For as long as I can remember working as a marketer, I have preferred to execute quickly and iterate over long planning sessions build and repeat. It stems, I suspect, from my technology and product background along with working on cloud/Saas products. All three of these areas have been making use of agile software development for a decade now.
So when I stumbled upon this roundup by Travis Arnold for the Sprint Zero event on Agile Marketing in San Francisco, I was immediately interested.
What is Agile Marketing?
Well, for a background on the agile methodology, I recommend you head over to this wikipedia page to get a quick overview of what agile software development is. For those who want a quick and dirty understanding of its approach, it is supported by a manifesto which details the underlying thinking:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
This approach leads to quicker release cycles and a product which is much more closely aligned to market requirements.
In today’s world, consumers have much greater power. They are demanding greater transparency, have much greater access to information and are quick to react to mistakes. No longer can a marketer sit in their ivory tower with a command and control approach. Agile Marketing allows marketers to work in this fluid world.
Lets be clear though – Agile Marketing is itself still being defined. The recent discussion between Scott Brinker, Neil Perkin and PJ Srivastava over a potential manifesto illustrates this. Having read the results though, I actually prefer a slightly cut down version:
- Measurement over opinion
- Authenticity over posturing
- Responding to change over following a plan
- Many small experiments over a few large bets
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Two-way conversations over one-way interruptions (or to put it another way, Engagement over shilling)Sustainable pace over burnout
I removed two:
“Sustainable pace over burnout”
In my view, this is required for any approach to work over the long term so is not needed.
“Two-way conversations over one-way interruptions (or Engagement over shilling)”
I think this is already covered by “Authenticity vs posturing” already. Can you be authentic without engaging? I don’t believe you can.
It may sound silly, but I think it helps to have a shorter list as well.
I’m talking more and more about this right now so expect more articles to show up soon but for those who cannot wait and want to read more, I highly recommend reading Scott Brinker’s article here.