counts, GPS, social features, nutrition logs, sleep analysis, you name it. Our team felt busy and productive, but after six months we discovered no one understood our product’s purpose. During a brainstorming session, I sketched a single line on a whiteboard: "Help busy parents squeeze in 10 minutes of activity each day." The room went quiet.

We re-built our vision around that one sentence. Every backlog item had to flow from it. Suddenly “weekly meal planning” and “complex calorie tracking” dropped off the list. Instead, we focused on push reminders, five-minute exercise demos, and a simple one-button log. Our one-sentence vision replaced 70% of the noise we had created with detailed requirements.

When we demoed our first clickable prototype to a small parent group, they smiled and said, “This is exactly what I need.” My coffee went cold as I watched them tap the button three times and laugh at our playful exercise characters. That moment confirmed our vision. Months later, our app reached over 5,000 installs in its first week—numbers we never dreamed of when we chased every feature.

A powerful vision works like a north star. It reminds teams why they’re building a product and where to focus. Research in startup success shows that concise, shared goals dramatically increase team alignment and speed. Keep it brief, keep it clear, and let your next sprint sprint toward that one guiding sentence.

You’ll name your ideal user, pick two or three burning needs they face, and write down three bold product attributes addressing those needs. Then, find someone outside the project, pitch your one-sentence vision, and refine until it sticks. Try it before next week’s sprint planning.