The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing

Chapter 12Adapting to Change

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

—John F. Kennedy, American statesman

The Agile method includes some built-in adaptability to change:

• Agile teams don't write three-, four-, or five-year plans, or even yearly plans, so they have little chance of losing sight of the changing environment. Instead, they plan every quarter, with shifts in priority as often as the next Sprint (Scrum) or the next item in the backlog (Kanban).
• Agile teams don't run big campaigns, committing to year-long buys of advertising and continuing to run advertising and promotions despite changes in the market or the lack of success of those campaigns.
• Agile teams test regularly against customer perception and receptivity. If customers have new choices (new competitors enter the market) or customers stop spending in your category (the economy tightens), the impact of these changes shows up quickly to a team doing regular testing.
• Managers of Agile organizations who practice a balanced portfolio strategy, with at least 10 percent of their resources devoted to new, higher-risk projects, detect change more quickly than organizations that spend their marketing budget on “what's always worked.” Agile organizations also tend to be the agents of change in their category, rather than the ones reacting to change.

Agile teams can implement other processes that increase their adaptability to change.

Reacting Rapidly ...