ey Ackerman: Spotlight On The Expert //

The first part of a series that will explore the stories of our contributors.

Stacey Ackerman, an agile marketing coach, has written more than 60 articles on the subject for MarTech. The Agile Market Navigator is a comprehensive guide for implementing agile in marketing foundations. Stacey was born in Minnesota, but moved to North Carolina recently. “The winters here are much milder.”

We inquired about her journey to agile.

Q.You are the owner of Agilify Coaching & Training. You recently became a managing partner at NavigateAgile. How did you get started in marketing, or agile?

A. I went to college to study journalism and communications. I was a journalist and wanted to become a reporter for a newspaper. But I ended up working in marketing and public relations, and a little bit in event marketing. I worked my way up to the position of marketing manager. My husband was an IT professional at the time. He suggested that I consider IT project management. I was hired to do that. It was an interesting mix of working with IT and the agency side of things for my clients.

A colleague introduced me to agile development and I was immediately fascinated. I didn’t have any formal training and decided to try it out with my client. It was so evident that there was a significant difference in the way things worked, I knew I had to change my approach to project management.

I began taking certification courses and became a scrum leader in IT spaces. Then, I worked my way up to becoming an agile coach, primarily in software, but also in communications, marketing, and medical devices. I realized that I needed to return to marketing in 2017 or 2018. This led me to where I am today.

Get deeper: What are marketing work management?

Q.There is now a large community of agile marketers. What was the beginning of this community?

A I believe there were early adopters who created the Agile Marketing Manual. This was ten years ago. It was only in the past five years that more people have stepped into marketing and seen it succeed.

Q Tell us more about your venture, NavigateAgile.

A In October this year, Michael Seaton joined me to create NavigateAgile. His marketing experience is extensive. We launched the Agile Marketing Navigator framework last April and it was a huge success. Since then, there have been some really exciting developments. One is that people have come from all over the world to help me translate it. A certification course and an entire implementation program have also been launched.

A partner program will also be launched. This program will be launched in 2023. There is a lot of content available and we want to make it accessible so people don’t have the need to reinvent the wheel.

Q.Aside from creating all the content, are you still looking to work with clients directly?

A: Yes, exactly. It has been an exciting year. In March, I will be speaking at an agile marketing conference in Miami. I expect there to be many more as we return to face-to-face again.

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