A housing-portal team met its Immediate Tactical Goal of launching an income-verification widget, but Intermediate Goal measures for faster eligibility decisions have not moved. What should the Product Owner do?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Shipping the widget is like putting a new door on a house that is still cold — the tactic happened, the outcome did not. Intermediate Goals care about faster eligibility, not about whether a widget exists. When the lower goal succeeds and the higher one sits still, change the tactic instead of celebrating the output.
Full Explanation
Immediate Tactical Goals are experiments toward Intermediate Goals, not proof that strategy moved. If the verification widget shipped and eligibility decision time did not improve, the evidence says the tactic was insufficient or aimed at the wrong constraint. The Product Owner should inspect that gap and adapt the next tactical goals rather than declaring victory, repeating the same output, or converting the problem into Scrum Master facilitation. Empiricism at the goals ladder means stubbornness about a shipped feature is not Evidence-Based Management.