How to start

The Marketing Innovation Management playbook and the Marketing DataOps playbook can help implement the practices needed to improve efficiencies. Since significant changes in people, processes and tools may be needed depending on the starting point of the Firm, the first step is determining the readiness to the Marketing DataOps commitment.

An initial assessment of marketing teams in the Firm is recommended to find the places where Innovation, DataOps and Automation could have higher impact and the talent may be more readily prepared to take on the challenge. A Scout with enough background about the concepts in the Playbooks as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the Firm would be better equipped.

Willis Tower Watson (2017) self-assessment questionnaire on organizational readiness for automation can be helpful to ensure optimal timing. It is included in Worksheet 6C of the Marketing Data Ops Starter Kit.

Organizations with more experience in agile frameworks can also use maturity assessments to review where they stand and ask themselves how far they are able to go. The Operational Health radar assessment and other 3rd party tools are in Worksheet 6.

Transitioning to agile methodologies can be a significant investment where learning effects increase as the sprints pass. Commitment will be particularly important at the beginning to ensure that the sprint cycles are not stopped if issues arise. Gaining executive commitment is critical to secure the necessary resources to run the playbooks and remove blockers. Consider leveraging the 3 characteristics of commitment that Salansik (1977) suggested with the following examples:

  • Visibility – Public presentations on the project relevance and the resources needed.
  • Irrevocability – Highlighting the potential for impact and success stories of Firms who didn’t looked back again.
  • Volitionally – Ensuring the members are part of the project definition and join of their own accord.

There are plenty of training and support resources around the type of culture that leaders must embrace before being able to preach Lean-Agile methodologies. Education and guidance from a certified partner is recommended. Dr. John Kotter’s (2012) steps for implementing successful change can also help:

  1.     Establish a sense of urgency
  2.     Create the guiding coalition
  3.     Develop the vision and strategy for change
  4.     Communicate the change vision
  5.     Empower employees for broad-based action
  6.     Generate short-term wins
  7.     Consolidate gains and produce more change
  8.     Anchor new approaches in the culture

Clearly, these steps require the active participation of the leaders driving the change. But even this is not enough. As Heath and Heath  note in their book on change management, leaders “need to script the critical moves” (2010) that are essential to accomplish the change.

Productizing Marketing for innovation

The concept of Marketing as a communication product factory is critical to implement Marketing DataOps. In manufacturing, lean product portfolios and factory capacities are well understood. Digital marketing often struggles with too many products – campaigns and programs across different channels and customer segments – and not enough crafters. Over-commitment is a known blocker that destroys productivity and innovation (Murray, 2008). Focusing resources on the products that drive the most value is what enables true agile optimization in the long run.

Start by mapping existing and potential products across the customer journey and classify them using the Portfolio of Marketing Products Sheet (Worksheets 1 and 2). Mapping products across the Marketing impact and Technology reach axes allows for the visualization of the different product types: Breakthroughs, Platforms, Derivatives and Adv technology. Managers can then compare across product proposals within categories and budget per category.

 With the strategy as the north star, the second step is prioritizing each product against the existing resource constraints; reducing the product portfolio as needed. Once focus is laser sharp on a handful of high impact products; define the roles and resources needed throughout the Value Train for each product. Organize them in agile teams. 

Do not forget that each product needs its own backlog, owner and sprint. Unfortunately a lot of marketing teams have a single ‘sprint’ and stuff all kinds of activities from all their products in it when trying to be agile. Optimization in orders of magnitude is not possible if products are not given enough individual attention.

DataOps

Firms that have already delivered value through their first sprints are ready to move to the next level of optimization. This time focusing on improving the flow of resources (data) across the factory rather than getting the factory set up.

The audit recommended at this point is the Measurement for product development and innovation (Worksheet 4A and 4B). Listening to the perspectives of the crafters in the marketing team about existing data flows is also important. Derive an action plan from the assessment.

Similar to DevOps teams, an independent unit may be needed to support the crafter team and implement the action plan. If that is the case, defining the performance measurement expected from the new DataOps support team and the breakeven point for ROI is suggested.

References

Willis Tower Watson. (2017). The Future of Work Survey.

Salansik, G. (1977). Commitment is too easy.

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading Change, With a New Preface by the Author. Harvard Business Review Press.

Heath, Chip; Heath, Dan. (2010). Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Murray, F. (2008). 15. 351 Managing Innovation & Entrepreneurship – Class 18 R&D Portfolios. Retrieved from MIT Open courseware: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-351-managing-the-innovation-process-fall-2002/download-course-materials/