agile marketing: does one size fit all?

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

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29

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

steve.offsey@gmail.com

marketbuildr.com

www.linkedin.com/in/steveoffsey

@MarketBuildr

plus.google.com/u/0/112180942182740068934

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