scott brinker - hacking marketing

Co-founder & CTOSoftware and servicesfor interactive content.

Author & EditorBlog on the entwining of marketing & technology.

Program ChairMarketing techconference.

Aug 2011 Sep 2012 Jan 2014 Jan 2015

The system dynamics of 2,000+ marketing technology

vendors.

Software is how marketing “sees” and “touches” customers

in a digital world.

Analytics software affects our perceptions.

Marketing automation software affects our processes.

Social media software affects our engagement strategy.

Marketing apps software affects our touchpoints.

CRM software, by definition, affects our relationships.

Marketer Marketing Software

Web Services

Client Software Customer

time

# of

soft

war

e pr

ogra

ms

used

by

mar

kete

rs

Ambient Software

Consumerization of IT

“Software is eating the

world.”

Why Software is Eating the World, Marc Andreessen, The Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2011

“Software is eating the

world.”

* Especially marketing.

1st order Marketing lives insoftware.

The Internet and the digital world.

1st order Marketing lives insoftware.

The Internet and the digital world.

2nd order Marketing usessoftware.

Selection, integration, operation & ongoing maintenance of tools.

1st order Marketing lives insoftware.

The Internet and the digital world.

2nd order Marketing usessoftware.

Selection, integration, operation & ongoing maintenance of tools.

3rd order Marketing buildssoftware.

Websites, mobile apps, data models, programmatic logic, scripts, etc.

Increasingly, marketing is dominated by the dynamics of software.

What can marketing learn from software management?

Agility Innovation Scalability Talent

Agility

AgileManagement

Plan

Review

Produce

Deploy

“Waterfall” is a predictive approach to management.

Sprint PlanningSprint

SprintRetrospective Daily

Stand-up

1 day

2-4week

sprintsSprint Review

UpdateBacklog

Scrum is adaptive.

One Big Waterfallvs.

Many Small Agile Sprints

Each sprint cycle provides an opportunity to:• Reap the benefits of a smaller deliverable• Adjust your approach based on feedback• Stop wasting time on things that aren’t effective

— rebalance your investment• Experiment with innovative, new ideas

Part I Part II Part III Version 1 Version 2 Version 3

This is an incrementalapproach — each step offers you a chance to adjust your trajectory.

This is an iterativeapproach — each step offers you a chance to refine your deliverable based on feedback.

Version 1 Version 2 Version 3

This is an iterativeapproach — each step offers you a chance to refine your deliverable based on feedback.

An iterative approach lets you “fail fast” — try new

ideas on a small scale before scaling them.

The 2 Pizza Rule

Prioritization of the backlog

Sprint review feedback

Minimize “fire drills” and maintain focus

A strong, clear vision is the fuel that powers the agile process.

• Short iteration cycles• Adapt based on feedback• Unambiguous prioritization• Information transparency• Empower small teams

Agile Principles

Kanban

• Visualize workflow• Limit work-in-progress (WIP)• “Pull” vs. “push”• Continuous improvement• Reduce waste

Kanban Principles

Don’t confuse “waste” and “creativity.”

Innovation

Media Messages what it sayswhere andhow it appears

most digital marketing innovation to date (“the medium is the message”)

Media Messages

Mechanisms the next big wave of marketing innovation (“the mechanism is

the message”)

what it sayswhere andhow it appears

how it behaves

form

function

Think more like product managersinstead of marketing managers.

– Ray Velez

“…shaping the product offering, user experience, and interaction design.”

“…focus on understanding and advocating for the users.”

Don’t forget the “viable” in Minimum Viable Product.

Minimum Viable Marketing• Plausible utility/entertainment value• Does not create “brand debt”• Tests a hypothesis about the market• Has a metric by which to measure success

innovation vs. optimization

70-20-10

20%

“Innovation Killers: How Financial Tools Destroy Your Capacity to Do New Things.”by Clay Christensen

Design Studio Methodology& Collaborative Design

Design Studio Methodology

1. Describe the challenge.2. Group into mixed teams.3. Rapidly sketch many ideas.4. Present and critique.5. Iterate (refine & mash-up).

Apply to campaigns, content, websites…

Creative Abrasion

Scalability

Scalability Innovation

Exploit ExploreStandardization Experimentation

“Fail Not” “Fail Fast”Low Variance High Variance

LeverageAssumptions

QuestionAssumptions

Scale Speed

Platforms

Toyota Camry

Lexus ES

MarketingFeedback Social media, performance metricsIteration A/B testing, optimizationTactic Communication/experienceChannel Channel selection, context framingCampaign Concept, messaging, audienceBrand Positioning, value propositionCompany Corporate culture, values, image

fast

slow

Photograph by John Fowler

• Websites• Marketing technology stacks• Content hierarchy• Marketing data

Pace Layering applied to…

Source: Corey Craig, Dell, presentation at MarTech 2015

Thinking Like an EngineerIn Marketing Automation In Pseudo Code

for(MktoLead lead in leads[]){

if (!lead.email.contains(@newrelic.com) &

lead.mktoOwnerID = “005400000025zP6” &

lead.source = “Website Live Chat”){

if(lead.routingReason.isempty()){

lead.routingReason = “Website Chat”

}

lead.ChangeOwner(“Queue: SDR Queue”)

}

}

Source: Isaac Wyatt, New Relic, presentation at MarTech 2015

Managing (marketing) program evolution

• Unit testing, debugging• Configuration management• Deprecation and clean-up• Knowledge transfer• Refactoring

Talent

technology changes exponentially

organizations change logarithmically

Time

Chan

ge

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Conway’sLaw

A system’s design reflects

the organization that built it.

Illustration by Martin Fowler and James Lewis, article on Microservices.

Illustration by Martin Fowler and James Lewis, article on Microservices.

10X Engineer

10X Marketer

Agility Innovation Scalability Talent

Chief Marketing Technologisthttp://chiefmartec.com

ion interactive, inc.http://ioninteractive.com

sbrinker@ioninteractive.comTwitter: @chiefmartec

Reach me at:

MarTech Conferencehttp://martechconf.com