I have been discussing Agile Marketing lately and recently came across a blog post by Chris Brogan on “How We Make Businesses These Days”. Chris stated in his post:
Think. Sketch. Execute. Revise
To me, the new formula of business is this: think. sketch. execute. revise. It’s important to consider contingencies. It’s important to be prepared for what can go wrong. But the best way to find out what’s going to go wrong is to launch and find the flaws.
This is top of mind to me right now, as I’m about to launch a business in a marketplace that I don’t fully understand, with a product that I’m still developing, to a bunch of people who I don’t necessarily have neatly corralled. Am I afraid? Not at all. I’ve got smart collaborators. We’ll figure it out. Will we upset someone along the way? No question. Tell me one business that hasn’t made a mistake. The goal, I imagine, is not to make any fatal mistakes.
Think. Sketch. Execute. Revise.
That looks very close to the iterative process of the five phases of Agile Project Management(book link below) and described by Jim Highsmith. I adapted the description to a marketing tone.
Envision. Speculate. Explore. Adapt. Close.
How closely it resembles it you need to have a definition of each term to see the similarities:
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Envision: Determine your marketing vision and objectives and constraints, your community, and how your team will work together.
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Speculate: develop the capability and/or feature based launch to deliver on the vision.
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Explore: plan and deliver running tested stories in the short iteration, constantly seeking to reduce the risk and uncertainty of the launch.
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Adapt: review the delivered results, the current situation, and the team’s performance, and adapt as necessary.
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Close: conclude the launch, pass along key learning, and celebrate.
Even more important, is this key point; we’re not concentrating on the flow were concentrating on the cycle. Continuous short iterations are constantly happening to improve the value of the offering. No longer can we wait for the perfect scenario. We build the scenario as an ongoing process. Customer relationships need to be as collaborative as possible. Customers then can define the capabilities needed to provide value. When that scenario can no longer be adapted or improved upon, the life of that marketing cycle is over or exhausted. This effort enables customers to define the value and judge your marketing cycle. Your marketing team must always be in contact with the customer and continuously asking: Is what we are doing providing value in your decision making process for our product or service?
Envision. Speculate. Explore. Adapt. Close.
Related Posts:
Improve your Marketing Cycle, Increase your Revenue
Start thinking Cycles, not Funnels in your marketing!
Inspiration provided by Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products (2nd Edition)
