e marketing: How to deal with changes

How do we balance change and chaos in agile marketing? We’ll explore the three components of Agile marketing Navigator, the Guidepoints, Blueprints and Marketing Backlogs — to see where change is allowed and where it should be kept to a minimum.

Change the guidepoint

The Guidepoint represents the “big gain” for an Agile team. It’s determined either quarterly or on the basis of a large project or campaign. It is what helps the team to achieve success and focus their efforts.

Once agreed by the team, and all stakeholders, it should be fairly constant. It’s not necessary to change it because it is done so frequently (at least every quarter) and at such a high level. A Guidepoint will only change if the business priorities are shifted at a level higher than your team.

MetLife’s agile marketing strategy for pet insurance

Your team’s quarterly Guidepoint could be:

• 
  Develop an omnichannel marketing campaign in order to increase our organic beauty sales this quarter by 20%.
  

Your business stakeholders have just been informed that your organic beauty line has been acquired by a different company. It is no longer an important issue. A pivot is required for this type of change.

If it’s just because someone wants to do something different now, then you need to have a discussion, because disrupting the team’s flow will negatively impact productivity.

Rule: The guidepoint should not change.

Change the blueprint

The blueprint represents the quarterly work plan that the team uses in order to achieve its guidepoint. The Blueprint is flexible and not set in stone. It’s perfectly acceptable to make changes and adjustments to it during the shelf life of its Blueprint (usually three months).

It is important that the team and the business stakeholders review the list regularly (every two weeks or so) to determine if it still represents the top priority. Agile marketing is about learning and testing, so the team might have realized that what they thought was an amazing idea didn’t pan out. They may need to pivot. It is encouraged to pivot from work that doesn’t perform as expected to try something else.

General rule:The blueprint can change

Change the marketing backlog

The Backlog represents the list of tasks that the team intends to complete in the future. The backlog is intended to be flexible, and changes are welcome. It’s easy to do because the team hasn’t spent any time on this yet.

When the work is moved from the marketing backlog to the 5- or 10-day cycle, caution should be exercised. The team will be actively working to execute tactics at this stage and changing priorities is not encouraged.

The team may become frustrated if you change your work in the middle of a project. You should proceed with caution when making any changes.

Changes can be made at any stage of the marketing backlog. Changes can have a significant impact on productivity once the work has moved from the backlog to the cycle.

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