1. @rsmartly
The State of Agile Marketing
Based on interviews With Marketers on The Marketing Agility Podcast and for
The Agile Marketer: Turning Customer Experience Into Your Competitive Advantage
VP of Social & Community Marketing
Oracle, Corporate Communications
Co-Host: The Marketing Agility Podcast
Blog @ rolandsmart.com
@rsmartly

2. @rsmartly
This Presentation Will Answer These Questions:
• What are the most common uses of Agile within marketing?
• Where are marketers running into challenges with Agile?
• How is Agile being implemented most commonly?
• Where are we on the adoption curve?
NOT These Questions:
• What is Agile Marketing?
• What are the values and principles of Agile Marketing?
• What’s driving marketers to adopt Agile for marketing?

3. @rsmartly
About Our Experience
The Marketing Agility Podcast
Started: 2010
Episodes
• 50+ Episodes
• Big & Small Companies
• B2B & B2C
• Practitioners & Agencies
Co-Hosted
by Frank Days
Companies
• Autodesk
• Symantec
• Level3
• Marketo
• Infer
• CA Technologies
• LeanKit
• GoGo Wireless
• Vistaprint
• Spotify
• EMC
• Workfront
Author
The Agile Marketer
Turning Customer
Experience Into Your
Competitive Advantage

4. @rsmartly
Be Forewarned!
The evidence cited in this deck is based on anecdotal evidence
gathered from interviews or surveys with marketers ….
you know, the people that consumers don’t trust :-)
The same people that told Gartner “that by 2016, 89% of
companies expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer
experience, versus 36% four years previous”.
Directionally correct but over exuberant ….
so let’s keep that in mind.

5. @rsmartly
What Are The Most Common Agile Use Cases?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Ops Content Product Advertising PR/Comm Design ABM Growth Cust. Exp.*
Ops is effectively general project management*
Frequency of Agile use across silos / functions

6. @rsmartly
What Are The Most Common Agile Use Cases?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Ops Content Product Advertising PR/Comm Design ABM Growth Cust. Exp.*
Ops is effectively general project management*
Frequency of Agile use across silos / functions
Remember that Gartner research?

7. @rsmartly
Vendor Led Research on Use Cases: Wrike
0%
13%
25%
38%
50%
Ops Product PR/CommSocial Media Content
How Marketers Get Things Done - The State of Agile Marketing 2016, Wrike, 2016
0%
13%
25%
38%
50%
High Medium Low Not al allDon't Know
Where do you feel your team fits
in the scale of embracing Agile
marketing approaches?
Looking at different roles, which
have a high percentage
of Agile adoption?

8. @rsmartly
Which Agile Methods are Most Common?
“At ReadyTalk we went through ten iterations of our method before stabilizing on
what we call Scrumban”
- Mike McKinnon - Avaya - sr. manager, marketing Avaya
Kanban is increasingly becoming the foundational method

9. @rsmartly
0%
8%
15%
23%
30%
Lean Kanban Scrumban Scrum A Mix
Which of the Agile methodologies best describes what your team uses?
Vendor Led Research on Methods: Wrike
How Marketers Get Things Done - The State of Agile Marketing 2016, Wrike, 2016

10. @rsmartly
0%
8%
15%
23%
30%
Lean Kanban Scrumban Scrum A Mix
Which of the Agile methodologies best describes what your team uses?
Vendor Led Research on Methods: Wrike
How Marketers Get Things Done - The State of Agile Marketing 2016, Wrike, 2016
not sure how these differ?
technically this is a mix!

11. @rsmartly
Is Agile Replacing Traditional Methods?
“Use Scrum or Kanban but only at 80% of the teams capacity”
- Peter Billante - sr. product line manager, Autodesk
Agile
Waterfall
Agile is NOT a holistic operating system,
it must integrate with traditional methods

12. @rsmartly
Is Agile Replacing Traditional Methods?
How much time does my team spend in Agile mode vs Waterfall?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
100 A / 0 W 80 A / 20 W 60 A / 40 W 40 A / 60 W 20 A / 80 W

13. @rsmartly
Transitioning to X-Functional Teams Is Rare
“The Scrum of Scrum meetings help keep Agile teams in sync”
- Frank Days - Tesora - vp of marketing
VS

14. @rsmartly
To What Degree Have Enterprises Embraced X-Functional Teams?
None
60%
Some X-Functional
35%
Mostly X-Functional
5%
The x-functional teams that exist were typically started that way

15. @rsmartly
Agile Marketing is Primarily in the Silo
Today most Agile implementations are driven by mid-level
managers or by functional team leaders. Thus we often see
Agile inside organizational silos.
Agile Pioneers

16. @rsmartly
Scaling Across Teams is Slightly Easier Than Getting Exec Buy-in

17. @rsmartly
How Is Agile Marketing Playing Out for Enterprises?
top downmeet in the middle
5%15%
bottom up
80%
As you might expect, smaller companies have better odds.
> 50%
success
< 20%
success
> 70%
success

18. @rsmartly
How Is Agile Marketing Playing Out for Enterprises?
top downmeet in the middle
5%15%
bottom up
80%
As you might expect, smaller companies have better odds.
> 50%
success
< 20%
success
> 70%
success

19. @rsmartly
Leadership is Critical
Executive Buy-in
Is The Single Biggest
Influence on
The Success of
Agile Transformation

20. @rsmartly
Two Primary Drivers of Exec Buy-in
“I think we’ll see leadership transform when the marketers who are driving
Agile adoption are the leaders”
- Charlie Treadwell - sr. director, digital Symantec
Management Consulting
(aka executive education)
Sanctioned Pilots With
Demonstrable Results

21. @rsmartly
Good News: An Agile Marketing Ecosystem is Developing
0
25
50
75
100
2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017
"Agile Marketing" Relative Search Volume*
*Google Trends: Interest over time. Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the
peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. Likewise a score of 0 means the term was less than 1% as popular as the peak.
Consulting: 3 top management consulting
firms have established Agile practices
and are authoring solid research
Training: the top training and certification
vendors have expanded the service
offerings for “business” teams
Tooling: 20+ Agile project management
solutions now support business users
Conferences: 5+ major conference tracks
are focused on Agile Marketing
Content: 8+ books on Agile Marketing in
just the last 24 months
Agile

22. @rsmartly
Are Agile and Lean Competing for Mindshare?
The term “Agile
Marketing” is
gaining traction
and has
surpassed the
term “Lean
Marketing”
though there is
also a
convergence
taking place.

23. @rsmartly
How Does Agile Compare To Other Trends?
The term “Agile
Marketing” is
useful insofar as it
provides a shared
language to
discuss what’s
working and
what’s not. But it’s
still unclear if it
will become a
standard
terminology.

24. @rsmartly
Crossing the chasm
@rsmartly
We are hereEarly Adopters are driving innovation
It’s just coming up on Pragmatists’ radar …
… this is why management consulting is a key driver today

25. @rsmartly
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Plans to Start Just Starting Now Within 6 Months 6-12 Months > 1 Year > 2 Years Don't Know
Vendor Led Research on Length of Use: Wrike
How Marketers Get Things Done - The State of Agile Marketing 2016, Wrike, 2016

26. @rsmartly
Agile Adoption Cheat Sheet
Increase your chances of a successful Agile transformation
Executive Buy-in
Enlist an executive to sponsor a pilot
Set Expectations
It will take between 3-6 months to
stabilize and see results
Get training
Invest in Agile training and
certification
Management Consulting
Advocate for management
consulting to change executive
mindset
Don’t ReOrg (at first)
New teams can be x-functional,
otherwise keep functional teams.
Start with Kanban
Incrementally add practices from there.
Retrospectives
Iterate of you process/method as you
iterate on your project/initiative
Use Tooling
Start with a solution that supports Kanban
boards (Asana, Lean Kit, Trello, etc)

27. @rsmartly
@rsmartly
Thank You
The Agile Marketer:
Tuning Customer Experience
Into Your Competitive Advantage

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