The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing

Chapter 19Building Support for Agile Marketing

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

—Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist and philanthropist

I have seen many successful implementations of Agile marketing, and I have seen some failures. Failed implementations tend to happen for the following reasons:

• Management—especially at the middle layers—does not fully commit to Agile. Mid-level managers most directly feel the impact of the shift to Agile. When asked to give up day-to-day decision-making authority in favor of long-term strategic projects and the building of Agile teams and an Agile culture, they may react with resistance and rejection.
• Before Agile marketing is fully implemented, a key manager leaves and a new manager comes in. If the new manager is unfamiliar with Agile marketing practices, he or she may, consciously or unconsciously, sabotage the implementation.
• Companies equate Agile marketing with implementing processes, usually Scrum, Kanban, or a hybrid approach. After initially achieving modest success, they lose focus and they lose momentum. They never make the Four Shifts, they stop practicing their process, they fail to realize the expected benefits, and they declare Agile marketing a failure.

In fact, Agile, whether in software development or in marketing, is much more than implementing ...