How Important Is Goal Setting?

In the Agile Canvas process we talk about any desired states as intentions. This includes all the usual language of goals, objectives, targets, metrics, milestones, requirements, standards, dreams, wishes and the like. These differ mainly by scope and timeframe.

We refer to all of them as intentions. We treat each as a lens to reveal new present possibilities and invite new kinds of learning. We do not create the future with assumptions but rather questions. Questions create a far different kind of future than assumptions. We don't presume our way into the future, we learn our way into it.

The question of what are we trying to learn is a qualitatively different question than what assumptions are we trying to prove.