When product development teams go Agile, they often get out of sync with Product Marketing and Market Research teams. The Marketing functions are still organized around a traditional Waterfall playbook - large, episodic, standalone marketing and market research events. This is in conflict with the development team's continuous need for information. In my presentation, I outline a process for making market/market research more agile by creating continuous research processes. This continuous process is built around providing dev teams with the information they need - right when they need it.

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Jacob Brown
Linking Agile with Market Research
Jacob@mozaic-group.com

3. Things are a little tense in Product Development.

4. For years, Market Research and Product Development
worked together to create new products and services.

5. The groups were tightly linked to traditional development milestones.

6. That worked really well when product development looked like this.

7. But that model was built during a more leisurely time.

8. It was designed for making physical products.

9. You remember products?
• They had to be built
• High fixed costs
• Expected to last for decades
• Years between new models

10. But products have changed.
What is an iPhone?
• Product?
• Service?
• Software
• Hardware?
• Platform?
• Device
• Marketplace?

11. We are on the 6th version of the iPhone in 7 years.
• New shape
• New features
• New materials
• New services
• New operating system
• New interface
• New everything

12. The old model just can’t cope with that pace of innovation.

13. Agile was created, in part, to survive the demand for rapid innovation.

14. But to support this pace, Agile teams need lots of information.
Information Needs
• Occasional
• Strategic - Big chunks
• Easy to plan for
Information Needs
• Continuous
• Tactical – Small bites
• Impossible to anticipate

15. This shift to Agile has made Marketing and Market Research
out of sync with Product Development.
• By the time Research has an answer – the product team has
already made a decision and moved on.

16. So what can we do?
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17. The natural response has been to try to speed up marketing and market
research projects.

18. But speed alone isn’t the answer.
 We know it isn’t the solution; because we’ve been speeding things up for
the past 15 years and clients still aren’t happy.

19. You can try queuing up a series of projects, so that Research is “always ready
to go”.

20. That doesn’t work either.
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 The structure is too inflexible.
 You can’t respond to the unplanned needs typical of Agile Development.

21. How can market research meet the needs of Agile
Development?
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22. How can we bring agility to market research?
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23. What does Agile Market Research mean?
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24. We apply Agile Values to the Market Research process.
Agile Values are the touchstones – the foundation – of any Agile implementation.
Individuals and
interactions over
processes and tools.
Working product over
comprehensive
documentation.
Customer
collaboration over
contract negotiations.
Responding to
change over following
a plan.

25. Agile Value
• Individuals and
interactions over
processes and
tools.
Agile Market
Research Value
• Team meetings
over completing
Market Research
Request Forms.
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26. Agile Value
• Working product
over
comprehensive
documentation.
Agile Market
Research Value
• In-person debriefs
over mountains of
crosstabs and
PowerPoint slides.
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27. Agile Value
• Customer
collaboration over
contract
negotiations.
Agile Market
Research Value
• Embed Research
into the Product
team over
Research as a
supplier.
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28. Agile Value
• Responding to
change over
following a plan.
Agile Market
Research Value
• On-demand
research processes
over milestone
research events.
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29. What does Agile Market Research look like?
1. Small 2. Light 3. Flexible
4. Targeted 5. Includes DIY
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30. Characteristics of Agile Market Research: Small
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 Agile research is quick – you only get to ask a few questions.
 You only need a few questions because you are ONLY answering the questions the Product Team has
TODAY or in this Sprint Cycle.
 There is no room for “it would be nice to know” questions.
Small

31. Characteristics of Agile Market Research: Light Infrastructure
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 Agile Research is responsive.
 You can’t have Agile research within a traditional approval and review infrastructure.
 If you need to get 5 people to sign-off on the research - you’re already dead.
 Agility requires a light infrastructure where the team can make decisions on their own.
Light

32. Characteristics of Agile Market Research: Flexible
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 Agile research is on-demand research.
 If I have to plan the research weeks in advance it can’t be Agile.
 This requires new ways of doing research.
Flexible

33. Characteristics of Agile Market Research: Targeted
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 Agile research is targeted.
 You are not canvasing the world – you are not looking under every rock. This is NOT exploratory
research.
 We are talking with our “Prime Target” – they are the first customers. If we can’t please them – we’ll
never get a chance to sell to the broader market.
Targeted

34. Characteristics of Agile Market Research: Includes DIY
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 DIY is here to stay.
 Product Development wants to talk to customers – they need to talk to customers.
 If the Market Research team stands in the way between Product Dev and their Customers it only robs
the research of its Agility.
 Market Research adds value by facilitating and optimizing the DIY research process.
DIY

35. Inserting research into the Sprint cycle.
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Identify information
needs for future sprints
Present research findings

36. Fitting Agile in the product roadmap.
 There is still an important role for traditional strategic research studies.
 But there is also a time when an Agile process will work best.
 The goal is to find the right mix of traditional and Agile research.
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37. What are the barriers to Agile Market Research?
The barriers to Agile Research are the same as the barriers to
Agile Development.
 Change – Companies fight change – Departments fight change –
Groups fight change – Individuals hate change.
 Loss of control – Managers enable Agile Research they don’t control it.
 Prejudice - The belief that Agile Research is Bad Research.
 Fear – A well known methodology feels safer than daily innovation.
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38. How will Agile Market Research grow?
The same way that Agile Development grew.
 Leadership – you can’t force change but you can lead change.
 Grassroots – Product groups will start doing Agile Research before the
Market Research group does.
 Failure – We become open to trying something new only when the
current process stops.
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Thank you
My next three challenges / or three big open questions:
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2.
3.
Jacob Brown
Jacob@mozaic-group.com
Creating ways to integrate Marketing & Agile teams
Building global Agile programs
Supporting Agile marketing transformations