Elements of creating an agile marketing infrastructure.
Transitioning a marketing department that has been traditionally structured in managing tasks to an agile workflow will take time and it will likely take 2-4 rounds of refining workflows to get it to a point where it reaches maximum efficiency. Building an agile marketing department comes down to people, process, and technology.
It begins with defining the primary expectations, KPIs, and goals of the department. Then you define the roles of the people that are supporting those goals. Next, you need to document the primary processes to identify opportunities for efficiencies and simplification. It can be tempting to use technology to try and solve problems, but your technology will only be as good as your people and processes. So before you start building out your system, make sure you have a good understanding of your roles and processes.
People - Identifying everyone supporting marketing production
Roles within the department.
Key internal customers (typically business lines or product lines).
Identify subject matter experts.
Identify the approvers (business lines, management, compliance, legal, etc.).
End-user audiences (existing customers, potential customers, personas, etc.)
Process - Documenting your workflows
Create a process to accept, start, review, and approve work.
Create a defined and regular time that your team reviews work and priorities, typically mapping out 1 - 2 weeks at a time.
Define whether your team will adopt scrum, kanban, or hybrid workflows.
Technology - Implementing your system
Evaluate what technology you currently have available to you and what the rest of the company uses.
Acquire a new platform if needed. A systems and process design is a key part of this step of the implementation.
Start small and keep it simple. Let a few technology early-adapters give feedback before you roll it out to the team.
Building habits and training behaviors
Agile is more about creating habits and training a way of thinking then it is systems design and process. From the beginning it is important that you have a communication plan that involves the marketing team from day one and involves a lot of activities, practice, reviews and feedback.
