My recounting of the journey to become an Agile Marketer

1. Agile
Mindset and Methodology
How I’m Learning to Take the Leap
Kevin Masi
kmasi@torquelaunch.com
www.torque.digital

2. Agile Mindset
My Background
• Founded Torque in 1992
• Services
- Brand strategy
- Creative
- Digital Marketing
• Working with niche and growth companies
• Our focus has been on making the marketing stuff
2

3. Agile Mindset
Classically Trained Marketers
• Research
• Plan
• The creative Big Idea
• Execute
• How we’re wired
- We fall in love with our ideas
- We need to be right (i.e., have enough data)
- We are fighting for a seat at the C-Suite table
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4. Agile Mindset
Agendas Dog the Marketing Process
• Focus on tactics
• Amateur concepts of branding and marketing
• Pre-ordained agendas
4

5. Agile Mindset
Marketing Agendas
5

6. Agile Mindset
Marketing Agendas
6

7. Agile Mindset
Marketing Agendas
7

8. Agile Mindset
Pressures of Change
• Digital
• Complexity
• Big data
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9. Agile Mindset
How Can we Change the Way We Think?
• Learning from outside our category (Buckminster Fuller’s Mindset: Fly’s eye)
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10. A Brief Agile History
Software
Lean Startup
Marketing

11. Agile Mindset
Agile Software Development
• “Agile Development” umbrella term for
iterative and incremental software
development methods.
• The most popular:
• Extreme Programming (XP)
• Scrum
• Crystal
• Dynamic Systems Development Method
(DSDM),
• Lean Development
• Feature-Driven Development (FDD)
• Sprints
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12. Agile Mindset
Lean Startup Methodology
• Eric Ries, 2011
• It can be taught;…and learned
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13. Agile Mindset
Agile Marketing Manifesto
13

14. Agile Mindset
Shouldn’t Marketing Always Be Agile?
• The marketplace is constantly changing
• Marketing must learn and adapt
• Agility is an essential quality of marketing thinking regardless of
market stage
- Emerging
- Growth
- Mature: looking for growth around the edges
- Niches
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Emerging
Growth
Mature
Decline

15. 12 Concepts in The Agile Toolbox
Steve Blank: The Startup Owner’s Manual
(and why it could also be the Marketing Leader’s Manual)

16. Agile Mindset
Customer Development Manifesto
1. There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get
Outside
2. Pair Customer Development with Agile
Development
3. Failure is an Integral Part of the Search for the
Business Model
4. If You’re Afraid to Fail You’re Destined to Do So
5. Iterations and Pivots are Driven by Insight
6. Validate Your Hypotheses with Experiments
7. Success Begins with Buy-In from Investors and Co-
Founders
8. No Business Plan Survives First Contact with
Customers
9. Not All Startups Are Alike
10. Startup Metrics are Different from Existing
Companies
11. Agree on Market Type – It Changes Everything
12. Fast, Fearless Decision-Making, Cycle Time, Speed
and Tempo
13. If it’s not About Passion, You’re Dead the Day
You Opened your Doors
14. Startup Titles and Functions Are Very Different
from a Company’s
15. Preserve Cash While Searching. After It’s Found,
Spend
16. Communicate and Share Learning
17. Startups Demand Comfort with Chaos and
Uncertainty
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17. Agile Mindset
The Customer Development Process…
17
Startup phase Scale-up phase
…is Linked to The Product Development Process
Customer
Discovery
Customer
Validation
2
Stop
Customer
Creation
Company
Building
StopStop
Pivot

18. Agile Mindset
Pivots are Changes In the Plan
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3

19. Agile Mindset
Missed Pivots?
19

20. Torque Digital Overview 20
PROPOSAL WEDDING
BRIDE’S JOURNEY
SHARE
NEWS
WITH
CLOSE
FRIENDS
AND
FAMILY
FRIENDS
GETTING
MARRIED
BEGIN WEDDING
PLANNING
SHARE NEWS
WITH FULL
SOCIAL SPHERE
(SOCIAL MEDIA)
CONSULT
PLANNER
OR CONDUCT
RESEARCH
(WEDDING
BOOKS, ETC)
LOOK AT
LOCATIONS
(CONFER
WITH FAMILY
AND FRIENDS)
CHOOSE
BRIDAL
PARTY
DRAFT
GUEST
LIST
TOUR
VENUES
DRESS
SHOPPING
CAKE
TASTING
REGISTER
FOR GIFTS
HONEYMOON
PLANNING
INVITATION
PLANNING/
CREATION
BACHELOR
BACHELORETTE
PARTY
ENGAGEMENT
PARTY
ENGAGEMENT
PHOTOS
RECEPTION
PLANNING
MUSIC
CHOICE (DJ/BAND)
PHOTOGRAPHY
AND VIDEO
PLANNING
HONEYMOON WEDDING BOOK 1 YEAR
ANNIVERSARY
WEDDING
PLANNING
Customer Journey: Brides
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21. Agile Mindset
MVP
21
5

22. Agile Mindset
“No Marketing Plan Survives First Contact with Customers*”
• Prussia’s Helmut Von Moltke, 1860’s: Decentralization and Autonomy
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder
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“*No plan survives contact with the enemy”
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23. Agile Mindset
Marketing Plan vs Searching for the Marketing Model
• “A Business Plan is for investors”
• Business Model Generation, A
Handbook for Visionaries, Game
Changers, and Challengers
- Alexander Osterwälder
- Yves Pigneur
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Business Model Canvas
7

24. Agile Mindset
A Relationship with Failure
• “Failure is an Integral Part of
the Search for the Business
Model.
If You’re Afraid to Fail You’re
Destined to Do So”
• “Startups Demand Comfort with
Chaos and Uncertainty
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8

25. Agile Mindset
Track Burn Rate and Test Cycles
25
Existing Company Metrics > Startup Metrics
P&L > Pass/fail: has the customer problem been validated?
Balance Sheet > Pass/fail: have the product features been validated?
Cash flow forecast > Who is the customer?
Line of business analysis, efficiency, productivity > Have the value proposition, segments, and channels
been validated through customer interaction?
> Average order size, customer lifetime value
> Average time to first order, rate of sales pipeline growth,
improvement in close rate, revenue per salesperson
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26. Agile Mindset
Iterative, Small, Fast Tests
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10

27. Agile Mindset
Bullets vs. Cannonballs
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Low cost Low risk
Low
distraction
Learn what works
Execute at Scale, Repeatably and Profitably
11(Torque Innovation Model)

28. Agile Mindset
Buy-in
• Customer development is different to the core
• Success requires buy-in from all departments (and collaboration)
28
12

29. Applications for Torque
1.Website development
2.Marketplace and costumer insight
3.Social Media
4.Paid digital media

30. Agile Mindset
Site as product Site as presence
Design static pages, then write the code vs Design live in browser
Final site map before starting design vs Launch in phases, as MVPs: learn
Approved site is “locked down” for programming vs Learn from each phase, make iterative changes
“Final copy” so we know how to design pages vs Flexible templates for continual copy additions
“Re-skin” = superficial changes vs Complete redesign pulls from existing database
“Completed” site is handed over to client vs Ongoing analysis & testing of nav, content,
message, UX
Website Development Evolution
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31. Agile Mindset
Website Development Evolution
• The website is not a one-time stop on the way towards the sales process
• Websites are an important part of Google’s Zero Moment of Truth as customers
discover their needs and research solutions
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BuyEvaluateResearch

32. Agile Mindset
Website Development Evolution
• Website marketing program:
- Uses Google Analytics to continually test and improve
- Uses forms to capture client data and allow further
marketing
- Educates with rich info and media
- Validates with testimonials
- Features landing pages supporting inbound traffic with
relevant experiences
• Paid media (PPC, Display, Remarketing)
• Social media
• Earned media
• email
- Ranks for organic search (SEO)
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33. Agile Mindset
Smoke Detectors: Finding What Consumers Care About
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Advanced search and social interaction find real users, conversations and interests

34. Agile Mindset
Smoke Detectors: Finding What Consumers Care About
34
• 10 year battery
• All-in one detector
• Smart sensor
• Fast flame vs. slow
smolder
•Nuisance alarms
Started by
promoting a
basket of features
Social media “listening”
and interaction led to
real-world conversations

35. Agile Mindset
Consumer Services Company: Testing New Offerings
• Mature category with flat growth
• Theorized about price and service features
• Goal: test market response to price, service options
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36. Agile Mindset
• Launched 2 new brands: Name, Logo, Website Advertising Programs in 3 markets
• Cost of testing: $six figures
Consumer Services Company: Testing New Offerings
36
Core $3k:
personalized
account
services
Opening
price $1.5k:
self-serve
Deluxe $5k:
work directly
with your
photographer
Core brand
New OPP brand New Premium brand

37. Agile Mindset
Agile Testing with Facebook & Display ads
37
Product Price Promotion
Wedding photo
Self-Serve &
Save!
$999 Wedding
Photo Package
Option
Win a $2,000
Wedding Package
Wedding, photo,
video & album
complete
$1,299 Wedding
Photo Package
Win a $3,000
Wedding Package
Your Wedding,
Your
Photographer,
Your way
$1,599 Complete
Wedding Photo
Package
Win a $5,000
Wedding Package
$1,599
Complete
Wedding Photo
Package
Win a $3,000
Wedding Photo
Package
Your Wedding,
Your Photographer,
Your way.

38. Agile Mindset
Agile Testing with Facebook & Display ads
• Target: user demos, behavior, Google profile
• Test: messages, images, offers
• Reach: 2MM impressions
• Engage: 10k clicks
• Time: 45-60 days
• Cost: $<25k
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39. Agile Mindset
Mindset Reset at Torque
“My passion for design that motivates people
got me into web development.
Now I’m consumed with a need
to use Google Analytics to understand
browsing behavior and inform my design.
It’s a career-changer for me.”
Lena, Digital Designer at Torque
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40. Agile Mindset
Fad or Force of Nature?
• AntifrAGILE, Things That Gain from Disorder
• Author of Black Swan: Highly improbable, hi-impact events
to which we are blind, yet we rationalize afterwords.
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Fragile Robust AntifrAGILE

41. Agile Mindset
Agile Mindset
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