PMP Practice: Promote the Shared Vision

When team velocity drops significantly due to confusion about direction and multiple stakeholders push competing priorities, the PM must facilitate alignment by revisiting and refining the shared vision. The scenario reveals the current vision statement is too vague to guide decision-making. A collaborative workshop brings all voices together to update the vision in a way that addresses current realities while maintaining shared ownership. This approach rebuilds team clarity and stakeholder alignment simultaneously, which is essential for restoring velocity and focus. In agile environments, the vision must evolve as the product and market understanding matures, and that evolution requires collective participation to maintain buy-in.

**Why not A:** Working with the product owner privately to rank backlog items excludes the UX designer and marketing lead from the conversation. Since these stakeholders have legitimate perspectives and the team feels they are working toward different goals, a private ranking exercise would not create the shared understanding needed to restore alignment.

**Why not B:** Reminding stakeholders of the original vision statement is insufficient because the current vision is too vague to guide decision-making among competing priorities. Simply pointing back to "affordable mental health support" does not resolve the specific tension between AI features, accessibility, and growth features.

**Why not C:** Escalating to the sponsor for a priority decision removes the team's agency and fails to build the collaborative alignment that agile teams need. A top-down decision may resolve the immediate question but does not create the shared ownership necessary for sustained focus and restored velocity.