Scrum isn't just for technical teams anymore. Here at OpenView, we embrace agile across all teams – including marketing. This slideshare will show you how implementing Scrum allows our small marketing team to meet lofty goals.

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Scrum-inspired Marketing
Execution with OpenView Labs

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Scrum is part of who we are as a firm.
It’s a project management framework/
methodology that helps us all:
• Stay focused on what’s most important
• Create visibility
• Increase collaboration
• Get the job done faster
Jeff Sutherland
Co-creator of Scrum
OpenView Senior Advisor

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Believe it or not, at OpenView, we ONLY have 2 Marketers
focused solely on OpenView Marketing efforts
A snapshot of SOME of our typical quarterly output:
• 2 major ebooks
• 5+ reports and case studies
• Over a dozen webinars/podcasts
• Release over 20 new videos
• Put out over 100 new blog posts
• Send out a weekly newsletter to over 35,000 people
•
to which we add 4k subscribers to quarterly
Don’t believe us? Check out:
www.openviewlabs.com
www.openviewpartners.com.

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And everyone on our marketing team usually leaves around 5:30pm.
This would not be possible without Scrum.

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But implementing Scrum is not easy.
It requires discipline
It feels unnatural at first
It’s easy to fall back into bad habits
…And, the other teams within your
organization need to be bought in to a
certain extent.
OpenView’s Scott Maxwell wholeheartedly believes in Scrum, that has made all the difference.

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It works so well for us, we encourage marketers within
our companies to use it as well.
Free training with Jeff Sutherland is offered exclusively to our investments.
3 Common pains our portfolio companies’ marketing team’s feel:
1. Strained due to limited resources – working 60+
hours a week
2. Too many small projects going on at once that seem
to be dragging on forever.
And….

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“I need more sales
enablement tools! PS.
The MQLs you are
sending me really
aren’t MQLS!”
-VP of Sales
“I need you to work on the
board presentation and have
it done by Friday.”
-CEO
“Lets meet to talk about
how you can help with
onboarding?”
-VP of HR
“Can you review my
materials and make sure
they are consistent with the
brand messaging?”
VP of Product Marketing
3. Demands from other teams, taking away from
original and most important marketing goals
VP of Marketing
Look familiar?

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1. It begins with developing “SMART” goals for an
interval of time.
Sample Smart Goals our Portfolio companies might have for Q3:
• Increase website traffic by 10% month over month
• Increase web conversions by 100% by end of quarter
• Host 3 successful events with minimum 100 attendees per event
• Generate 50 MQLs from webinars by end of quarter

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2. From there have a “Project Backlog” with workplans.
Think:What are the projects you will execute to help you achieve your SMART GOALS?

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3.You must institutionalize weekly “Sprint Planning” meetings.
Vitals: your regularly occurring tasks that “keep the lights on”
Projects: Tasks that are pulled directly from the workplans of our major goals.
Think: What tasks (or “stories”)will you be prioritizing and “pulling into your upcoming
sprint” (a week’s worth of work)?
These #s
represent
hours spent.
We strive to
plan 35
REAL hours
of work
each week.
That is our
capacity.

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4.Always have daily “Scrum”meetings or stand-ups. (15-20 mins)
Pulling directly from your Sprint plan for that week…
• What did stories (tasks) did you complete yesterday?
• What stories will you complete today?
• What impediments are holding you back?
• What can the team do to help?
Strive to get tasks DONE.

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5. Finally, weekly team sprint reviews and retrospectives are KEY.
Sprint Review:
What stories/tasks had you planned to do, but “killed” (or eliminated)?
What was was added to your sprint mid-week that was “unplanned”?
What did you “pull forward”, tasks pulled in from your project backlog that
you had not originally planned to do this week?
Track this information shared in
Google docs (or something
equivalent) – look for trends
over time.This becomes a great
management tool for you.
Retrospective:
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What will you do differently next week?
How can the team better support you?

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Now, Rinse and Repeat. And stay disciplined.
We LEARN from our weekly sprints, and adjust accordingly
when planning to following week.
We are AGILE.