Everybody’s talking about Agile Marketing as the “next big thing in marketing.” It even has its own manifesto. But more than a few marketers are confused about what it really means. This presentation will give you a crash course in how to get your marketing team up and running in Agile.

1. Yes, Your Team Can Learn Agile Marketing
A beginner’s guide to managing creative
projects using Agile methodology

2. Introduction: Agile Marketing
Everybody’s talking about it as the “next big thing in marketing.” It even has its own
manifesto. But more than a few marketers are confused about what Agile marketing really
means.
This presentation will give you a crash course in how to get your marketing team up and
running in Agile.

3. What is Agile Marketing?
Instead of executing projects sequentially
from Step A to Step Z, Agile marketing
aims to create a minimum viable product
as quickly as possible.

4. Instead of plodding along on a single
project for weeks, Agile accommodates all
of your most important tasks—from
multiple projects and even ad hoc
requests—and attempts to complete
them within one short timeline.

5. 5 Reasons Agile Might Be Just What Your
Marketing Team Needs
1. It improves speed to market.
2. Teams respond, adapt faster.
3. It increases productivity.
4. It keeps priorities straight.
5. Deliverables are more customer-
centric.
93% of marketers say Agile helped them
switch gears quickly and more effectively.
80% said adopting Agile helped them
deliver a better, more relevant end
product.

6. Anatomy of Agile Marketing
With that intro, it’s time to delve into
the individual parts of Agile Marketing:
1. Process for incoming requests’
2. Backlog maintenance
3. Sprint planning
4. Watching the burn down chart
5. Sprint retrospective

7. 1. Have one intake process for all
requests
Create a central place where requests
can be submitted, including:
- Project-based assignments
- Formal one-off requests
- Informal one-off requests
(Ex: an email alias, a ticketing app, or a
work management solution)

8. Once you receive these requests, it’s time
to convert them into “user stories.”

9. Important Agile Terminology Alert!
User story – a high-level definition
of a work request, containing just
enough information so the team can
produce a reasonable estimate of
the effort needed to accomplish the
request.

10. 2. Maintain your backlog
With your user stories all gathered up
and well-defined, it’s time to move
them into your backlog.

11. Important Agile Terminology Alert!
Backlog – An ever-evolving list of work
requests that conveys to an Agile team
what projects to work on first. Requests
are expressed in terms of user stories
with assigned estimates (e.g., in points
or hours) and prioritized accordingly.

12. Under the advisement of your team, you
will assign a number of points to each
story, so that you can easily choose the
most important and doable stories when
it comes time to organize your sprint.

13. Important Agile Terminology Alert!
Story point – an estimation unit that
measures the complexity and hours it
will take to complete a story.

14. Rule of thumb: If a story will take up
more than six hours, consider breaking
the story into two or more bite-sized
stories.

15. Your backlog can be managed in any
kind of media: whiteboards, bulletin
boards, index cards, or work
management software.
No matter what medium you choose,
your user stories should be sorted by
priority, whether by deadline, ROI, or
client.

16. 3. Hold your sprint planning
meeting
With your team’s backlog all
sorted, you’re ready to kick off
your sprint with pretty much the
happiest meeting you’ve ever
been to.

17. Important Agile Terminology Alert!
Sprint – a fixed duration of time when
the team chooses a certain amount of
user stories or points to work on and
complete. A sprint or iteration is typically
in two- to four-week increments.

18. During this meeting (which doesn’t
have to be lengthy) your team will
gather to look at your backlog and
decide which stories to work on
during the upcoming sprint.

19. As stories are moved to the
storyboard, these stories are
assigned to individual team
members, who also commit to
complete their stories within the
sprint.

20. Important Agile Terminology Alert!
Storyboard – a wall chart or digital
graph where cards representing each
user story are moved from
‘incomplete’ to ‘in progress’ to
‘approval’ to ‘complete’ according to
their status during the course of a
sprint.

21. 4. Keep an eye on your storyboard
As your team works on their stories, they will move their story cards across the board
according to their status. Ideally, everyone will be able to see their progress in close to real
ime.

22. When done right, this very public, very intuitive chart keeps stakeholders updated and provides
a little extra motivation for your team members.

23. 5. Wrap up with a sprint retrospective
One of the key principles of Agile Marketing is its focus on continuous improvement and
collaboration. What worked? What didn’t? Which parts of the process need to be changed for
the next sprint?

24. More than just a round of high-fives, this meeting should generate at least one improvement for
the next sprint. Then, armed with this new learning, you begin the process all over again…

25. Your Agile Glossary
User story – a high-level definition of a work
request, containing just enough information so
the team can produce a reasonable estimate of
the effort required to accomplish the request.
Backlog – An ever-growing list of work requests
that conveys to an Agile team what projects to
work on first. Requests are expressed in terms of
user stories with assigned estimates (e.g., in
points or hours) and prioritized accordingly.
Story point – an estimation unit that measures
the complexity and hours it will take to complete
a story.

26. Sprint – a fixed duration of time when the team chooses a certain amount of user stories or
points to work on and complete. A sprint or iteration is typically a two- to four-week
increment.
Storyboard – A wall chart or digital graph where cards representing each user story are moved
from ‘incomplete’ to ‘in progress’ to ‘approval’ to ‘complete’ according to their status during
the course of a sprint.

27. Download all the details about
Agile Marketing!
Ready to continue your deep
dive into Agile Marketing? This
guide will help you take all the
right steps to adopt an Agile
marketing process.
- Get familiar with Agile
Terminology
- Learn 6 steps to transition to
Agile
- See how to determine team
members’ availability
- Start living Agile, Download
the guide today!