AgileMindset and Methodology

How I’m Learning to Take the Leap Kevin Masi kmasi@torquelaunch.com www.torque.digital

Agile Mindset

My Background• Founded Torque in 1992 • Services

- Brand strategy - Creative - Digital Marketing

• Working with niche and growth companies • Our focus has been on making the marketing stuff

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Agile Mindset

Classically Trained Marketers• Research • Plan • The creative Big Idea • Execute • How we’re wired

- We fall in love with our ideas - We need to be right (i.e., have enough data) - We are fighting for a seat at the C-Suite table

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Agile Mindset

Agendas Dog the Marketing Process• Focus on tactics • Amateur concepts of branding and marketing • Pre-ordained agendas

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Agile Mindset

Marketing Agendas

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Agile Mindset

Marketing Agendas

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Agile Mindset

Marketing Agendas

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Agile Mindset

Pressures of Change• Digital • Complexity • Big data

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Agile Mindset

How Can we Change the Way We Think? • Learning from outside our category (Buckminster Fuller’s Mindset: Fly’s eye)

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A Brief Agile History Software Lean Startup Marketing

Agile Mindset

Agile Software Development• “Agile Development” umbrella term for

iterative and incremental software development methods.

• The most popular: • Extreme Programming (XP) • Scrum

• Crystal • Dynamic Systems Development Method

(DSDM), • Lean Development • Feature-Driven Development (FDD)

• Sprints11

Agile Mindset

Lean Startup Methodology• Eric Ries, 2011 • It can be taught;…and learned

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Agile Mindset

Agile Marketing Manifesto

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Agile Mindset

Shouldn’t Marketing Always Be Agile? • The marketplace is constantly changing • Marketing must learn and adapt • Agility is an essential quality of marketing thinking regardless of

market stage - Emerging - Growth - Mature: looking for growth around the edges - Niches

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Emer

ging

Gro

wth

Mat

ure

Dec

line

12 Concepts in The Agile ToolboxSteve Blank: The Startup Owner’s Manual (and why it could also be the Marketing Leader’s Manual)

Agile Mindset

Customer Development Manifesto 1. There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get

Outside 2. Pair Customer Development with Agile

Development 3. Failure is an Integral Part of the Search for the

Business Model 4. If You’re Afraid to Fail You’re Destined to Do So 5. Iterations and Pivots are Driven by Insight 6. Validate Your Hypotheses with Experiments 7. Success Begins with Buy-In from Investors and Co-

Founders 8. No Business Plan Survives First Contact with

Customers 9. Not All Startups Are Alike

10. Startup Metrics are Different from Existing Companies

11. Agree on Market Type – It Changes Everything 12. Fast, Fearless Decision-Making, Cycle Time, Speed

and Tempo 13. If it’s not About Passion, You’re Dead the Day

You Opened your Doors 14. Startup Titles and Functions Are Very Different

from a Company’s 15. Preserve Cash While Searching. After It’s Found,

Spend 16. Communicate and Share Learning 17. Startups Demand Comfort with Chaos and

Uncertainty

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Agile Mindset

The Customer Development Process…

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Startup phase Scale-up phase

…is Linked to The Product Development Process

Customer Discovery

Customer Validation

2Stop

Customer Creation

Company BuildingStopStop

Pivot

Agile Mindset

Pivots are Changes In the Plan

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Agile Mindset

Missed Pivots?

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Torque Digital Overview 20

PROPOSAL WEDDING

BRIDE’S JOURNEY

SHARE NEWSWITHCLOSEFRIENDSANDFAMILY

FRIENDSGETTINGMARRIED

BEGIN WEDDINGPLANNING

SHARE NEWSWITH FULLSOCIAL SPHERE(SOCIAL MEDIA)

CONSULTPLANNEROR CONDUCTRESEARCH(WEDDINGBOOKS, ETC)

LOOK ATLOCATIONS(CONFER WITH FAMILYAND FRIENDS)

CHOOSEBRIDAL PARTY

DRAFT GUESTLIST

TOURVENUES

DRESSSHOPPING

CAKE TASTING

REGISTER FOR GIFTS

HONEYMOONPLANNING

INVITATIONPLANNING/CREATION

BACHELORBACHELORETTEPARTY

ENGAGEMENTPARTY

ENGAGEMENTPHOTOS

RECEPTIONPLANNING

MUSICCHOICE (DJ/BAND)

PHOTOGRAPHYAND VIDEOPLANNING

HONEYMOON WEDDING BOOK 1 YEARANNIVERSARY

WEDDINGPLANNING

Customer Journey: Brides4

Agile Mindset

MVP

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Agile Mindset

“No Marketing Plan Survives First Contact with Customers*”

• Prussia’s Helmut Von Moltke, 1860’s: Decentralization and Autonomy • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder

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“*No plan survives contact with the enemy”

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Agile Mindset

Marketing Plan vs Searching for the Marketing Model• “A Business Plan is for investors” • Business Model Generation, A

Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers

- Alexander Osterwälder - Yves Pigneur

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Business Model Canvas7

Agile Mindset

A Relationship with Failure• “Failure is an Integral Part of

the Search for the Business Model. If You’re Afraid to Fail You’re Destined to Do So”

• “Startups Demand Comfort with Chaos and Uncertainty

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Agile Mindset

Track Burn Rate and Test Cycles

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Existing Company Metrics > Startup MetricsP&L > Pass/fail: has the customer problem been validated?

Balance Sheet > Pass/fail: have the product features been validated?

Cash flow forecast > Who is the customer?

Line of business analysis, efficiency, productivity > Have the value proposition, segments, and channels been validated through customer interaction?

> Average order size, customer lifetime value

> Average time to first order, rate of sales pipeline growth, improvement in close rate, revenue per salesperson

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Agile Mindset

Iterative, Small, Fast Tests 

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Agile Mindset

Bullets vs. Cannonballs

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Low cost Low risk Low distraction

Learn what works

Execute at Scale, Repeatably and Profitably

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Agile Mindset

Buy-in • Customer development is different to the core • Success requires buy-in from all departments (and collaboration)

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Applications for Torque1.Website development 2.Marketplace and costumer insight 3.Social Media 4.Paid digital media

Agile Mindset

Site as product Site as presence Design static pages, then write the code vs Design live in browser

Final site map before starting design vs Launch in phases, as MVPs: learn

Approved site is “locked down” for programming vs Learn from each phase, make iterative changes

“Final copy” so we know how to design pages vs Flexible templates for continual copy additions

“Re-skin” = superficial changes vs Complete redesign pulls from existing database

“Completed” site is handed over to client vs Ongoing analysis & testing of nav, content, message, UX

Website Development Evolution

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Agile Mindset

Website Development Evolution• The website is not a one-time stop on the way towards the sales process • Websites are an important part of Google’s Zero Moment of Truth as customers

discover their needs and research solutions

31BuyEvaluateResearch

Agile Mindset

Website Development Evolution• Website marketing program:

- Uses Google Analytics to continually test and improve - Uses forms to capture client data and allow further

marketing - Educates with rich info and media - Validates with testimonials - Features landing pages supporting inbound traffic with

relevant experiences • Paid media (PPC, Display, Remarketing) • Social media • Earned media • email

- Ranks for organic search (SEO)

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Agile Mindset

Smoke Detectors: Finding What Consumers Care About

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Advanced search and social interaction find real users, conversations and interests

Agile Mindset

Smoke Detectors: Finding What Consumers Care About

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• 10 year battery • All-in one detector • Smart sensor • Fast flame vs. slow

smolder

•Nuisance alarms

Started by promoting a basket of features

Social media “listening” and interaction led to real-world conversations

Agile Mindset

Consumer Services Company: Testing New Offerings• Mature category with flat growth • Theorized about price and service features • Goal: test market response to price, service options

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Agile Mindset

• Launched 2 new brands: Name, Logo, Website Advertising Programs in 3 markets • Cost of testing: $six figures

Consumer Services Company: Testing New Offerings

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Core $3k: personalized

account services

Opening price $1.5k:

self-serve

Deluxe $5k: work directly

with your photographer

Core brand

New OPP brand New Premium brand

Agile Mindset

Agile Testing with Facebook & Display ads

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Product Price Promotion

Wedding photo Self-Serve &

Save!

$999 Wedding Photo Package

OptionWin a $2,000

Wedding Package

Wedding, photo, video & album

complete$1,299 Wedding Photo Package

Win a $3,000 Wedding Package

Your Wedding, Your

Photographer, Your way

$1,599 Complete Wedding Photo

PackageWin a $5,000

Wedding Package$1,599 Complete Wedding Photo Package

Win a $3,000 Wedding Photo Package

Your Wedding, Your Photographer,

Your way.

Agile Mindset

Agile Testing with Facebook & Display ads• Target: user demos, behavior, Google profile • Test: messages, images, offers • Reach: 2MM impressions • Engage: 10k clicks • Time: 45-60 days • Cost: $<25k

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Agile Mindset

Mindset Reset at Torque“My passion for design that motivates people got me into web development.

Now I’m consumed with a need to use Google Analytics to understand browsing behavior and inform my design.

It’s a career-changer for me.”

Lena, Digital Designer at Torque

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Agile Mindset

Fad or Force of Nature? • AntifrAGILE, Things That Gain from Disorder • Author of Black Swan: Highly improbable, hi-impact events

to which we are blind, yet we rationalize afterwords.

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Fragile Robust AntifrAGILE

Agile Mindset

Agile Mindset

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