Marketing at the speed of agile - A CMO's guide to applying agile methodologies to transform marketing
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Marketing at
the speed of agile
A CMO’s guide to applying
agile methodologies to
transform marketing
Agile transformation
January 2014
Introduction
Marketing campaign planning and market entrants. Increased choice overcome the hindrances of more
execution is being redefined by and competition, combined with traditional, rigid “waterfall” software
the quickening pace of business and the mainstream adoption of digital development methods.
the need for executives to respond to technologies, has changed corporate
larger forces shaping business. relationships with customers, not to Applying the principles and
Programs that take months to build mention suppliers and employees. methodologies of agile software
and budget for can be rendered Evolving expectations among all development to marketing can help
irrelevant before they even launch, CMOs move past similar traditionally
doomed by a sudden shift in market
conditions or a new competitor with The roadmap for a successful transformation may
an innovative business model.
come from an unlikely source: the world of software
According to the PwC’s 2014 Global development. Over the past decade, IT organizations
CEO Survey1, only 36 percent have embraced a framework known as agile software
of US CEOs believe that their
marketing and brand management
development to overcome the hindrances of more
organizations are prepared to traditional, rigid “waterfall” software
respond to transformative changes. development methods.
At the same time 72 percent
currently have or are planning
significant change programs in these constituents require that CMOs rigid planning and execution processes
customer growth and retention transform the processes – and cultures – to create teams that are customer-
to capitalize on global trends – of their marketing organizations centric, have clearly defined roles and
they believe will transform their to become more agile, adaptive and responsibilities, are fully accountable
business. Major change is coming. connected. for their performance, and can adapt
Marketing leaders need to move quickly to unexpected changes.
now to get in front of the action. The roadmap for a successful Quick responses need to be rooted
transformation may come from in a commitment to test and refine
The rapid evolution of new an unlikely source: the world of marketing messages that enable a
customer-engagement techniques software development. Over the cross-functional team to move rapidly
and technologies and the innovation past decade, IT organizations have when opportunity emerges. In a world
they inspire put complacent embraced a framework known of rapidly changing customer and
businesses at risk of being passed by as agile software development to market demands accelerated by digital,
more nimble competitors and new agile helps teams keep pace.
1 PwC’s 17th Annual Global CEO Survey, 2014
2 Marketing at the speed of agileA History of Agile
Development
The agile software
development movement
dates back to 2001, when
a group of 17 thought
At the time, software development generally followed
leaders in the software waterfall-style techniques, in which a project is broken
industry met to discuss an down into four discrete steps: requirements, design,
alternative to traditional coding and testing. Each step occurs in sequence, with
no overlap, making it difficult for development teams
documentation-driven to adapt to changing requirements. Waterfall methods
development processes. also can create natural silos because of the functional
nature of the discrete steps, with “throw-over-the-wall”
The group, which behavior common between product managers, architects,
dubbed itself The Agile developers and testers.1
Alliance, gathered to “This isn’t merely a software development problem,”
fix traditional project- Agile Alliance member Jim Highsmith wrote in 2001.
development frameworks “This type of situation goes on every day – marketing, or
management, or external customers, internal customers,
that were rooted in the and, yes, even developers – don’t want to make hard
“Dilbertesque” cultures trade-off decisions, so they impose irrational demands
and mindsets of many through the imposition of corporate power structures.”2
organizations. The Agile Manifesto defines four primary values:
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
Over the past decade, agile software development has
grown in popularity. A 2012 survey of software developers
found that 84% of organizations were practicing some
form of agile development.3
between product managers, architects, developers and testers.
Some
1
marketing organizations — primarily in the
corporate power structures.” 2 software industry — began experimenting with agile
methodologies in the mid-2000s. These marketers
found that 84% of organizations were practicing some form of agile development.3
realized that agile’s core principles were relevant to a
being disrupted rapidly by digital technologies.4 marketing landscape that was being disrupted rapidly by
digital technologies.4
1 “Accelerating embedded software development via agile techniques,” PwC Technology Institute, June 2013,
http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/technology/publications/assets/pwc-agile-embedded-software-development.pdf
2 “Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” Beck et al, 2001, http://agilemanifesto.org/history.html
3 “The 7th Annual State of Agile Development Survey,” VersionOne, 2013, http://www.versionone.com/pdf/7th-Annual-State-of-Agile-Development-Survey.pdf
4 “Agile Marketing for Conversion Optimization,” Scott Brinker, March 2010, http://searchengineland.com/agile-marketing-for-conversion-optimization-37902
PwC 3Moving from a linear to a
connected experience
The way businesses traditionally As a result, customers are redefining many marketing teams remain tied to
connect with customers has been – directly and indirectly – the very traditional models and methods for
linear, defined by a purchase funnel. notion of value and how it is delivered planning, executing and measuring
In reality, however, the path to to them through a single, consistent their programs. Bringing together
purchase can be anything but linear, brand experience. different departments, divisions, and
as customers interact with networks business units into one connected
of people, conversations and The connected experience is “always experience for the customer – with the
technologies across, adjacent and on” and inherently measurable. ability to adapt – is the key to building
within an organization. Consumers Customers are leaving behind a trail brand equity and the greatest value a
follow your brand through social of data that can be captured and CMO can bring to an organization.
channels. They ask for help in a analyzed for insights. The continued
support forum. They download improvement of tools and techniques A business tied to outdated methods
software or other digital content to mine data for insight can help may present several troubling
from your website. They share their marketing leaders deliver a truly symptoms: inflexible strategies cannot
opinions – good and bad – about
your products or services on their The way businesses traditionally connect with customers
own social networks.
has been linear, defined by a purchase funnel.
This new paradigm – call it the
connected experience – has fueled
many disruptions in the customer- exceptional customer experience, one be easily modified to reflect ever-
brand dynamic. People are more that can drive sustainable, profitable changing environments; extended
informed and therefore make organic growth. planning cycles delay action and
decisions that lead to better personal testing; resources to deliver programs
outcomes, which influence their Most businesses, however, are are often in conflict and create tension
business decisions. Social listening still not organized around the with marketing; and limited cross-
tools and crowdsourcing offer new expectations that arise from functional collaboration results in an
significant advances from traditional a connected experience. Despite inconsistent customer experience that
voice-of-the-customer mechanisms the preponderance of data and the can de-value the brand.
such as focus groups and surveys. emergence of sophisticated analytics,
4 Marketing at the speed of agileThis new paradigm—call it the connected
experience—has fueled many disruptions in
the customer-brand dynamic. People are more
informed and therefore make decisions that lead
to better personal outcomes, which influence
their business decisions.
PwC 5Building a foundation for change
Many CMOs are acutely aware Why should CMOs consider agile? measurement as an afterthought, or,
of these symptoms and the First, it places customer voice and worse, a justification tool. A cadence
underlying causes. Transforming response to customer needs at the of feedback and measurement enables
marketing into an agile, more heart of all operations – driving home continuous refinement, allowing
collaborative organization, a customer-centricity that many marketing leaders to measure business
however, is a significant challenge. organizations are striving to achieve. impact devote resources to the
Agility requires a strategic mix of Sharing customer insights across programs and activities delivering the
standardization and flexibility, marketing groups and the greater greatest return.
enabling leadership teams to organization provides a clear line of
efficiently anticipate change,
execute quickly , and create value
not just for a single experience, but The good news is that a blueprint already exists for this
for the company as a whole. transformation. Many IT organizations have adopted agile
The good news is that a methodologies to give structure to previously chaotic
blueprint already exists for software development processes.
this transformation. Many IT
organizations have adopted agile
methodologies to give structure sight into measuring progress toward Third, agile can transform culture,
to previously chaotic software customer objectives and ensures that not just process. The framework is
development processes. Agile has the business is nimble enough to adapt designed to value the contribution of
become a well-known methodology to evolving customer needs. the individual, but in the context of the
and is widely used in highly complex team. It encourages empowerment,
organizations. It is supported Second, agile relies on continual collaboration, and thoughtful risk-
by a passionate community of measurement, creating a much- taking. And it enables creative people
practitioners who have created needed rhythm and precision for to be creative. Team members will see
volumes of documentation, best operations that are used to treating broader career opportunities as they
practices, and case studies. increase their impact on the business.
6 Marketing at the speed of agileBacklog: An ever-evolving list of product
requirements, prioritized by the customer,
that conveys to an Agile team which features
Persona: A fictional character to implement first.
with individual needs, goals and
habits, created by an Agile team as
a representative user, to serve as a
reference point for usability during
product development.
Product owner: A member of the team who
represents the customer and can offer a complete
grasp of the requirements and business value of
the product. The product owner is also responsible
for prioritizing work for the team to ensure that it
meets the customer’s goals.
Retrospective: A meeting held at the
end of a sprint or a release in which
the team examines its processes to
Scrum: The most widely recognized Agile framework, determine what succeeded and what
Scrum is comprised of a series of short iterations–called could be improved.
sprints–each of which ends with the delivery of an
increment of working software.
Scrum Master: A Scrum Master facilitates the team and
product owner by removing barriers, encouraging creativity,
and keeping all parties informed about the team’s progress.
Stand-Up Meeting: A short, daily all-hands
meeting in which members of an Agile team address
three key questions: What did you get done since the
last stand-up? What will you do before the next
stand-up? What impediments stand in your way?
Sprint: Also called an iteration, a sprint
User Story: An Agile requirement, is the uninterrupted period of time
stated as a sentence or two of plain during which an Agile development
English. A user story is often team performs work, most commonly
expressed from the user’s point of one week to one month in length, at the
view, and describes a unit of end of which the team delivers a
desired functionality. “potentially shippable” product.
Velocity: The rate at which an Agile completes
work, used not to measure progress per se, but to
accurately estimate the team’s capacity for future
iterations and guide the team and product owner
in planning upcoming iterations.
Sources: The Agile Dictionary, http://agiledictionary.com/;
Scrum Alliance, http://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2007/march/glossary-of-scrum-terms#1121
PwC 7The Agile Journey
Although an agile marketing • How do our metrics compare with Team members will have specific roles
transformation will look and the rest of the organization? Are and responsibilities that fall into three
feel different for each marketing we measuring the same things general categories:
organization, the common goal is to as finance or other functional
build a framework for addressing large, groups? • The product owner represents the
complex issues and breaking them customer voice at the team level,
down into smaller, more manageable • Do our teams work collaboratively drives story workshops, owns the
pieces. A successful framework or independently? How much do project backlog, and determines
generally follows four key steps. they compete for resources? the releases of “sprint” items.
1. Assess the current state. It’s This assessment will be used as • The “scrum master” tracks the
important to clearly define the the basis to create a series of user overall budget and progress of the
state of core marketing functions, “stories” – collaborative narratives project, runs planning and other
including processes, techniques that describe an item of value for the meetings, and removes “blockers”
and tools for marketing planning, customer. A story is a way to organize that inhibit team progress. The
execution and measurement, along teams around specific tasks to deliver a scrum master will generally
with the structure and skills of the quality experience for the customer. conduct introductory workshops
existing team. Questions that are to train participants on agile
helpful in defining the current state 2. Organize for success. A key practices.
include the following: element of agile is the use of cross-
functional teams who are given • The delivery team consists of
• How easily can we capture time-bound windows – known as the remaining members, who
customer insights? Who owns “sprints” – to plan, execute and are responsible for executing the
customer data? Is it consolidated deliver defined tasks. It’s important tasks
or kept in silos across the to begin with a core group of
organization? cross-functional stakeholders These teams are not separated by
(including adjacent processes function – most may in fact be cross-
• Are our customer experiences and departments, such as sales, functional, focused on accomplishing
consistent or fragmented? operations and finance) who can the objectives of each sprint. Members
understand the process and will will likely still attend regular
• What is our marketing planning serve as advocates to the broader departmental meetings and other
process? How much flexibility do team. Executive sponsorship is aspects of their “day jobs.” But at this
we have to adjust strategies and critical for buy-in among the rest of operating level, there are no silos.
budgets throughout the year? the team.
8 Marketing at the speed of agileApplying Agile across Marketing’s functions
Traditional “waterfall” project plan
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Time
Agile projects maintain a customer focus and use rapid iteration across
disciplines to complete the development of a better campaign in less time
1. Prioritize Agile management iteratively sprints
toward goals with cross-functional
2. Collaborate participation throughout.
3. Build
Frequent return to the customer’s
4. Deliver point of view enables the direction
Voice of the campaign to be re-set along
of the 5. Sustain
customer the way to reflect changing trends
and market forces.
Time
3. Design and test. The biggest • Demo: show stakeholders the feedback from various stakeholders
challenge for marketing teams completed work and obtain their helps ascertain gaps that can be
may be adapting to Agile’s rapid, feedback addressed in the next sprint.
iterative project cycles. Each sprint
is designed to achieve specific • Review: Review project This process of continuous refinement
outputs over a defined time frame deliverables and where must be sustained as agile rolls out
– generally two to four weeks. A improvements can be made across the broader organization. Teams
sprint is often structured around six demonstrating tangible progress
phases, each with its own output: • Retrospective: Reflect on against specific objectives are viewed
the process of working together differently within the organization,
• Planning: identify the scope of – what went well and what thus helping to refine the current
work and commit to the plan. changes are required to improve corporate culture. The key is to realign
collaboration based on feedback and changing
• Standup: provide visibility into objectives – that’s where the agility
what is happening in the sprint. 4. Refine and scale. Each sprint comes into play.
informs the next, as the team
• Grooming: provide the team captures project insights from the
with visibility into upcoming build-and-test phase. Gathering
stories and get their feedback
PwC 9Agile in Action: A Case Study brainstormed ways to address customer needs and
prioritize solutions, broke solutions into smaller pieces
A marketing team that does not represent the voice
of work with stories and tasks, and identified acceptance
of the customer is destined to squander valuable
criteria and constraints.
resources on ineffective programs. At one Fortune
500 organization, a lack of customer centricity fueled During scoping, pilot teams discussed the stories and
several issues for the marketing team, including unclear identified the specific tasks associated with the work,
objectives, an underutilized digital strategy, and including relative sizing and estimating. The team
dwindling innovation, all of which were contributing to then reprioritized stories, committed to the plan and
a growing morale problem. communicated the plan to all stakeholders.
The VP of the group – which spanned brand, web, social, Standup meetings were conducted every week at
operations, media and advertising – attributed the the same time for about 15-30 minutes – kept short
problems to a silo’d organizational structure. But the intentionally to keep the group focused on action.
root cause was actually a flawed operating model. In During standups, team members were encouraged
other words, it wasn’t where people sat – it was how they to share impediments – any obstacle prevented the
worked together. delivery team from completing a task. The most common
obstacles during the pilot period continued to be time.
Many team members were skeptical when the leadership
team decided to launch an agile initiative. While they Both pilot teams implemented a task board to reflect
were well-versed in the concepts of agile software the status of each task as well as progress and work
development, the marketers did not see its relevance remaining on each story. Task boards provided a visual
to marketing. As a result, the leadership team decided “single source of truth” on the overall story.
to launch two pilots to help the team develop a better
understanding of agile and its benefits. At the end of each sprint, pilot teams held a science
fair-like demonstration to stakeholders and interested
One pilot was built around mobile marketing – a parties showcasing work. In both sprints, the product
strategic initiative that previously had gained little owner reviewed the “definition of done” with the team,
traction. The second involved internal planning and decided whether to accept the project as complete, and
structure, which targeted the leadership team to develop queued up work for the next sprint. Applying learnings
some critical buy-in up front. These participants would from one sprint to the next in an iterative fashion is a
become advocates for agile to the rest of the team. fundamental step.
The pilots followed a typical agile framework – plan, Each pilot resulted in several key outcomes. In the
build and deliver – plus two additional phases: mobile pilot, the team created a baseline for mobile
prioritization (at the front end) and sustainability (at metrics, a set of clearly defined roles for cross-functional
the conclusion). A two-day workshop introduced the collaboration, and a much faster cycle for launching new
pilot teams to the fundamentals of agile. Next, cross- mobile initiatives. For the integrated planning pilot, the
functional teams were formed – the mobile pilot, for most important outcome was the documentation of roles
example, combined mobile developers, data analysts, and responsibilities across the team – providing clear
campaign managers and others – as a way to encourage accountability.
more collaboration. Two-week sprints were mapped out
with specific milestones. A few of the initial skeptics were convinced of Agile’s
benefits. “This is such a better way to work,” said one.
In the absence of existing customer research, pilot “We’re all operating with the same customer goal in
teams used persona mapping to define the voice of the mind.”
customer and identify pain points and interests. Teams
10 Marketing at the speed of agileNext steps
Are you ready to begin an agile transformation? First, answer the questions in this Agile Diagnostic to determine your
starting point:
Agile Diagnostic
Answer these 10 questions to determine how well you’re adapting to changing customer needs
Signal Yes No
We hear, internalize and respond to our customers’ needs £ £
We are able to attack problems head-on and show progress quickly £ £
Our vendors integrate well with the internal team and are aligned to our objectives £ £
We are able to take action on our metrics, consistently improving our programs £ £
Our term is highly effective and unleashes its true talents £ £
Our clear focus on customer needs enables us to break down internal silos £ £
Our teams are actively engaged in defining the scope and timing of their work £ £
We learn about our customers’ needs quicker with each update to their experience £ £
We learn from mistakes faster each quarter £ £
We can easily prioritize issues as they arise £ £
For each “No” answer, add 1 point.
• 0-2pts: Your current methods are still meeting your business needs
• 3-5pts: It might be time to start considering a different way to get work done
• 6-10pts: Your current processes are not meeting your needs; you may benefit from an agile transformation.
PwC 11www.pwc.com For more information, contact Sean O’Driscoll Principal 206 398 3574 sean.odriscoll@us.pwc.com Roger Wery Principal roger.wery@us.pwc.com 415 498 6401 David Clarke Principal david.clarke@us.pwc.com 305 438 1800 Andrea Fishman Principal andrea.fishman@us.pwc.com 773 598 4401 Todd Shimizu Managing Director todd.shimizu@us.pwc.com 408 859 4597 Tim Hillison Director tim.hillison@us.pwc.com 415 498 7198 Brian Hsi Manager brian.hsi@us.pwc.com 206 383 9523 © 2014 PwC. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors. PwC helps organisations and individuals create the value they’re looking for. We’re a network of firms in 158 countries with more than 180,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax and advisory services. Tell us what matters to you and find out more by visiting us at www.pwc.com. PM-14-0118 SL
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