The Marketing side of Agile: 10 Secrets for Success by Ron Brown at SVPMA Monthly Event September 2011 Go to link below for notes from this event http://svpma.org/2011/09/september-2011-event/

1. The Marketing Side of Agile:
10 Secrets for Success
Silicon Valley Product Management Association
September 7, 2011

2. Ronald Brown Bio
• Packaged-goods marketing skills from Nestle, BBDO
and J. Walter Thompson (Account Management)
– “Incubators of business creativity”
• High-tech hardware and software experience at Wyse
Technology (VP Corporate Marketing)
– “Use the value chain to great strategic advantage”
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3. Ronald Brown Bio
• Internet and general management experience at
eFax.com (President)
– “Won with message strength and user simplicity”
• Currently CEO of United Keys, Inc.
– “PC keyboards waiting to be monetized”
• Also CEO of Brown & Company LLC, a new products
consultancy
– “Improve team innovation skills and develop new
product ideas”
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4. Through it All, the Customer Has Remained King
rbrown@browncompany.com
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5. At the Best Performing Firms,
49% of Sales Come From New Products
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6. Failure Rates
• 50 years ago, most products were successful
• 20 years ago, failure rates were around 50%
• Today, failure rates are above 70%
• Things are getting worse, not better
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7. Globally, Firms Are Wasting Hundreds of
Billions of Dollars Annually
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8. What Do Leaders Do That the Rest of Us Don’t?
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9. Meeting With Engineers
• Agile Development Team
– Incorporate customer feedback regularly
• #1 on the Manifesto
• Converting input to features is easier said than done
– Customers are fickle, don’t know what’s possible
– That’s where marketing comes in
• “Do you have any marketing training?”
– “No”
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10. Anticipate. The Architecture
of Small Team Innovation and Product Success
• 60 years of industry research
• Interviews with developers and management at
leading companies
• Available at Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and
Kobo
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11. #1. Make Entrepreneurial Teams the Focal Point
of Their Strategy
• Slow development time #1 obstacle to innovation
• Problem: inflexible linear development processes
• Steadily, “Waterfall” is giving way to Agile
1. Faster times to market
2. Reduced risk
3. Less late-stage rework
• “Small, cross-functional groups that are empowered
to make decisions”
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12. #2. Push Decision Making to the “Edges” of the
Organization
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13. #3. Employ Development Techniques Tailored
for the “Fuzzy” Front-End
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14. #4. Commit to Customer Immersion and
Problem Detection Techniques
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15. Customer Immersion
• Social Anthropology
• Customer Immersion
• Living with real people
– P&G: “Living it Up”
– Sales +85% in 7 years
• Most valuable skill: you’ll start thinking like your
customers
• You will be able to Anticipate their needs
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16. Problem Detection
• Aspirin or vitamin?
• Leading companies solve Important Problems
– Urgency + relevancy
– “Screaming baby”
• Problem Detection Study
• Ideal for Agile teams
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17. #5. Develop Creative Problem-Solving Skills at
All Levels
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18. #1 Need
• 1,500 CEOs, 60 countries, 33 industries
– Creativity is #1 need
• Ahead of rigor, management discipline,
integrity, vision
• Why? Global complexity and commoditization
• Creativity is the overarching strategic imperative for
surviving and thriving in coming decades
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19. #6. Generate Meaningful Ideas From the Entire
Value Chain
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20. #7. Emphasize Superior Implementation
Throughout the Organization
• Innovation is one of three drivers of growth
– But generally disappointed
• Why?
– We concentrate too heavily on ideas
• Innovation is a process, deliberate and structured
• We don’t like the term implementation
– What a huge mistake
– Main reason for product failure
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21. Innovation Structure
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22. #8. Utilize Business Models for Strategic
Planning
• Transaction level value creation
• Analyzed for financial impact and customer value
• Meant to evolve, play “what if?”
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23. Surprise!
• Also designed to generate stories
• Stories are what customers buy
– Fuel for word of mouth communications
• Business models fail when:
– Narrative (story) doesn’t make sense
– Numbers (P&L) don’t add up
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24. #9. Recognize the Importance of Precise
Messaging
• #1 reason for failure: nothing unique
– Differentiation is “tip of arrow”
– Value proposition seals the deal
• Positioning
– Limited mental space
– “Position” against existing solutions
– Presentation has to be razor-sharp
• Repeated often
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25. Special Formula
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
1. Tangible Benefit
2. Differentiates
3. Motivates large audience to act
• Tangible = experience through senses
– Easier to sell
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26. Strategic Positioning Statement
• Additional elements
1. Target Audience
2. Reason Why
3. Brand Character
• Formula: Target + USP + Reason Why + Brand = SPS
• Tough to select one benefit
• Reason Why = Proof and “Drama”
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27. #10. Measure and Track Key Decisions
• Feedback enables continuous improvement and
“repeatability“
• Powerful competitive advantages
• Processes:
– React quickly
– Reduce mistakes
– Accelerate start and completion of projects
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28. Simple Audit
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29. Summary
1. Entrepreneurial teams
2. Push decisions to the “edges”
3. Development for “fuzzy” front-end
4. Customer immersion and problem detection
5. Creative problem solving skills
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30. Summary
6. Ideas from the entire value chain
7. Superior implementation
8. Business models
9. Precise messaging
10. Measure and track
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31. Q/A: 15 Minutes
• Anticipate. The Architecture of
Small Team Innovation and
Product Success
• Ebooks: Amazon, iTunes, Kobo,
Barnes & Noble
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