Chapter 9. Agile beyond IT

It is important to appreciate that delivering a successful product to the marketplace does not end when the code is deployed in a production environment; numerous other activities must take place before, during, and after the software development efforts to ensure a product’s success. The very first Agile principle is “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software” (http://www.agilemanifesto.org). Satisfying the customer means that we must have a clear understanding of who the customer is, what his or her needs are, how to introduce the product, and how to gather customer feedback. The first part of the chapter focuses on the delivery elements of software development.

We then explore how the Agile principles and values can easily apply to other organizations, such as HR, finance, legal, and more. Finally, we deep dive into how some marketing professionals have adopted Agile in a vigorous and disciplined way.

Pragmatic Marketing (http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com) breaks down the data-gathering process into two categories—discovery and validation. The discovery phase is about listening to customers and others in the marketplace; it is very qualitative in nature. The validation phase is about confirming that what you learned in discovery is an accurate assessment of many, rather than the pain points or wishes of just a few. The validation phase adds quantitative data to the qualitative information that was collected in discovery.

One-on-one interviews are the best way to gather data from customers and prospects. They can be time-consuming and possibly expensive, but the data gathered can be extremely helpful.

Another method of collecting qualitative data is through focus groups, which are gatherings of users who are walked through a series of questions about a product or business problem by a facilitator to ascertain their opinions and impressions. The company sponsors focus groups, and the participants usually receive some type of compensation—anything from a free meal to a gift card. This group approach allows a company to collect data from multiple participants, but there is a risk that the group members will influence one another, so you might not receive the same quality of information, or degree of candor, that you would get in one-on-one interviews.

Regarding our weather application from Cayman Design, we have conducted interviews with several end users and have found that our customers are seeking three new features: (1) sale of weather-related apparel such as umbrellas and snow boots, (2) digital alerts about significant world weather events such as hurricanes and tornadoes, and (3) the ability to receive inbound texts/e-mail about the daily weather in their location. To find out which feature has the greatest interest, we can then put together a quick user survey for our customers who visit our web site. Survey response rates can vary, with most being between 10% and 30% (Kaplowitz et al. 2004), so you have to allow the right amount of time and incentives to collect statistically valid information. Gathering the quantitative data to marry with our qualitative research ensures that we are making sound business decisions based on fact, rather than opinions.

In our example, the survey results reveal that item #3 is the most popular response, so we can factor this data into our product backlog prioritization. The danger with this example, however, and a trap that many companies fall into when conducting surveys, is that we are considering only our existing customer base: They are the most likely to respond because they already have a relationship with the company. Getting survey responses from prospects or the general public is much more difficult, but you will gain tremendous insights if you can find a way to tap into other audiences.

Other quantitative data can be gathered by conducting experiments such as A/B or multivariant testing. In a Web environment, this type of testing presents some users with a one-page layout or design and others with the same information in a different layout or design to see which delivers greater results (Laja 2013a).

For the Cayman Design weather application, we can have two home pages: One contains the top weather story from a global perspective, and the other displays local weather based on the location information we receive from users’ browsers. In both instances, the users are instructed to send a link to friends and family asking them to visit the web site; this is an example of A/B testing, where the global home page is A and the local home page is B. We can then study the results to see which home page resulted in more link forwarding. From that data, we know more about which home page will help us to achieve our goals and drive more business value.

Multivariant testing follows the same principle but increases the number of variables. For example, the global home page could be blue, pink, and purple and have font sizes of 10, 12, and 14. Again, each different combination would appear to a random audience, usually in rotation, and the data will indicate which combination produces the most desirable results. This is an example of validation because we are adding a quantitative measure to a qualitative suggestion. This testing can produce compelling results, but our product owner must again be cognizant of the limited audience—only existing customers—that would participate in this type of diagnostic.

Beyond discussions with actual users or prospects, another way to collect market insights is through market studies and analyst feedback. This would be only loosely related to the Agile concept of customer collaboration because the product owner is not hearing feedback directly from customers or prospects. The information can still be quite valuable; companies such as Gartner (www.gartner.com) and Forrester (www.forrester.com) invest significant time and money collecting statistically valid market insights. Examples of both Gartner and Forrester reports are included here (see Figures 9.1 and 9.2). Many other analyst firms produce similar market insights.

Using this type of research from analyst organizations can be very helpful when it comes to understanding the marketplace and validating assumptions. Good product owners will rely on a wide set of resources to ensure that the Agile teams are always working on the deliverables that will generate the highest business value.

In recent years, the ways consumers are marketed to and the options that are available have changed dramatically. We explore these changes and why being Agile is essential to ensure that the product resonates in the marketplace.

Just a generation ago, the brand was defined and managed by the company. Through press releases, web sites, and advertising, experts in marketing told consumers how to feel about the brand. The best marketers established emotional connections with the consumers, and they spent their time and money controlling the customer information flow relative to the brand.

Technology has changed that. Consumers are now much more in control of the brand through their comments, “likes,” tweets, and social interactions; to survive, marketers must be Agile and respond to this changing environment. Social media has literally changed how organizations deal with customer service issues because previously, a single bad interaction was known only to the customer and the company; now, an angry consumer can share his or her experience with the world via YouTube, Twitter, and all the other social media channels. If marketers fail to embrace the Agile value of responsiveness to change, then the product that the development teams have worked so hard to create may not make an impact in the market.

On the positive side, the proliferation of channels and the short feedback cycles allow marketers to apply the Lean principles to their work. We have small campaigns with quick feedback for the opportunity to continuously learn and to adapt our efforts—just like the development teams do.

One of the challenges with this short feedback cycle is the sheer amount of data that is available. Marketers must be able to sift through mountains of data to discern the elements that are most impactful. A number of tools can help with this, and “big data” is getting more attention and product offerings to assist in this very task.

Clearly, marketers are living in a dynamic and evolving world, and their ability to respond to change is critical to their survival.

If a product offers the same features as the competition, it can be referred to as a “me too” product; that is harder to position and sell. When you think of purchasing a laptop, you are often guided by the differentiating features in options such as battery life, screen size, or processing speed. The product whose differentiators best match your needs and expectations will be the one that you choose, so marketers need to clearly understand and articulate what makes their product special—and delightful.

A wireframe is a visual mock-up of how a web site or workflow could perform. It is typically low-fidelity and is sometimes referred to as a “skeleton,” “outline,” or “blueprint” (Shorr 2011).

Marketing can work with the usability experts (user experience designers) to produce wireframes that the marketers can put in front of customers and prospects. Not only does this help the product owner to gain valuable product feedback, but it also helps the marketing team to know what resonates with the buying public and what features they should emphasize.

Prototypes do include development resources, but to a much lesser extent than a full product. Prototypes are typically simplistic working models of a product used to demonstrate features and functionality (Rouse 2005).

As you have an existing customer walking through the prototype for a new feature offering, the marketing team can be learning right along with the product owner. For example, our persona Sam, the executive business traveler, is going through the prototype and stumbles on the airport name to gather weather at his travel destination. Sam may not know the proper name of the airport—George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, or Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska—but he does know the three-digit airport code because it is written on his ticket. If our application can translate IAH to the Houston airport for Sam, it is a tremendous value. Marketing now has a key differentiator that they can highlight in the marketing materials—airport codes accepted and converted—and the prototype analysis helped to identify this unique value-added feature.

Usage statistics are wonderful and can help hone a conversation, but when marketing and development work together to insert other data collectors into the working software, additional insights can be gained that can propel the product forward in user adoption.

Another option is to invite developers to listen to customer service calls alongside the customer service representatives (CSRs). Hearing the end user questions and watching the CSRs navigate to find the answers can bring a heightened awareness to the impact of software decisions. Developers that participate in interactions like this expand their knowledge and understanding.

We have committed in our Cayman Design weather application to selling weather-related calendars via our web site. The features include the ability to order a calendar using the nearest Farmer’s Almanac information for weather patterns through history. We know with certainty that several base features will be included in the initial release: The calendars will be 12 months, can be shipped anywhere in the United States, and can be paid for online via a credit card. Marketing and sales can immediately begin discussing the product and these base features with confidence.

As a development team, we envision a much richer feature set, encompassing all of the items in Table 9.1; and we can adjust scope, if necessary, as the project progresses. With the careful prioritization in Agile, we know that the top bullet (in italics) for each element is the most important, and anything listed below it is a lower priority. Therefore, if resource constraints or unexpected complexities arise, we can easily de-scope the lower items and still deliver our commitment to the marketplace.

This method of component management allows the flexibility of Agile to be combined with making market commitments and enforcing dates.

The customers that participate in a soft launch are called “beta users.” A soft launch might also be referred to as a “beta launch” or “pilot.”

When you operate in this type of environment, there is no need to worry about customer expectations and due dates because you are adapting and releasing so frequently that they are never an issue.

When a crisis occurs and we are busy and overwhelmed, you can imagine a scenario like the following unfolding: “Dave, I am sorry to interrupt but I am trying to kick off the XYZ process and I am getting an error that I have never seen before.”

Without a working agreement, Dave might say, “Sarah, can’t you see that I am busy? I don’t have time to train you on every little thing!” If this were to occur in an Agile environment, Sarah could respond, “Sorry. I was just trying to honor our working agreement principle that we are a learning organization, and I really want to understand this so you don’t have to always do these types of tasks.” By being able to refer to the working agreement, Sarah can defuse a potential personality conflict by just calling out what was agreed upon.

Any organization that is striving to improve its teamwork can implement a working agreement; it could be assembly line workers on a manufacturing floor or finance teams who are trying to close the books every month. The keys to a successful working agreement are that everyone has an opportunity to participate in its creation, that it is visible and referenced often, and that it is updated as the team evolves and team dynamics change.

These Agile tools can be used in corporate departments and university settings, and even within families.

A group of cutting-edge marketers met in San Francisco in June 2012 and started brainstorming the ideas and needs around the evolution of marketing. One of the key participants, Jim Ewel (2012), said, “Agile Marketing is NOT just another tool in the toolbox. It’s NOT about the application of Scrum or Kanban to manage the marketing process. Agile Marketing is a movement, a quest, a revolution, with all that implies—emotion, radicalism, religious fervor.” As you can see, for the people that care deeply about this topic, there is a good deal of energy and enthusiasm.

Since that meeting, other Agilists have expressed some skepticism that a new manifesto was actually required since we already have other organizations such as finance and legal that are adopting Agile principles without creating their own manifesto (Muldoon 2012; Skeels 2012). Whether or not a manifesto specifically for marketing is truly necessary, we cannot deny the enthusiasm and effort that have gone into this concept. Let’s review the seven values of the Agile Marketing Manifesto to get a better understanding.

As you can see, there are not completely new ideas in the Agile Marketing Manifesto but more of an adaptation for a discipline that finds itself directly affected by Agile development and in the midst of a revolution within its own sector.

We hope that this textbook has enhanced your understanding of this way of thinking and developing software. Most importantly, we hope it has made you thirst for continuous learning. There are numerous practitioner books, blogs, conferences, and forums where you can expand your learning and share your own experiences.

We close this book with a great quote from Jim Highsmith, one of the signers of the Agile Manifesto: “Stop doing Agile. Start being Agile” (2013).

Good luck!

• When collaborating with customers and prospects, we need to consider two distinct methods of collecting information—discovery and validation.

• Discovery is about gathering feedback from customers, prospects, or the general public in the form of interviews or focus groups. In discovery, we are gathering qualitative feedback.

• Validation is about adding statistical validity to the information gathered in discovery. By conducting surveys or doing A/B or multivariant testing, we are adding quantitative information to our findings.

• Analyst organizations such as Gartner and Forrester can help with market analysis by providing research reports on market trends, buying behaviors, industry pain points, and much more.

• Marketing has many challenges in bringing products to market because new channels are appearing at a rapid pace; Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook may be replaced as the mainstream channels as new options arise.

• Social media has also affected the concept of brand management because companies are no longer exclusively in control of their brand in the marketplace; a terrible customer service experience that goes viral in social media can create impressions and fears that the company will have a hard time managing.

• Gathering input and feedback is critical in product development as we try to “delight” end users with elements that differentiate our product from the competition.

• Wireframes and prototypes are a good vehicle to collect feedback from existing or potential users without utilizing expensive development resources.

• Incorporating “counters” and data gathering mechanisms into code can provide additional insights on customer behavior and opportunities for improving usability.

• Developers should welcome the chance to hear feedback straight from end users by listening to customer service calls or participating in focus groups.

• Bringing Agile products to market can be tricky when balancing marketing and sales needs for a delivery date and feature expectations. By managing the scope within a committed feature, the necessary flexibility (and agility) can be maintained.

• A soft launch to beta or pilot users is a great option for getting something new to the marketplace but only to a limited audience.

• Lean product and software development allows for continuous enhancements where new features are launched frequently, so customers become accustomed to an ever-evolving platform.

• Organizations outside of IT are also benefiting from the principles of Agile by introducing working agreements, fist of five, definition of done, and more to their workflows.

• Agile marketing enthusiasts have taken things a step further by creating their own Agile Marketing Manifesto.

• The seven tenets of the Agile Marketing Manifesto parallel the original but are specific to the challenges in marketing today.

• Agile can transform organizations, companies, and people’s lives when deployed correctly and enthusiastically. We hope that you are inspired.

Kristin and Sondra: How did the Agile Marketing Manifesto come to be?

Travis: It started with a few Agile marketing practitioners pulling together what they believed were the key principles and values of Agile marketing. At that point (late 2010), there were six or seven separate interpretations of an Agile marketing manifesto. It was John Cass and Jim Ewel who wanted to organize everything that had been written into an organized set of values. They brought me in during the planning phase for SprintZero, the first Agile marketing conference. My role was to analyze the previous “manifestos” and pull out the commonalities between them and provide that list for an un-conference session at SprintZero. What resulted is what you can find at Agilemarketingmanifesto.org: seven values that are independent of the Agile development manifesto that inspired us. It’s been really cool to see more and more people adopt some or all of the values in their orgs. It’s very gratifying.

Kristin and Sondra: How do you reconcile the Agile desire to be iterative and responsive with the marketing need to inform the marketplace of what is coming?

Travis: It’s not as challenging as you’d think, and in some cases makes for better campaigns. Just because an organization is using Agile for marketing, doesn’t mean longer-lifespan projects don’t exist. What is different is how the work is organized and rolled out. Like all Agile methods, it starts with a plan. From that plan, work, timelines, and milestones are created and rolled out. Once something is complete it’s reviewed, edited, if necessary, and scheduled for deployment. If any market or product changes were to occur prelaunch, the work would be reintroduced into the sprint and the changes would be made. In Agile marketing, big projects are broken up into digestible chunks, making them easier to work through. This also helps reduce production bottlenecks that occur when attacking a big project all at once.

Kristin and Sondra: Can marketing actually help the Agile process?

Travis: I think so. Marketing and development are very similar in how they work. You have a buyer/user and you ship something. Development ships products, marketing ships materials in one form or another. Both departments are working with the same user, just at very different points in the life cycle. Marketing can and should pass along persona information to development to help them get a clearer picture of the user. In an ideal world, marketing and development would work closer to improve the user experience from the “just shopping” phase to the “logged-in user” phase.

Kristin and Sondra: Does Lean product development deliver enough to the marketplace?

Travis: It’s not delivering more that is important, it’s delivering what is right. Delivering a minimally viable product that solves my exact problem as a buyer is better than a more refined product that doesn’t. We’ve been seeing more products that solve one core problem first, then iterate from there to include what is right for their buyers. I’d rather have a product that does three things better than anyone else than one that does ten things subpar.

Kristin and Sondra: What are the tricks that the best teams do to deliver amazing products?

Travis: I said it earlier, but the planning phase is so important to the mechanics of an Agile marketing process. When you’re working fast and focused, having that two- or three-week plan for reference helps reduce bottlenecks. Another big part of the equation is involving your people each and every day. Daily stand-ups help identify problems and provide an outlet to celebrate success each and every day. DON’T SKIP THE STAND-UPS! They are important for team building and keeping the momentum going. Also, take a page from Google and give your team “free time.” Free time helps flex the creativity muscles and oftentimes stirs up great ideas for product/marketing improvements.

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2. Does a focus group provide qualitative or quantitative feedback?

3. What audience might be missing from focus groups and surveys?

4. What is “A/B testing”?

5. Name at least three social media channels that are influencing buying behavior today.

7. How involved are development resources in the creation of wireframes and prototypes?

8. Should developers participate in focus groups? Why or why not?

9. When Agile development efforts are committed to the marketplace through marketing and sales, how can the development team maintain flexibility?

10. What is a “soft launch”?

12. How does a working agreement influence teamwork?

13. Where and when was the Agile Marketing Manifesto created?

14. What are some examples of silos in the marketing organization?

15. What are some of the traits of large marketing campaigns that mirror Waterfall software development?

17. Are there any departments or institutions that would not benefit from Agile? Please explain your answer.

18. What does it mean to stop “doing” Agile and start “being” Agile?

19. Since the Agile principles are easy to understand, does that mean they are easy to implement? Please explain your answer.

20. What are the four values of Agile?