It’s a full-time job just keeping up with all the things you should be keeping up with.
Okay, a little panic is appropriate.
Unprecedented scale of change.
Unprecedented speed of change.
Stop the ride.
I’m going to be sick.
Sorry, this is the new normal.
Real-time marketing.
High-metabolism
marketing.
What’s next? Something even faster?
Warp-drive marketing?
Is it too late to consider a career change to something more tranquil?
Like a role on Deadliest Catch?
TRUE FACT:
Commercial Alaskan king crab fisherman have longer average
tenure than CMOs.
Source: CMO Survey, February 2013, www.cmosurvey.org
CMO tenure: 4.8 years
But we love marketing.
We need a more enlightened
approach to change.
Agile marketing.
Buzzword
du jour?
Who wouldn’t want to be agile?
Little-a agile: an adjective.
Big-A Agile: a methodology.
Let’s just go with “agile marketing” because shift keys are a pain.
“Agile marketing” is applying agile management methods
in the context of marketing.
So what is agile management?
An iterative and adaptive process
An iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams
An iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams
work in a series of short cycles,
An iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams
work in a series of short cycles, incorporating rapid feedback,
An iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams
work in a series of short cycles, incorporating rapid feedback, to deliver emergent solutions,
An iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams
work in a series of short cycles, incorporating rapid feedback, to deliver emergent solutions,
emphasizing transparency among all stakeholders.
Gobbledygook on the stage.
FOUL:
An iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams
work in a series of short cycles, incorporating rapid feedback, to deliver emergent solutions,
emphasizing transparency among all stakeholders.
An iterative and adaptive process where small, highly-collaborative teams
work in a series of short cycles, incorporating rapid feedback, to deliver emergent solutions,
emphasizing transparency among all stakeholders.
A brief history of “agile.”
It began with software engineers...
“Waterfall” project management.
This is a predictive process, not an adaptive one.
In the real world, things change.
Going back up the waterfall
is perilous.
There must be a better way.
agilemanifesto.org
Scrum is the #1 agile framework.
An agile task board.
As a ____(role)_____,
I want __(goal/desire)_
so that __(benefit)___.
Driven by user stories.
Sprints: 1-4 weeks,
4-8 cross-functional people.
T-shaped people.
The daily 15-minute stand-up.
1. What did I do yesterday?
3 Questions of the Daily Stand-up:
1. What did I do yesterday?
2. What am I going to do today?
3 Questions of the Daily Stand-up:
1. What did I do yesterday?
2. What am I going to do today?
3. Are there any impediments in my way?
3 Questions of the Daily Stand-up:
Potentially shippable increment.
The sprint review.
The sprint retrospective.
Inspect, adapt, repeat.
84% Ability to change priorities
Benefits of adopting agile:
Source: VersionOne 6th Annual State of Agile Survey
77% Improved project visibility
84% Ability to change priorities
Benefits of adopting agile:
Source: VersionOne 6th Annual State of Agile Survey
75% Increased productivity
77% Improved project visibility
84% Ability to change priorities
Benefits of adopting agile:
Source: VersionOne 6th Annual State of Agile Survey
72% Improved team morale
75% Increased productivity
77% Improved project visibility
84% Ability to change priorities
Benefits of adopting agile:
Source: VersionOne 6th Annual State of Agile Survey
72% Improved team morale
71% Faster time-to-market
75% Increased productivity
77% Improved project visibility
84% Ability to change priorities
Benefits of adopting agile:
Source: VersionOne 6th Annual State of Agile Survey
What does this have to do with marketing?
The marketing plan
is dead.
Who killed the
marketing plan?
The connected customer.
ZMOT: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth, Jim Lecinski
Hey, who twisted up my funnel?
The Cynefin Framework (pronounced ku-nev-in)
A Ferrari is complicated.
A rainforest is complex.
Marketing used to be complicated.
Marketing used to be complicated. Now it is complex.
This is complex.
This is complex.
This is complex.
From Stretched to Strengthened, IBM Global CMO Study 2011
What do you do in a complex environment?
Probe, sense, respond.
Experiment.
That, sir, is a dead marketing plan.
The yearly marketing plan process kind of looked like this:
“Little strategy” marketing cycles kind of look like this:
Could we adapt agile development
methodologies to help us manage complex, modern
marketing?
Short answer: yes.
Agile Development Values
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
Agile Marketing Values
Self-organizing teams.
High-bandwidth
communications.
Direct customer interactions.
Responding to change over following a plan.
Agile Marketing Values
Respond to market feedback.
Avoid “sunk cost” traps.
Act on new opportunities.
Remarkable customer experiences over formalized internal procedures.
Agile Marketing Values
Marketing is not manufacturing.
“The model is not reality.”
Customers don’t see silos.
Testing and data over opinions and conventions.
Agile Marketing Values
Beware the HiPPO.
Detect when things change.
Seek “validated learning.”
Many small experiments over a few large bets.
Agile Marketing Values
Adaptive and iterative campaigns
over “Big Bang” campaigns.
Probe, sense, respond.
Discovery over prophecy.
Agile principles have many advocates.
Big data thrives with experimentation.
Big Data
Big Testing
Big Experience
Generate hypotheses
Prove cause-and-effect
Deliver better experiences
Agree in principle? How does that translate into practice?
If agile development delivers software, what
does agile marketing deliver?
We ship content!
Stories along the
buyer’s journey.
As a ___(persona)____,
I want __(goal/desire)_
so that __(benefit)___.
Marketing missions with
small, discrete components.
Content marketing
is great for agile marketing.
Social media marketing
is great for agile marketing.
Web development
is great for agile marketing.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
is great for agile marketing.
Mobile app development
is great for agile marketing.
Marketing automation
is great for agile marketing.
PPC advertising
is great for agile marketing.
Landing page optimization
is great for agile marketing.
Landing page optimization
is great for agile marketing.
Mobile landing page optimization
is great for agile marketing.
Disclosure: my company sells software for agile production of
amazing landing pages (and more).
Blatant self-promotion on the stage.
FOUL:
Many marketing missions can be broken into discrete chunks for
iteration and adaptation.
How do you get started?
Read “Essential Scrum”
by Kenneth S. Rubin
For software development, but Chapter 2 will give you a great high-level explanation of Scrum, and Chapter 3 is one of the best articulated arguments for adopting agile for any executive.