agile marketing: a beginner's guide

Yes, Your Team Can Learn Agile MarketingA beginner’s guide to managing creative projects using Agile methodology

Introduction: Agile MarketingEverybody’s talking about it as the “next big thing in marketing.” It even has its own manifesto. But more than a few marketers are confused about what Agile marketing really means.This presentation will give you a crash course in how to get your marketing team up and running in Agile.

What is Agile Marketing?Instead of executing projects sequentially from Step A to Step Z, Agile marketing aims to create a minimum viable product as quickly as possible.

Instead of plodding along on a single project for weeks, Agile accommodates all of your most important tasks—from multiple projects and even ad hoc requests—and attempts to complete them within one short timeline.

5 Reasons Agile Might Be Just What Your Marketing Team Needs1. It improves speed to market.2. Teams respond, adapt faster.3. It increases productivity.4. It keeps priorities straight.5. Deliverables are more customer-

centric.93% of marketers say Agile helped them switch gears quickly and more effectively.80% said adopting Agile helped them deliver a better, more relevant end product.

Anatomy of Agile MarketingWith that intro, it’s time to delve into the individual parts of Agile Marketing:1. Process for incoming requests’2. Backlog maintenance3. Sprint planning4. Watching the burn down chart5. Sprint retrospective

1. Have one intake process for all requests

Create a central place where requests can be submitted, including:- Project-based assignments- Formal one-off requests- Informal one-off requests(Ex: an email alias, a ticketing app, or a work management solution)

Once you receive these requests, it’s time to convert them into “user stories.”

Important Agile Terminology Alert!User story – a high-level definition of a work request, containing just enough information so the team can produce a reasonable estimate of the effort needed to accomplish the request.

2. Maintain your backlogWith your user stories all gathered up and well-defined, it’s time to move them into your backlog.

Important Agile Terminology Alert!Backlog – An ever-evolving list of work requests that conveys to an Agile team what projects to work on first. Requests are expressed in terms of user stories with assigned estimates (e.g., in points or hours) and prioritized accordingly.

Under the advisement of your team, you will assign a number of points to each story, so that you can easily choose the most important and doable stories when it comes time to organize your sprint.

Important Agile Terminology Alert!Story point – an estimation unit that measures the complexity and hours it will take to complete a story.

Rule of thumb: If a story will take up more than six hours, consider breaking the story into two or more bite-sized stories.

Your backlog can be managed in any kind of media: whiteboards, bulletin boards, index cards, or work management software.No matter what medium you choose, your user stories should be sorted by priority, whether by deadline, ROI, or client.

3. Hold your sprint planning meetingWith your team’s backlog all sorted, you’re ready to kick off your sprint with pretty much the happiest meeting you’ve ever been to.

Important Agile Terminology Alert!Sprint – a fixed duration of time when the team chooses a certain amount of user stories or points to work on and complete. A sprint or iteration is typically in two- to four-week increments.

During this meeting (which doesn’t have to be lengthy) your team will gather to look at your backlog and decide which stories to work on during the upcoming sprint.

As stories are moved to the storyboard, these stories are assigned to individual team members, who also commit to complete their stories within the sprint.

Important Agile Terminology Alert!Storyboard – a wall chart or digital graph where cards representing each user story are moved from ‘incomplete’ to ‘in progress’ to ‘approval’ to ‘complete’ according to their status during the course of a sprint.

4. Keep an eye on your storyboardAs your team works on their stories, they will move their story cards across the board according to their status. Ideally, everyone will be able to see their progress in close to real time.

When done right, this very public, very intuitive chart keeps stakeholders updated and provides a little extra motivation for your team members.

5. Wrap up with a sprint retrospectiveOne of the key principles of Agile Marketing is its focus on continuous improvement and collaboration. What worked? What didn’t? Which parts of the process need to be changed for the next sprint?

More than just a round of high-fives, this meeting should generate at least one improvement for the next sprint. Then, armed with this new learning, you begin the process all over again…

Your Agile GlossaryUser story – a high-level definition of a work request, containing just enough information so the team can produce a reasonable estimate of the effort required to accomplish the request.Backlog – An ever-growing list of work requests that conveys to an Agile team what projects to work on first. Requests are expressed in terms of user stories with assigned estimates (e.g., in points or hours) and prioritized accordingly.Story point – an estimation unit that measures the complexity and hours it will take to complete a story.

Sprint – a fixed duration of time when the team chooses a certain amount of user stories or points to work on and complete. A sprint or iteration is typically a two- to four-week increment.Storyboard – A wall chart or digital graph where cards representing each user story are moved from ‘incomplete’ to ‘in progress’ to ‘approval’ to ‘complete’ according to their status during the course of a sprint.

Download all the details about Agile Marketing!Ready to continue your deep dive into Agile Marketing? This guide will help you take all the right steps to adopt an Agile marketing process.- Get familiar with Agile

Terminology- Learn 6 steps to transition to

Agile- See how to determine team

members’ availability- Start living Agile, Download

the guide today!