Category: Software/Technology
Spokesperson: Chad Weiner, Senior Director of Marketing Operations
Case study summary: In the true spirit of Agile, Chad and his 100-person team are in the midst of a long-term experiment to test and validate the application of Agile to their marketing practice. Chad has been documenting the journey via a series of posts on Medium, which I strongly recommend reading if you’re looking at a large, enterprise-level Agile transformation.
Like many enterprise teams, they struggled with silos, a deluge of incoming requests, and no objective means of prioritizing their work. Team members tended to hoard information as a means of amassing power, which often negatively affected quality.
This led to what Chad calls Metaprinciple #1: Design the organization to improve the frequency and quality of communication inside the marketing organization.
They were also struggling with the traditional practice of supporting two huge launches each year. In one post Chad recalls that they were “effectively spending twelve months on two big bets. And the cycles were grueling.”
To counteract this problem, they created durable teams of 5-7 people with as many generalists as possible. This style has worked well, but it wasn’t perfect out of the gate. It helped to organize teams based on core KPIs, i.e. improving Firefox retention rates, or important channels, i.e. email. Hiring or growing t-shaped marketers also helps.
They’ve also been employing user stories, a sometimes controversial but still crucial piece of an effective Agile implementation.
Most exciting takeaway: Executive support, a bought-in team, and an educated leader are all key components of a productive Agile marketing experiment.
Sources:
Chad’s series of posts on Medium
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