Agile Marketing How-To Guide and Toolkit

3 What is Agile Marketing?
How Agile Marketing Works
§  Agile Marketing Manifesto
8
13
§  Examples and Use Cases
§  Glossary of Terms
§  Defining Team and Roles
§  Creating a Backlog
§  Running a Sprint
Getting Started with Agile Marketing
Table of Contents
17 Suggested Tools and Resources
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Agile Marketing Guidebook and Toolkit – How-To Guide
§  Review Process
2
§  Starting small but strong
§  Potential obstacles
§  Agile Management

WHAT IS AGILE MARKETING?
Agile Marketing is a powerful and proven tactical approach to improve the processes
that empower your marketing team, encouraging constant and swift growth. An Agile
approach allows teams to be more capable to adapt to real-time marketing challenges
or opportunities. Not only does the Agile process improve a teams speed, but it
encourages transparency and rewards adaptability, ultimately leading to happier and
less stressed team members and more consistent results.
In an Agile Marketing process, the team discovers and then focuses their collective
efforts on the projects that matter most; completing these together cooperatively. The
goal with Agile Marketing is to continuously and incrementally improve over time, and
consistently measure the impact completed projects provide.
Agile Marketing is based on the Agile approach to project management often used in
software development to encourage programmers to focus on incremental progress
over building bigger projects, that take longer to complete, and may be irrelevant or
unnecessary after they are completed.
By focusing on projects incrementally, the results are available much quicker, allowing
the teams to test and analyze the outcomes before investing more resources in that
area. This approach has been so successful helping teams get faster and more
efficient that the Marketing world has begun implementing it on marketing related
projects, with equally great results.
Keeping with the concept behind Agile Marketing, this How-To Guide is designed to be
a quick and rapid review of the concept, how it works, and how you can leverage this
powerful methodology with your marketing team.
Agile Marketing Guidebook and Toolkit – How-To Guide 3

AGILE MARKETING MANIFESTO
4Agile Marketing Guidebook and Toolkit – How-To Guide
During a conference on Agile Marketing, the attendees were asked to compile and
vote on a manifesto that covers what Agile Marketing is all about. The following list
has become a popular manifesto for the Agile Marketing world.
The Agile Marketing Manifesto
1.  Validated learning over opinions and conventions
2.  Customer focused collaboration over silos and hierarchy
3.  Adaptive and iterative campaigns over Big-Bang campaigns
4.  The process of customer discovery over static prediction
5.  Flexible vs. rigid planning
6.  Responding to change over following a plan
7.  Many small experiments over a few large bets
They also agreed on these fundamental Agile Marketing principles:
ü  Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous
delivery of marketing that solves problems.
ü  We welcome and plan for change. We believe that our ability to quickly
respond to change is a source of competitive advantage.
ü  Deliver marketing programs frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple
of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

AGILE MARKETING MANIFESTO
ü  Great marketing requires close alignment with the business people, sales
and development.
ü  Build marketing programs around motivated individuals. Give them the
environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
ü  Learning, through the build-measure-learn feedback loop, is the primary
measure of progress.
ü  Sustainable marketing requires you to keep a constant pace and pipeline.
ü  Don’t be afraid to fail; just don’t fail the same way twice.
ü  Continuous attention to marketing fundamentals and good design enhances
agility.
ü  Simplicity is essential.
Although these principles and manifesto are simply suggestions by experts in the field,
and are not a standard definition, they serve as a powerful reminder on what Agile
Marketing is about, and what it is trying to achieve; Marketing efficiency.

EXAMPLE AND USE CASES
Agile Marketing can be used in every possible marketing or sales scenario including
content marketing, social media, web development, SEO, mobile app development,
marketing automation, PPC ads, landing page optimization, and much more.
The power of Agile Marketing lies in it’s ability to respond quickly to whatever is
happening in the market, and support teams in prioritizing their projects so they can
deliver fast and relevant campaigns. For example, during the 2013 Super Bowl there
was a blackout, and savvy marketers, including the team at Oreo Cookies (Figure 1),
quickly responded on Twitter knowing the whole world was watching and talking about
this event.
Figure 1: Oreo’s Agile Marketing response. (Twitter)

GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Before we review how Agile Marketing works, please review this glossary of terms to
begin to become familiar with the terminology used when working with an Agile
management process.
Sprint: A specific length of time in which a team commits to complete a project.
Sprint Burn Down: A daily progress tracking chart for the duration of the sprint.
Sprint Backlog: A prioritized list of responsibilities to be achieved during a sprint.
Product Backlog: A list of features/tasks that the team will add to future sprints.
Task or User Story: Description of desired outcome from stakeholders perspective.
Success Criteria: What must be achieved to declare a task complete.
Story Points: An estimated amount of effort a specific amount of work will take.
Point Scale: Point system describing the difficulty of a task, instead of using hours.
Impediment or Blocker: Something that is preventing the teams efficiency.
Sprint Review: Team meeting where successes/lessons are shared from last sprint.
Standup or Scrum: Team meets about yesterdays work, todays plans and ‘blockers’.
Scrum master: The person responsible for sprint planning, reviews and meetings.
Kanban: A highly adaptable productivity approach for visually planning as a team.

HOW AGILE MARKETING WORKS
In Agile Marketing, teams use Sprints (which are short focused periods of defined
work) to get things done. These Sprints are planned as a team, and consist of multiple
tasks (also known as User Stories) which are required to be completed for the Sprint
to be successful. The entire team must work together to help each other achieve a
successful end result for every Sprint. This means collaborating with other team
members who may be focusing and ‘owning’ a specific task or user story, to help them
achieve the results required. Failure of a Sprint is the entire teams responsibility.
Sprints are usually 1-4 weeks long, and anything that is too large of a project will get
broken down into smaller more digestible chunks, over the course of several Sprints.
The concept of Sprints comes directly from a popular methodology known as SCRUM.
The SCRUM process (Figure 2) itself is continuous. It starts with sprint planning, which
takes tasks, or user stories, from the product backlog, and places them into the Sprint
backlog. Over the course of the Sprint, tasks are achieved which incrementally
improves the project (or in many cases a piece of software), and with daily Standup
meetings to ensure collaboration.
Agile Marketing Guidebook and Toolkit – How-To Guide 8
After each Sprint, the team measures impact both good and bad and does a Sprint
Review and Retrospective, to ensure mistakes are not repeated. Agile embraces
failure as part of the learning process, and leverages these insights in the next Sprint.
Figure 2: The Scrum project management method. (Image: Lakeworks)

DEFINING TEAM AND ROLES
Although Agile Marketing focuses on all roles, titles and seniority to be removed from
the working environment, there is still a level of hierarchy required for proper
organization. Therefore, every Agile team must have several key individuals, all
working together to achieve each Sprint. Ultimately, there are two key distinctions to
be made:
ü  Product Owners: Maintain backlog and represent stakeholder interests.
ü  Product Teams: Self-managing groups of people who develop the product.
Depending on how many teams you have, or consecutive products (otherwise known
as projects) are being focused on, it can be helpful to have a higher level individual
that manages the entire Agile/Scrum process often known as the ‘Scrum Master’ (see
Page 16 for more details on this role).

CREATING A BACKLOG
The Agile Marketing process begins with defining all of the projects your team wants
(or needs) to work on. This requires defining the work required and placing it in a
Product Backlog, which represents all of the projects and tasks you plan on working
on in the near future.
The goal of each Sprint is to take items from that Product Backlog, and then place
them into the Sprint Backlog to be completed within the time defined for that specific
Sprint, in short iterations.
Your team must develop a backlog of tasks (also known as User Stories) that describe
the work in context to the stakeholders involved. A Story should be a small piece of
work that can be written in context to the person doing the work itself. Truth be told,
if the person working on the task cannot answer why they are doing the task, or
define what will make the task successful, they really shouldn’t be working on it at all.
For example:
“As a [Company Name] [Your Role], I need a [Insert Marketing Need],
so that I can [Insert Outcome].”
This becomes:
“As an ABC Corporation Content Marketer, I need a video-based
landing page, so that I can ensure customers will engage and sign up
to our June 30th webinar on ‘Product XYZ’.”
Ultimately, the goal of any Agile Marketing team is to prioritize stories based on their
importance to the organization, and then estimate how difficult the task will be using
story points (instead of hours).

RUNNING A SPRINT
Each Sprint can last from 1-4 weeks depending on what the Product Owner, or Scrum
master decides. During that time each member of the team is assigned tasks (user
stories) that they will complete. They must focus on achieving these tasks within the
time allotted, and must manage themselves to ensure they get the results required.
These results are defined as specific success criteria for each task.
Although each team member has their own tasks to focus on, the team must also help
others complete their tasks by collaborating throughout the process. An Agile
Marketing team is always focused on a collaborative effort.
Tools such as a Burndown chart (Figure 3) are used to help the team visually
understand where they stand in terms of achieving the Sprint. These tools are usually
maintained by the Product Owner or Scrum Master (see Page 16 for more details on
how to manage a Sprint).
Figure 3: A Burndown Chart helps track progress. (Image: Pablo Straub)

REVIEW PROCESS
Standups
During each Sprint, it is vital to have regular Standup meetings. These are short
meetings (usually daily) that last around 15 minutes where each team member
answers three important questions:
1.  What did you do yesterday?
2.  What will you do today?
3.  Are there any impediments in your way?
The goal of each Standup is to help the team understand what everyone's working on,
and how they can help to get things done collaboratively. It is very important that
everyone who is working on the Sprint (especially the Product Owner and Scrum
Master) to be present. Most Standup meetings actually take place with the team
standing, so that everyone stays engaged and not get too comfortable.
Sprint Review
After a Sprint is completed, everyone meets to share what was done. This is also an
expo for what new work is to come next, and help everyone stay on the same page.
Once again the entire Scrum Team and stakeholders must be present. The Product
Owner must identify what has (or has not) been done, and present a demo of current
work completed, to be shown to the team. Any ideas or notes suggested, need to be
recorded and added, or updated within the Product Backlog. The current state of the
Product Backlog must also be discussed and understood for the next Sprint ahead.
Sprint Retrospective
Similar to the Sprint Review, the Sprint Retrospective must occur after the Sprint has
been completed. This meeting is different in that it is a discussion amongst the team
and not simply a presentation by the Product Owner. At this meeting, the team
discusses any ideas for future improvement, and acknowledges any team members
who are worthy of recognition. It is important that whenever criticism is brought up,
that there is an idea for improvement (so the mistake will not be repeated). Lastly,
whenever an item is discussed the team should employ the ‘Five Why’s’ technique to
ensure that the root cause is discovered and understood.

GETTING STARTED WITH AGILE MARKETING
To get started with Agile Marketing it is important that you have the buy-in from key
stakeholders at your organization. Although the Agile process is a proven method for
empowering your marketing team to become more efficient, it is an entirely new way
of approaching project management to many people.
Over the next following pages, we will share some important tips for ensuring you
have a successful Agile Marketing program by focusing on:
ü  Starting Small but Strong (Page 14)
ü  Potential Obstacles (Page 15)
ü  Agile Management (Page 16)

STARTING SMALL BUT STRONG
It can be difficult to change how your organization operates. That’s why it is important
to start small and grow your program over time, to get full buy-in and acceptance
from the organization and marketing team as a whole.
Often, the most successful approach, is for an individual to start using Agile on their
own and prove it works. It’s a good idea to start with a small project that has a short
timeline and is not critical (so you can try the process without becoming overwhelmed
and abandoning the process as a result).
If you can find allies who also share your enthusiasm for Agile Marketing, another
approach is to start with a low risk pilot project first.
No matter which scenario applies to you and your team, you should try to fully
embrace the workflow from the start. That includes creating a backlog, managing your
Sprints and having Standup meetings to tracking progress visually for the team (or
yourself) to reference.

POTENTIAL OBSTACLES
One of the biggest challenges with using Agile Marketing is getting the momentum
going where everyone feels comfortable with the process, and does not deviate from
it. It is very important that everyone on the team follow the same set of rules equally.
One key problem occurs in that the team will need to focus on learning a new
methodology and process (while they do the work itself within its rules). It’s
important not to overwhelm your team with too many new concepts at the same time,
such as learning a piece of software (while learning Agile itself). Starting with a simple
whiteboard, the entire team can share, is often the best way to start.
Often problems arise when people who aren’t following the rules interfere with those
who are. For example, if team members are not present for reviews (when they
should be), or non-core team members consume a meeting with discussions that are
not relevant, it won’t take long before people stop believing in the Agile process. Time
spent in meetings should never be spent discussing generalities or going off on any
tangents. The meetings should be short and focused with a specific agenda. For
example, during a Daily Standup, no one should be sharing anything that is not a
direct answer to the three questions asked:
1.  What did you do yesterday?
2.  What will you do today?
3.  Are there any impediments in your way?
In general, only team members with work assigned should ever be speaking at a
meeting. Any topics outside of the three questions above should be addressed outside
of a Standup meeting, and that goes for other Agile meetings as well (including Sprint
Reviews and Sprint Retrospectives).
It is important that teams report directly to other team members about their progress
instead of privately to a single member or the Scrum Master. It is a key component of
Agile, that everyone is on the same page at all times, and that time used for
communication is kept brief and focused.

AGILE MANAGEMENT
Often within an Agile team (that is using the Scrum methodology), there is a leader
called the Scrum Master. This individual often uses a Sprint Burndown chart (see Page
8) to track progress. They ensure user stories are prioritized and that any items
brought up during a retrospective meeting are documented. They look out for
obstacles in the way of the Sprint, and ensure everyone on the team is aware of the
goal, and are in sync for the expectations for each Sprint. Ultimately, the Scrum
Master is the coach that ensures the team is working both independently and
collaboratively, and that everyone is having a stress free experience.
One of the tools a Scrum Master can use to bring their team together is a Kanban
board (Figure 4). Kanban is another widely used method for organizing an Agile teams
activity. Kanban is based on the Japanese strategy of ‘Kaizen’, which encourages
teams to achieve continuous improvement incrementally, one step at a time.
Kanban is often implemented as a whiteboard in a visual location within the office. It
uses columns with different contexts within them such as: Planning, Waiting For,
Ready, Doing and Done. Team members use sticky notes and place their tasks on the
board for everyone to see. As items are achieved they are placed in the ‘Done’
column. This method allows team members to understand where everyone's tasks are
currently, and how they can help each other to achieve the Sprint as a team.
Figure 4: A simple Kanban board for tracking progress. (Image: Jeff Iasovski)

It is important to state that Agile Marketing is more about focusing on the process
itself, than any specific tool. As we shared, you can use a whiteboard to successfully
implement an Agile process with your team using Kanban. That said, using digital
tools and resources can be a powerful way to organize the work ahead and ensure
everything related to your Agile Marketing effort is on track.
Here are a few Excel-based tools included in our Agile Marketing Toolkit to help you
immediately leverage an organized approach to Agile Marketing with your team:
ü  Backlog Tool: Organize your Product and User Story Backlog.
ü  User Story Prioritization Tool: Find the most useful user stories or tasks.
ü  Sprint Planning Tool: Plan and track what is involved within each sprint.
ü  Kanban Chart: Organize and visually show the context for tasks.
ü  Scrum Master Checklist: Quickly review how well your team is doing.
ü  Standup Checklist: Ensure your Standups do not miss anything important.
ü  Sprint Review Checklist: Ensure your Review follows best practices.
ü  Sprint Retrospective Checklist: Ensure lessons learned are leveraged.
If you are looking for a software solution that is Agile-friendly, consider
the free software tool Trello, which allows teams to use a digital Kanban board
collaboratively.
SUGGESTED TOOLS AND RESOURCES

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