The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing

Chapter 3Introduction to the Six Disciplines

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

—Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur and motivational speaker

When I first began coaching teams that were adopting Agile marketing, I thought it was enough to teach them the Scrum and Kanban methodologies used by software developers and show them how to adapt these methodologies to marketing. With experience, I realized that a successful Agile marketing implementation required more than adopting Scrum or Kanban. I saw that Agile marketing required the mastery of six skill sets, which I call the Six Disciplines, and a shift in the organization's beliefs and behaviors, which I call the Four Shifts.

The Six Disciplines provide a framework (not a roadmap) for adopting Agile marketing. They get marketers started in Agile marketing by emphasizing that, before doing Daily Standups or running Sprints, everyone must be aligned on what success looks like and you must have an organizational structure that enables Agile success. The Six Disciplines remind marketers that implementing Scrum or Kanban as a process isn't enough—that the objective of the process is to meet customer needs, deliver remarkable customer experiences, and adapt quickly and effectively to change.

Figure 3.1 The six disciplines and four shifts of agile marketing

The Six Disciplines also help marketers ...