agile marketing: does one size fit all?
TRANSCRIPT
Steve Offsey
Agile Marketing: Does one size fit all?
This is the story of how a lean marketing team succeeded by re-inventing the way we worked.
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We were faced with an overwhelming set of challenges. We needed to…
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Better define
and segment
our target
market
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Better understand our target customer
• Who are the buyers and influencers?
• What do they care about? What outcome are they seeking?
• Where do we find them?
• What or who influences them?
• How do they want to engage and (eventually) buy?
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Improve our
alignment with
Sales
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Recruit and
grow a
world-class
marketing
team
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Build a
modern
sales &
marketing
tech stack Internet
CRM Marketing
Automation Website
Middleware and External Data Connectors
Analytics and Dashboards Resource and Activity
Mgmt
Personalization, Testing & Optimization Sales Enablement, SEM, SEO, Ad, Video, Events & Webinars, Social, Design
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And not
forget to
generate
demand!
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As Willy Wonka
once said,
“So much time
and so little to do.
Wait a minute.
Strike that.
Reverse it.”
So, how could we keep our team focused, motivated and productive when there was so much to do and priorities were constantly shifting?
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We needed to reinvent the traditional, task-based Marketing culture that was killing us!
So, we decided to implement…
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Scrum
Agile Marketing
Scrum 1
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We started with a typical Scrum approach
Activities Backlog Sprints
24 h
30 days
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First, the team met to decide on the details
Q: How long should a sprint be?
A: 2-4 weeks max
Q: How many sprints can run concurrently and how many sprints can one person participate in?
A: Sprints vary in size, so rather than cap the number of sprints each person commits to a specific set of tasks
After a few months of scrum we saw that…
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Scrum led to teamwork improvement
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Scrum resulted in a dramatic improvement in morale
But it was also too easy to prioritize activity over results
And for some people to work on a lot of things, but not finish them!
So, we took a hard look at implementing…
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Scrum
Agile Marketing
Kanban 2
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Kanban has an innate simplicity
The team was drawn to Kanban, because it was simple, clear and transparent 25
We thought Kanban could increase productivity by focusing everyone on what needs to be done right now 26
But some wondered whether we would waste time combing through the backlog every day
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And thought it might make it easier for some people to take tangents and drift off target
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As well as allow them to choose only the tasks they liked 29
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The team was enticed by Kanban, but didn’t want to lose the best parts of scrum.
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The team was enticed by Kanban, but didn’t want to lose the best parts of scrum.
So, we decided to combine the best parts of Scrum and Kanban and implement…
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Scrum
Agile Marketing
Scrumban 3
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Scrumban takes the best parts of Scrum and Kanban…
Sprint 1
• Task 1
• Task 2
• Task 3
Sprint 2
• Task 1
• Task 2
• Task 3
Sprint 3
• Task 1
• Task 2
• Task 3
To Do Doing Done
Monthly Daily
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...and combines them!
Activities Backlog Sprints
30 days
To Do Doing Done
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Scrumban is gaining traction for Agile Marketing
Lean 30%
Kanban 25%
Scrumban 14%
Scrum 14%
Mix 17%
Source: Wrike’s State of Agile in 2016 https://www.wrike.com/library/ebooks/agile-marketing-report-2016/
I know. Sounds great, but how did we really do it?
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During Sprint Planning the team pulls the items from the backlog most likely to achieve the next month’s KPIs
Sprint 1
• Task 1
• Task 2
• Task 3
Sprint 2
• Task 4
• Task 5
• Task 6
Sprint 3
• Task 7
• Task 8
• Task 9
Backlog
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Monthly KPIs
• KPI 1
• KPI 2
• KPI 3
At each day’s standup, the team reviews KPI burn-down/burn-up charts…
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50
100
150
200
250
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Ne
w N
ame
s
Day
Ideal Actual
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
MQ
Ls
Day
Ideal Actual
To Do
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…to decide which tasks are most important to work on
Sprint 1
• Task 1
• Task 2
• Task 3
Sprint 2
• Task 4
• Task 5
• Task 6
Sprint 3
• Task 7
• Task 8
• Task 9
Doing Done
We also evaluated tools to help us organize and keep track of everything.
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We found that…
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Post-its are great for smaller, co-located teams
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But can be impractical for larger or remote teams
We evaluated software based on • Collaboration
• Communication
• History tracking
• Reporting
• Customizability
• Integration
• Budget
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What did we learn?
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Some of the common myths about Agile just aren’t true!
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Myth: Agile Marketing just means work faster
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Myth: Agile Marketing just means work faster
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Myth: Agile Marketing just means ‘quick and dirty’
Myth: Agile Marketing just means ‘quick and dirty’
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Myth: Agile Marketing just means you don’t have a plan
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Myth: Agile Marketing just means you don’t have a plan
And Agile doesn’t work equally well for every type of marketing activity
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Scrumban works really well for campaign planning
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Scrumban works really well for digital campaign execution
Scrumban works well for tech stack enhancements by forcing the team to prioritize and ‘chunk’ their work
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Scrumban is a challenge for customer/buyer research 61
Scrumban is a challenge for PR and events 62
Medium term activities that can be broken into discrete pieces
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Real-time activities or long-term activities that require continuity
Where did Scrumban work best?
One more thing we learned.
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There’s no ‘One-size fits all’ approach to agile marketing.
Photo Credits • Post-it Concept Wall courtesy of Jennifer Morrow
• Web Summit 2013 In The RDS In Dublin courtesy of William Murphy
• Burning Bright courtesy of Rowan Saunders
• Internet Marketing Plan with red markers courtesy of Ivan Walsh
• Digital Marketing Social Media Tree courtesy of Automotive Social
• Adorable Handsome… courtesy of Aqua Mechanical
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Steve Offsey CMO / VP Marketing
617.834.2834
marketbuildr.com
www.linkedin.com/in/steveoffsey
@MarketBuildr
plus.google.com/u/0/112180942182740068934
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