Agile-marketing… Heard something about it? If not, then you still have everything ahead: crazy Internet articles and no references to primary sources, strange conclusions and interpretations - everything is ahead, since this topic has been discussed quite passively for a couple of years, but it is already noticeable for those who are interested in marketing and say nothing that the authors of this stuffing will soon calm down.

And while your head is not swollen from trying to figure it out, let me tell you something worthy of attention about Adgile marketing, especially since to find out the truth, I had to study several books in the original language, not a decent amount of Internet publications and watch a couple of tutorials. Thus, I believe I am informed enough to tell you about Adgile marketing.

Why do you need to know about Agile Marketing?

1. Yes, because there are still many people who are not informed about Agile marketing, which means that once having picked up another topic for “pumping”, consultants and trainers will not get off it for a long time. You need to be ready!
2. Because if there is a discussion somewhere, then you need not only to have an encyclopedic idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthis, but also to know a point of view that is different from the adherents of this phenomenon;
3. Because, unlike Internet copy-pasters and pseudo-specialists, I don’t just give arguments, but I also quote primary sources, and they are, so we need to know about this too;
4. Because, perhaps, you don’t have such a “toy” in your marketing department;
5. Because one of the well-known Western consulting firms workfront dot com in its brochure "I would be an Agile marketer, but ..." ("I would" ve been Agile marketer. But ... ") gives the following figures for the "popularity" of this phenomenon:

In a 2016 study from Workfront, a leading provider of workflow solutions, that surveyed marketers, "among the most intriguing findings":

• 30% of marketers report using Agile to manage their workflows;
• 70% do not use, citing lack of knowledge/experience;
• 57% of marketers report that they don't plan very well at all;
• 40% say their departments use a combination of different methodologies to manage work.

That is, according to this company, a third of those marketers whom they "reached out" with the study use some kind of Agile in their work. I think that we shouldn’t deceive ourselves too much - it’s unlikely that the survey was any representative and it’s unlikely that they were able to interview at least some serious audience, but it’s worth keeping in mind the fact that companies that somehow and in some kind of use it, there is.

What you need to know about Agile?

At the turn of the 80s and 90s, programmers began to think about finding a more effective approach to managing software development. What is the relationship between programmers and marketers? No! But for now, it's about something else ... In 2001, a small group of software developers formalized the views in new approach to his programming work in the so-called Agile Manifesto, which states:

We present the best ways to develop software. We do it ourselves and help others. Here are the principles that we value:

• People and their interactions are more important than processes and tools;
• Ready software more important than documentation on it;
• Cooperation with the customer is more important than strict contractual restrictions;
• Responding to change is more important than following a plan.

Manifesto for Agile Software Development” agilemanifesto dot org

Did you understand anything? What does all this have to do with marketing? Hmm... can you imagine how much patience I had to have to read this "water" chapter by chapter, to try to understand how it all applies to marketing? Wait, I'll tell you everything ... This is important!

Agile is a set of methods and methodologies that help your team think, work, and make decisions more effectively.

Ed. "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"
ISBN 978-5-00100-614-5, 978-5-00117-035-8)

Agile is translated as "agile", "mobile", "live", "nimble".

Agile [in the context of management] is a noun, not an adjective. It is a specific work management methodology consisting of a set of principles and practices that help teams work faster, smarter, and more strategically.

from the workfront brochure The Complete Guide to Agile Marketing.

Agile management is based on:

1. Organization of work in your company in small cross-functional teams that contain everyone necessary specialists;
2. The task is divided into small, focused on performers - team members, functional parts;
3. All work is carried out in stages with permanent control at key points (from once a week to once a month).
4. At the end of each stage, there is a review of what has been done to get feedback from the customer, and a retrospective - "debriefing" to optimize your processes.
5. After that, the customer can change the requirements and their priorities and start a new stage of work.

Scrum is one of several agile software development methodologies. Scrum is a term from rugby, this is the name of the figure that the players form before the start of the throw-in. Among all Agile methods, Scrum differs in that it emphasizes the quality control of the workflow. The method lies in the fact that the development of the project is divided into stages - sprints, at the end of the cycle of which the client receives incredibly productive software, in a time frame that he did not even expect (I am joking if someone did not understand).

It's probably all very interesting. What the hell does all this have to do with marketing? Wait, I'll tell you everything!

Where and how else is Agile used?

What is so interesting about Agile? Yes, the fact that the efficiency of the work of small working groups allows you to save: resources, time, money. He put everyone in "open space", gave them the opportunity to self-regulate their work within the framework of a short work cycle, iterations and splitting the project into stages and ... and oops!

Agile is easily applicable in the development of something: product ideas, logos, packaging, any concepts - in any management of creative processes. And this means that it can be applicable:

• in creative agencies
• in design
• and architectural firms
• in grocery departments
• and industrial design
• in web-mastering groups
• and when creating e-commerce software

Do you see what I see? Management, management, development, creativity… And what does marketing have to do with it, after all? Wait again...

"Agile" marketing or Agile management - I'm confusing the pedals!

Gotta work well

Let me quote again from the book about "nimble marketing":

Managers know that it is not smart not to spend the planned budget if they want to get the same budget next year. Spending, in any case, it practically guarantees that the resources will not be used efficiently. Unable to adapt and reallocate funds in the middle of the year, a marketing team in one direction may have to slow down due to a lack of resources, while managers in another direction are sitting on a pile of money or spending it on something that does not maximize ROI.

Well, with the fact that it is impossible to work inefficiently and it is not reasonable to have a rigid budget, without the possibility of itemized redistribution of funds, this is understandable. You have to work well. Do I need to implement Agile for this? I don't know.

Friends, I cited this passage as an illustration of the fact that all books, websites and publications about "agile" marketing consist of two unrelated blocks:

• statement that it is impossible to work badly
• and a description of what Agile is.

Why management should be effective in a company is understandable even without them. What is the marketing here? In general, there are quite serious reasons to believe that adherents of "agility" confuse management and marketing.

Marketing or management?

It is not only the adherents of this theory who confuse management (as a process) and marketing (as a concept of market activity). Both businessmen and marketers confuse them, who, say, the unusualness of advertising, the quality of lead generation and CTR pass off as marketing quality. So the ideologists who want to make money on this concept, as they say, God himself ordered not just to "confuse", but to "embellish a little" or openly lie ...

What is the difference between management in the marketing department and the concept of market activity? Let me just repeat what I already wrote:

1. It is necessary to distinguish between marketing management - as a kind of management that is carried out in the marketing department, and marketing - as market principles on which the entire company exists.
2. It is necessary to distinguish between a good result of management in the marketing department and a good result of market activity (marketing) of the whole company.
3. It is necessary to distinguish between process indicators in the marketing department (reach, conversion, lead generation, clicks, sales) and result numbers - customer satisfaction.
4. Marketing philosophy and empathy are not inherent in the marketing department, but in the company.

Why you should not confuse management in the marketing department and marketing of the company is written in great detail. After reading, you will most likely have a strong belief that better management in the marketing department (with or without agile) and company customer satisfaction are connected, but very loosely. At a minimum, because the quality of marketing is influenced by both the purchasing management and the sales department, and how empathic service managers have. By improving the quality of management in one of the departments, customer satisfaction cannot be improved!

More likely,

Adherents of this concept, speaking of "Nimble", do not mean marketing, but management. The very definition and description of the principles in the books speaks of processes (management), not customer satisfaction (marketing).

Software development or website development, banner layout or inventing the terms of a new marketing campaign - this is only management. If you try to attribute something to this English word through a hyphen, then it will be Agile management.

Here with attempts, if not to accept and implement this concept in management, then at least to understand its advantages for management, I am ready to agree. And yet, the authors of the Agile marketing concept are lying, because they are talking about some new way of satisfying customers, different from marketing as we understand it.

Why do Agile adepts need marketing?

I think that you can already see how I, following the propagandists of this concept, unsuccessfully try to "pull" this, frankly, not very tricky principle of management organization into marketing, and string it on market activity. Why am I doing this? I'm trying to understand... Why are the adherents of "agility" trying to bring this "innovation" into marketing? In general, the goal of introducing something new, as a rule, is dissatisfaction with the old. In this case, this is dissatisfaction with the fact that consultants cannot make money on marketing in any way, but they really want to!

The fundamental nature of the basic principles, the masters of science, the huge amount of published literature does not leave them a chance. This means that you need to push your competitors apart with your elbows, shout loudly: "old marketing - shit has outlived its usefulness" and there is some " new marketing". Now, out of nowhere, a "glade for mowing the dough" has opened, large and even. Do not believe it? Look ...

Here you are selling certificates of Agile marketing specialists! How?! You who have work experience, a university diploma and a profile marketing education, still not certified? Well, how is it? Collectors of diplomas, certificates of honorary members of the "Vanity Fair", you are already lagging behind in this rapidly changing world ...

To be honest, having read a lot of what is "wonderful", in all respects, about the Agile concept, I quite understand exactly why the "agile" needed marketing. But I still didn’t understand, not just why it is for marketing specialists (as they say, everyone decides for themselves), but how, implemented in the department, “agility” helps consumers become more satisfied with goods and services. Here, what is called poke at me with at least one text of any book, at least one paragraph, one line ... How?

But what really struck me was the views of the "agile" on us - marketers and our consumers.

How do Agile marketers lie?

Wild, bold as a bullet, sharp

Agile consultants trying to sell this concept to marketers, as an argument, cite the idea that in modern world everything is changing very quickly and the "old" principles of work, based on forward movement to the goal are outdated, simply because the goal no longer exists or it is changing so quickly that only those who are Agile can keep up with it. In their course, as a confirmation of the idea, these are the texts:

That is, while "they" "discussed" and drew banners for 3x6 billboards for many years, Facebook suddenly appeared for them? In fact, at the time of this writing, Instagram has been around for eight years. I assume that someone accidentally found out about him recently. I just don’t understand, but what do consumers of goods and services have to do with it? Well, this is their view of consumers, but here is how they represent us, marketers:

Did you understand something? I don’t know if the consultants were joking so badly or they actually have such an idea about consumers and marketing, but the fact is that in one or another similar form they claim that the rapid change of everything, and, as a result, chaos and unprofessionalism, including management, in a rapidly changing world requires a quick response. And you know, I agree with them.

The less you plan and the more chaotic you move, the more often you need to stop to confer and double-check what you have done!

Want to quote how the same idea sounds from the adherents of Agile marketing:

Agile is best in situations where it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately estimate the scope of a project, and where estimation errors will squander efforts and resources.

press. Nov 2011. ISBN-10 143023315X; ISBN-13 9781430233152

For non-professionals, with a lack of understanding of trends and a poor understanding of the market today, it is indeed easier to quickly respond to external challenges. Efficiency and "nimbleness" - as an alternative to knowledge and understanding of market trends. Let's do it!

The problem is not even that. Agile consultants, blaming marketers for the sins of ignorance of the market and inefficiency, themselves have little idea of ​​what is written in the books of adepts, where they draw their "knowledge from". A lot of interesting things are written there, which makes it possible to doubt the value of this concept for marketing.

For small and self-sufficient workgroups

Let's quote again:

Agile - organization of work in your company in small cross-functional teams that contain all the necessary specialists

“Learning Agile. Values, principles, methodologies" Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Green.
Ed. "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" ISBN 978-5-00100-614-5, 978-5-00117-035-8

and here, from another author:

The ideal size of an "agile team" is small, between three and seven people. Appoint one person as a Scrum Master for each team; and remember that this can be a rotating role. Also assign a project leader for each Agile team; although you can work with several Agile teams for one project manager. This is a person they probably already obey. If you have more than seven people on your team, you can create several smaller Agile teams.

The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016

Thus, 3-7 people is the working group of the local process. Everything that is not local is either a few different projects and groups, or a large company with many marketing processes, working like normal people, guided by generally accepted management principles.

"Which contain all the necessary specialists"

This phrase is also taken from the definition in the book ... This means that as soon as you involve, say, an outsourcer in the work of the working group, strict contractual obligations arise between you. Not without a contract! From legal, financial, administrative logic. The leader, moderator and customer of the work performed must also be part of this Agile group, or they must also be contracted and then follow the logic of contractual obligations. Why so? I think that you colleagues understand this already.

Well, for those who don’t understand, see how the visualization of the difference between Agile principles and those principles on which management stands (for some reason, normal management is called by the authors: the “waterfall method” - the sequential execution of a series of works) looks like. Here is how different the principles of the two views on management are:

From this figure, for now, we will be interested in the selected block. From the point of view of Agile, "collaboration with the customer" is more important than compliance with contractual obligations by the customer and the contractor. And this is how "cooperation", in the absence of rigidity of obligations, turns out in practice:

Understandable, right? The Agility concept works when:

1. The customer is internal (this is, say, an employee of your or another department, in a company in which Agile is widely implemented);
2. The customer is not crafty and did not have the goal of simply getting something from you without paying (and who has not encountered this?);
3. When the customer shows high competence in the work that the working group is engaged in (and how often does this happen?);
4. If the customer's plans and priorities do not change (and this is generally all the time)
5. And in any case, when a customer or an outsourcer didn’t give a damn (hmm ...) he didn’t put a bolt (as it were, but, here ...) respects the specifics of the management of your working group.

Otherwise, it's not about Agile, it's about real life. Thus, either the "agile" self-sufficient interested in solving the problem small group, without connecting external "forces", or only contractual relations with a list of mutual obligations, deadlines and benefits of the parties!

Market Feedback

And here is another problem with the applicability of Agile in marketing management, noticed not only by me, but also by the author of one of the books. I will quote:

Traditional research methods are simply not in sync with Agile, mainly because the "agile approach" to product management is faster in decisions and conclusions than traditional ones. marketing research. To illustrate, compare inputs coming directly from consumers with inputs from those intermediaries in the marketing channel who manage the consumers of the service (distributors and merchants). The direct feedback to the direct user is continuous, while the feedback to the business is intermittent, usually through dealer meetings or customer advisory boards, which meet quarterly or less frequently.

"The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage" Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016

and here's more...

Many companies run into trouble focusing only on direct feedback with clients.

The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage" Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016

I don’t know about you, but in connection with the quoted passage, two questions arise for me:

1. Do agile marketers feel sorry for not being able to eliminate the need to get market data from consumers? Seriously?
2. Who needs such "marketing" flexible, if it does not involve receiving feedback from the market?

How are you, colleagues? Do you still consider Agile as a marketing tool? Well then I have more...

Marketing Strategy and Agile

Quote again:

...this in no way means that the strategy is no longer relevant. No organization can survive without a clear understanding of how and what it will focus on; without a plan that is based on an assessment of market conditions, internal capabilities of the company, differentiation, etc. […] Agile serves immediate reality, while strategy looks beyond.

The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage". Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016)

Right now it would be necessary to insert some kind of smart comment, but the thought of the Agile preacher is so complete and accurate that I can’t say something about the inconsistency between the marketing strategy and the idea of ​​“agility”.

The apotheosis of Agile marketing lies

The propagandists of "nimble" marketing, without any hesitation, issue the following to the judgment of marketing specialists:

[Marketing] school teaches you to do the 4Ps (product, price, promotion and place) and bam - you have success, but this is not always the case [...] In this book I will talk about people and how interacting with them, identify other 4Ps and the success of your programs, your companies and your own career

"Agile Marketing" M.Accardi-Petersen.

That is, the author said: "Bam!" - and canceled the marketing mix. Indeed, if long-term NPD management of new product development does not fit into Agile, then "Product" can be thrown out of 4P, concentrating on "people". And that's not all ... In the first chapter of the same book, the author lists, probably, the well-known "" and "" E. Rice and J. Trout, and then the author writes:

Before I go any further, I should clarify that I deeply believe in the brand and the importance of the brand in the marketplace and in marketing. But I'm not convinced that marketing can actually build a brand, as defined in the classical sense and set out in what I might call the 44 Laws of Marketing.

"Agile Marketing" M.Accardi-Petersen.
press. Nov 2011. ISBN-10 143023315X; ISBN-13 9781430233152

Oops! Following the marketing mix, branding was also canceled! Do you think this is an author's disclaimer or a translator's error? No! The fact is that branding still does not fit into the framework of the Agile marketing concept. It's not even that the brand building process is lengthy and cannot be done within the framework of the Scrum cycle. The fact is that the brand is not formed in the marketing department and not by the Agile team...

A brand is a unique idea or concept that you put into a consumer's head.

"The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding" Al Ries and Laura Ries,
Harper Paperbacks, 2002

And now a consumer who needs to hammer the name of the brand into his head for a long time is definitely not a member of the "agile" team, which means that branding, according to the preacher of Agile marketing, can be trusted, but it is almost impossible to make a brand.

Following the brand, therefore, it is also necessary to abolish the concept of positioning, competitive advantage, differentiation, because all this, just like the brand, is formed not in the Agile group and not in the marketing department, but in the minds of consumers. Having agreed to this, you need to cancel the marketing itself, well, simply because ...

Marketing is not in the department, but market activity: in the heads, in stores, in goods and services, on TV, in squares and events.

This is marketing, not what the Agile think about it.

Something as a conclusion

Friends, I once wrote about the fact that

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You have probably heard a lot about agile marketing, but many things are still unclear to you. In this article, we will share all the information you need to implement agile marketing in your company.

What is Agile Marketing?

Agile marketing is a marketing approach based on the values ​​and principles of agile software development. Agile was created in the 90s with the goal of speeding up the development process.

Right now, marketing is going through its own agile renaissance in response to rapidly changing markets. The media is evolving rapidly and the types of media consumption are changing frequently. Annual marketing planning is no longer relevant. Too much can change in one year for even the most well-thought-out plan to match reality.

In addition, data now provides more insight and accessibility than ever before. The moment has come when speed and flexibility in marketing is not only an opportunity, but also a necessity.

3 key values ​​of agile marketing:

• People and interactions are more important than processes and tools.
• Content publishing is more important than comprehensive marketing plans.
• Being ready to change is more important than sticking to the original plan.

These values ​​differ significantly from traditional marketing methodology.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a project management framework aimed at getting the job done faster by marketers.

Scrum structure looks like this:

1. Artifacts

There are three main documents (or artifacts) that you will use in Agile Marketing:

• Product Backlog is a prioritized to-do list required to create a product. The product owner is responsible for filling and updating the backlog.
• Sprint Backlog contains all tasks of the current sprint. The tasks in this backlog are agreed upon at the sprint planning meeting.
• Burndown Chart is a visual display of the team's progress in the current sprint. Each participant should check with it daily to know how many outstanding tasks are left before the end of the sprint.

2. Roles

There are three main roles in Agile marketing. All of them are autonomous, cross-functional, self-organizing and collectively responsible:

• Product Owner- Responsible for work planning. Manages the backlog (this is a list that tracks the tasks and progress of each project). The owner prioritizes tasks, accepts or rejects work.
• Developer- The member of the team responsible for the execution of the incoming work. He is able to organize his work and do it in the best possible way. As long as the work is done correctly and on time, the developer retains full autonomy.
• Scrum Master- organizes the work of the team, is responsible for its effectiveness. The Scrum Master ensures that the rituals are carried out and removes any obstacles that might prevent the team from completing their tasks. He also assists the product owner in planning, acting as a servant leader.

3. Rituals

Scrum rituals are three different types of meetings in Agile marketing. Unlike the traditional structure of gatherings, rituals are highly effective.

1. Daily Scrum- daily team meeting to keep abreast of the current state of affairs. Its goal is to solve any pressing problems. Usually such meetings are held standing, so their duration does not exceed 15 minutes. At this meeting, the team should answer the following 3 questions:

• What did you do yesterday to move the team closer to the goal?
• what are you going to do today?
• What's stopping you?

2. Sprint planning- a sprint planning meeting (approximately 1 hour long) at which the product owner communicates the main requirements and tasks of the sprint to the developers. After discussing the details with the product owner, the developers move on to completing a specific list of tasks that can be completed by the end of the sprint.

3. Retrospective and Sprint Review- a meeting held at the end of the sprint (lasting about 1 hour) to analyze the results. The retrospective part of this meeting is focused on discussing what worked and what didn't. Based on this information, the team should develop proposals and an action plan to improve results and increase efficiency in the next sprint.

Now that you are familiar with all the necessary terminology, we can move on to the fun part - how do you get started with agile marketing?

Step 1. Planning

One common misconception is that Agile marketing completely eliminates planning. The truth is that planning is still necessary, but one should be prepared to change and adapt these plans as new information or obstacles emerge.

The following scheduling mechanism must be defined within the team:

Topic 1 → Initiatives → Epics → Stories

Topic 2 → Initiatives → Epics → Stories

Topic 3 → Initiatives → Epics → Stories

A roadmap focuses on the big picture: the most important goals for your organization. In it, the stakeholders of the company reflect the tasks of the team for 1 year.

The roadmap should also clearly outline the strategy for achieving the goals. There is no need to worry about specific tactics here, as they will change. Think exclusively strategically.

You can choose the planning period that works best for your organization, but typically 6-12 months. However, this does not mean at all that these plans will not be cancelled.

The team should review their roadmap quarterly to reflect new information, changing trends, unforeseen issues or opportunities, changes in priorities, and anything else that affects how your business operates.

The roadmap is the most important artifact for your internal stakeholders, so they should be involved in the planning and review processes.

2. Themes

Topics help you prioritize tasks based on your goals. They determine how your resources will be distributed. A typical set of topics for an agile marketing team might look like this:

• Traffic (20%)
• Leads (50%)
• Sales (30%).

Percentages indicate how much team effort should be dedicated to each topic, based on its goals.

If you need X leads, and traffic and sales conversions are fine, then you will pay more attention to the topic of leads. Instead of working on 10 blog posts, your copywriter will focus on creating e-book to increase conversion.

If next quarter, let's say, your conversion rate goes up and sales don't change, you can change the percentages and put more effort into improving your sales numbers.

3. Initiatives

Your roadmap also consists of a series of strategic initiatives, which are essentially a set of tactics to implement the strategy.

You can think of each initiative as a separate campaign. These could be website redesign projects, content marketing campaigns, or social media campaigns.

The planning period for initiatives is usually 1-3 months.

4. Epics

Most of your marketing tactics are epic. An epic is a period or project during which an end product with a specific business value is created. For example, a new landing page design that increases conversion rates by 200%.

The planning period for an epic is usually no more than a month.

5. Stories

Epics, in turn, are broken down into stories - specific tasks performed by developers during the sprint.

For example, if the goal of your epic is to create a new offer, you can break it down into the following stories:

• Copywriting
• Layout design
• Setting up a conversion path
• Publication
• Promotion

Each story corresponds to a set of tasks.

How to form a Scrum team

So there are three main roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developer.

In most cases, the marketing director will be the owner of your product. This person should be present on a daily basis to review the work of the team and ensure that it is carried out in the spirit of the original strategy.

A Scrum Master should be someone who is able to organize Scrum rituals. He makes sure everything runs smoothly. Most often, a Scrum Master is a developer who is also a good organizer and knows how to achieve the goal.

And finally, the developers. Depending on your existing team and their skills, this role is the hardest to recruit.

You probably already have team members in mind who are able to fit into Scrum the right way and handle stories that match their skills without any problems. However, the challenge for many will be the idea of ​​cross-functionality: the ability to go beyond their specialty to help the team complete the sprint challenge.

The scrum team is responsible for all the work, so if the copywriter has a lot of work to do, the designer (or someone else) should be able to help him.

People prefer to do the work they are most comfortable in, so not everyone will like this approach. The best way introduce developers to agile marketing - hire "T-shaped" employees who easily adapt to new realities. This picture from Moz perfectly illustrates this concept:

- extensive basic knowledge in many related disciplines

Deep knowledge, experience and capabilities in one or more areas

The T-shaped developer specializes in one area, but also has enough knowledge to perform multiple tasks in other areas, if necessary. Hiring T-shaped people is one of the most important things you can do to be successful in Agile marketing.

Choose a rating system

Due to the short time frame, you are only able to complete a limited amount of tasks during the sprint. To accurately plan your sprints, you need to assign story points to each task, so you know how many stories you can complete in a sprint.

Story points are closely related to time, but not literally. In other words, one unit is not equal to one hour, but the idea is the same: 2 units take about 2 times as long as one.

Instead of Story points, you can use hours, but in our opinion, units are the most effective. In addition to time, they also take into account the relative complexity or technical complexity of the story. In order for your team to stay productive without being overwhelmed and at risk of burnout, it is important to consider the time and energy required to complete each story.

Some use the Fibonacci sequence for the same purpose. The Fibonacci sequence increases with each new task added, because each time you add the sum of the two previous numbers, for example: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34.

Decide on a workflow

Since the ultimate goal is to complete all the work 2 times faster and 10 times better, it is very important to define your workflow.

First of all, you need to determine the duration of your sprints. In IMPACT, both internal and client sprints last 1 week. They believe that this is the most optimal period of time to have time to do everything and at the same time not “burn out” at work. However, in this moment they plan to increase the duration to 2 weeks. That's the beauty of agile: you're constantly reviewing what works best for your team.

In addition to the duration of sprints, it is also important to define the status of "Done". The product owner must clearly define what the story should look like in order to be considered completed.

IMPACT has a two-step customer acceptance process.

The original developer completes the story and submits it to another developer for review.

If this reviewer notes that everything is ready, he passes it to the product owner for evaluation from a strategic point of view. Only the product owner can call something done. This two-step acceptance process guarantees the highest quality work.

This is how the eBook landing page acceptance process will look like:

• The developer creates a landing page conversion path and submits it to another team member for review.
• The internal reviewer makes sure that everything is done correctly from a technical point of view, checks the text for errors. After that, he passes it on to the product owner.
• The Product Owner checks the landing page, making sure the text and images are consistent with each other and drive conversions. If everything is great, it marks it as done and ready to use.

This process allows the company to execute stories much more efficiently without sacrificing quality.

Decide how you will train your team

For most organizations, Agile marketing will be a significant change that will inconvenience many people. It will take time to get used to.

This is completely normal and expected, but it shouldn't stop you from adopting agile marketing. Nothing that truly deserves your time comes easy.

The first thing you need to do is get everyone on your team to read Scott Brinker's Marketing Hack, or at least this article, so they can become familiar with the basic concepts of agile marketing and know what to expect.

In addition, you may also take the following steps to train your team:

• Scrum Express Course- a meeting where you will take a closer look at the structure of Scrum.
• Agile planning and scope estimation- a meeting dedicated to learning how the team will plan and execute their marketing initiatives.
• Introduction to the software- a training session in which you will show how to set up the software, upload stories, maintain a backlog, etc.

Agile marketing is first and foremost a way of thinking. Your corporate culture should encourage freedom, responsibility and trust.

Each person is free to do his work as he wants, but at the same time he must be responsible for its timely and high-quality performance.

It is important to encourage healthy criticism so that everyone is honest in their feedback.

Agile culture means continuous improvement. It is also important that it aims to make people happy and enjoy their work.

Select software

We put this item last, since one of key principles agile marketing - don't let the software dictate your workflow. There's no point in choosing software until you know exactly what you want to accomplish. Only then can you find the best solution for your specific needs.

So, IMPACT uses the JIRA software as it is the perfect fit for their workflow.

Step 2 Implementation

Your initial task is to create your own planning mechanisms: a roadmap, themes, initiatives, epics and stories. Next, create your backlog and assign the three roles to the appropriate people on your team. After that, you should schedule daily scrums, backlog preparation, sprint planning, and retrospective sessions.

At IMPACT, the leadership team tested Scrum and new software before rolling it out to the entire company. After testing and tuning, they trained the rest of the team. Then they launched their first sprint, and everything went surprisingly well.

Step 3: Iterate

Iteration occurs throughout the entire process. As you implement Scrum on your team, each review and retrospective should identify elements that need improvement.

Remember that Agile is a continuous improvement practice and you don't have to get everything right on the first try.

Conclusion

Let's summarize all of the above.

3 Key Agile Marketing Values:

• People and interactions are more important than processes and tools
• Content publishing is more important than comprehensive marketing plans
• Readiness for change is more important than following the original plan

Scrum structure

3 roles:

• Product Owner - plans the work
• Developer - doing work
• Scrum master - organizes the work

3 rituals:

• Sprint Planning - Sprint Planning Meeting (1 hour)
• Daily Scrum - daily meeting to track sprint progress (15 minutes)
• Retrospective and Sprint Review - analyze the sprint and identify possible improvements in the next sprint (1 hour)

3 artifacts:

• Product backlog - a prioritized list of all things to do
• Sprint backlog - tasks of the current sprint
• Burndown chart - visual progress report

Agile planning mechanisms:

• Roadmap - big goals
• Topics - individual strategy or goal
• Initiatives - a set of tactics to help achieve a goal
• Epics - tactics for creating the final product
• Stories - specific tasks in each epic

In today's business climate, there is no better approach to marketing than Agile. He has improved IMPACT in every way, from the value they deliver to their customers and the revenue generated, to the way they interact and teamwork.

High conversions for you!

While we're still debating the implications of the latest Facebook algorithm changes for marketers, our audience has already migrated to Instagram.

What-what, are you saying that your company is now on Instagram?

It's a pity that your customers have switched to SnapChat. Or whatsapp. Or Reddit. Or... Consumers change their habits more often than they arrest Bieber. We are always one step behind - no matter what we do.

So what are marketers to do in a world where the customer not only decides where the game takes place, but also determines its rules?

What is needed is a new marketing paradigm flexible enough to keep up with the speed of the social and digital world.

Agile marketing- enough new concept. It is slowly gaining momentum because we are fighting the old school of marketing.

Agile marketing is born out of the need to improve speed, prioritize decision making, agility, and put the customer at the center of everything. If decisions taken failed, you can quickly change their direction. Marketers no longer have to throw away an entire plan or continue to pursue an inadequate strategy just because the fiscal year hasn't ended yet.

Agile Marketing Manifesto

• Real learning instead of opinions and conventions.
• Customer-centric collaboration instead of hierarchy.
• Adaptive and iterative campaigns instead of bulky and complex ones.
• Discovery of clients instead of static forecasting.
• Flexible scheduling instead of rigid scheduling.
• Reacting to change instead of following a plan.
• Many small experiments instead of one big bet.

This means that you and your management will make decisions based on data, not documents. You will have to welcome flexibility, be prepared to experiment, adapt and evolve. And also - to put the client's opinion above their own opinions and experience.

So is agile right for you or not? Yes, if you want to focus on customers, respond quickly to market changes and prioritize according to your resources.

Conclusion: Agile marketing is a great concept for those who know how to use their brains. Only the bureaucracy of some organizations will not allow this - but what about endless meetings and a ten-volume marketing plan?

Internet Marketing Short Course from WebEvolution

Andrey Baturin, September 14, 2018

Agile marketing

- does not yet have an exact formulation, since it is new as a phenomenon, especially in Russia. From English agile is translated as being able to move quickly and easily. In other words, agile, mobile, smart. Various sources call agile marketing the processes of dynamically changing the strategy for promoting a business, methods of flexible planning of marketing strategies.

Agile marketing is a dark horse for Russian marketers

Talk about him appeared just a couple of years ago. There are no domestic large-scale studies yet.

From foreign sources, we recall the books:

• Roland Smart, Agile Marketing. How to combine flexible approaches with traditional practices”;
• “Learning Agile. Values, Principles, Methodologies” by Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Green;
• Agile Marketing by Michelle Accardi-Petersen (Russian translation not yet available);
• "Agile Management: Leadership and Team Management" by Jurgen Appelo;
• "Scrum is a revolutionary project management method" by Jeff Sutherland;
• Product Management in Scrum. Agile Methods for Your Business” by Roman Pikhler.

On the Web, they argue both about the concept of agile marketing, and about its viability in general. However, a more or less harmonious formulation of his approach is simplicity, flexibility, speed.

Agile Marketing - basic

Long-range planning is declared. It seems to remain and is implied, as well as the distribution of marketing budgets, but in the background. And the first comes complete flexibility, the admissibility of a momentary change in strategy, sudden decisions.

So here it is! An agile marketer may well wake up in the morning not really imagining how he will promote the project today.

It can be spontaneous minor actions that bring an instant effect. What then is the difference from situational marketing? The latter operates with a quick response to current news events.

"Agile" marketing involves a constant search for quick interaction with the client, the result of which will be target action. Confusing, right?

The point, perhaps, is that there are no strict rules. At any time, you can deviate from the intended strategy and “jump over” to a new one. It seems to be very handy in a number of situations. Especially when you consider that agile has the right to make mistakes - after all, everything happens spontaneously. This is the main difference from classical marketing, which is based on clear planning, forecasting, and calculations.

How did agile marketing originate?

At first, an approach with this name appeared in development. The development team lacked flexibility, they decided to abandon planning for the long term, discussing problems, as they say, as they come up. Agile methods in IT are still used today, they allow you to adjust the project if the changes clearly improve the entire product. Regarding this approach, a manifesto was even adopted in 2001 (of 6 simple ideas).

Then the agile approach penetrated management. In the process of transition, it has changed significantly. Scrum or “structure approach” has become one of the main concepts. The bottom line is that a team of people is allocated for the project, acting in the key of an agile methodology.

Be sure to include the owner or customer in the process. Since agile also proclaims cooperation, constantly focused on the client, and to some extent protests the elaboration and strict observance of the terms of contracts, strategies, plans.

Already after the development and management of "agile" principles have shown themselves in marketing.

The main principles of agile

Some come straight from the manifesto, some are formulated as events unfold. Just to summarize the opinions that can be seen under the agile brand on the Web:

• Continuous research of the target audience, clients, constant analytics and monitoring of results. Not before the launch of the project or the new year, but constantly;
• Responsive campaigns instead of complex ones. That is, an agile campaign is not just a hastily planned action, but a series of short activities or cycles. They are also called iterations. Each cycle can lead to adjustment or cancellation of subsequent ones - according to the results.

• Small changes, frequent testing and experimentation are welcome. Moreover, the data of each of them must be analyzed and applied to future steps. So there may be, for example, an urgent need to introduce a new tool.
• Quick decisions and a lack of planning mean that mistakes in agile marketing are naturally acceptable. The task of a specialist is not only to make mistakes, but also to learn from them. Eliminate the consequences of misses will also have to be lightning fast.

Agile marketing is the breakthrough of 2016. Swapping traditional methods for flexible ones is like challenging yourself.

In this article, we will cover 6 things you need to know about agile marketing. What it is; why is it needed and what does it give marketers; how to overcome the difficulties of its application in the company.

What is agile marketing

This is agile marketing, where workflows are made up of small tasks and experiments. Agile marketing responds immediately to market conditions and improves the customer experience across all channels. The end goal is to engage users.

No need to build long-term plans, implement complex strategies and wind up a cumbersome hurdy-gurdy to please users. Making the client feel good here and now is the main principle of agile marketing.

Where do legs grow from?

Agile marketing, of course, did not fall out of the sky. This is the evolution of agile software development methodology. The methodology appeared about half a century ago in the bowels of IBM. Then it was described as a step-by-step iterative development.

How is agile different from traditional waterfall model? In the waterfall model, progress is possible only if the previous steps are successfully completed. If one of the steps fails, you will have to go back and start over.

In an agile model, a bad step won't affect the final result. You can skip it or reconfigure the scheme on the go.

When companies started using agile marketing

Brave marketers have been practicing agile since the 2000s. Matt Bloomberg, Executive Director SaaS company Return Path, wrote in a blog: "Flexibility will help complete complex and intricate processes."

Return Path have created a flexible six-release plan for themselves. Each was allocated 1-2 main topics and 2-3 weeks of time. The marketing team held daily “stand-up meetings” to literally adjust processes on the go.

Why agile marketing is needed

Agile marketing is a logical product of a rapidly changing world. If you want to keep up with the times, flexible marketing will help. Each year brings new customer touchpoints, applications, products and solutions. Everything is changing, from the Instagram feed to the climate.

Oreo, the maker of the famous cookie, is an example of agile marketing. In 2013, there was a power outage in New Orleans during the Super Bowl.

Oreo immediately responded with a luxurious tweet “No light? And it is not necessary. And in the dark you can chew":

Oreo's tweet has been reposted over 15,000 times and the number of likes is off the charts.

In Russia, flexible marketing is used by Aviasales. Here is a publication that appeared on social networks immediately after the news of the divorce of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt:

The post went viral and caused several scandals, including a boycott by some media outlets.

Agile marketers are like a first responder that gets to the scene of a crime in seconds. Planning is useful, but it is more important to change course in time, make a decision, post viral content.

Another example is Aviasales. The number of likes and retweets speaks for itself:

Benefits of Agile Marketing

This is an opportunity to stay on the same wavelength with users. Agile marketing involves all marketing channels - from social networks to Email. Company divisions use common information for a common purpose. No one asks the question “What, in fact, does the marketing department do?”

Not everyone is ready to change. Change means failure in long-term plans. It is easier and calmer to plan changes, to take into account possible changes in strategies and methods in advance. Agile will help you “make friends” with change and benefit from it.

Challenges of using agile marketing

The main difficulty, as is usually the case, is in people's heads. Imagine that you have been playing in an orchestra all your life, repeating the same melody day after day. Suddenly you are transferred to a jazz band where there is a lot of improvisation. It's difficult, especially at first.

People from different departments may not communicate for years on work topics, because they believe that their positions are not related. Break down those barriers if you really need agile marketing.

The practical embodiment of the agile ideology is Scrum. This is a completely new approach to project management. Scrum starts with making a list.

The marketing team focuses on a small area. A certain time is allocated for the completion of tasks - a sprint. Scrum master - the main person - monitors the team and corrects the work.

At the end of the sprint, the process stops for summing up and conclusions. It's called a retrospective. Conclusions and results will help to discard steps that did not lead to success. The Scrum technique will quickly reveal the problems and shortcomings that are pulling you to the bottom.

Agile marketing to help and increase your sales!