Agile Marketing Meetup
Moving Beyond the Marketing
Plan So You Remain Relevant
Average CMO Tenure Doubles!
2007 AdAge: “Blame CMO
Turnover on Metrics Mania”
2015 Forbes: “CMOs’ ability to
leverage digital and analytics”
But… I Predict Another Big Drop
2007 AdAge: “Blame CMO
Turnover on Metrics Mania”
2015 Forbes: “CMOs’ ability to
leverage digital and analytics”
Why? Traditional Mktg Lacks Agility
•  Marketing channels have very short shelf life
•  Most marketing plans miss channel windows
By James Currier
Scaling Growth?
•  Inspiration from early growth process/teams
•  Met with top growth teams to compare process
•  Today will share our combined best practices
$250B $23B $50B $11B
About Me
•  1996 - 2007: Led marketing from launch to IPO
•  2008: Shifted focus to traction stage
•  Now: Founder/CEO of GrowthHackers
Key Finding: Testing Drives Growth
•  Test to discover (pings)
•  Test to optimize (A vs B)
•  Focus on velocity
(quality hard to predict)
2011 Twitter Accelerated Testing
0.5 tests/week 10 tests/week
Satya Patel – 2014 Agile Marketing Meetup
Must Rethink Marketing Planning
Quarterly: Marketing Updates
•  Customer snapshot and strategy
•  Channel trends and projections
•  Competition changes & tactics
Weekly: High Tempo Testing across vectors
Acquisition Referral
Activation Revenue
Retention Resurrection
High Tempo Testing
•  More Testing = More Discovery/Optimization
High Tempo Team & Process
Team
Process
Team for High Tempo Testing
Team
Process
High Tempo Testing Growth Team
•  Start with Growth Master
(PM Growth)
•  Add dedicated people to core as
needed to hit tempo goals
•  Contract temp specialists to
explore channels (FTE proven)
Process for High Tempo Testing
Team
Process
High Tempo Testing Growth Process
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning
Unbridled Ideation
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning
Build Large Idea Backlog
•  My team has 450+ ideas in backlog
Unbridled Ideation
•  Invite participation from whole company
•  Ideas across vectors
Acquisition Referral
Activation Revenue
Retention Resurrection
Formalize ideas in Experiment Doc
•  Include research, hypothesis, target lever
ICE Score 1 - 10
I - Impact
C - Confidence
E - Ease
Prioritize Backlog
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning
Prioritize Test Nominations
•  Growth master communicate focus area
•  Growth team members nominate ideas
! Include someone else’s idea
! Ideally within focus area
Weekly Nominations from Team
•  Use ICE to nominate
(high impact, high confidence, easy to test)
Launch Tests
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning
Weekly Growth Meeting
•  Choose the tests you’re going to launch
•  Meeting establishes a growth rhythm
•  No brainstorming (that’s rest of week)
•  Optimize process to hit testing target
Deciding Target for Test Launches
•  Start small (i.e. 2 tests per week)
•  Right size tests to hit target
•  Add more ambitious tests
•  Increase weekly test target
Manage Testing Queue
•  Assign each test to a project manager
•  Communicate test releases
Capture Learning
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
tests
Capture
learning
Capture Learning Details
•  Every test leads to learning
•  Ensure transparent sharing/access
Weekly Growth Meeting Agenda*
15 min: KPI review & update focus area
10 min: Review last week’s testing sprint
15 min: Key lessons learned from analyzed tests
15 min: Select tests for this week’s sprint
5 min: Check growth of idea backlog
* GH weekly growth meeting includes CEO, CTO, VP Product,
Head of Growth, Head of Design, Growth Engineer, and Analyst
Example Winning Test
•  Moved email
collector to top
•  Increased emails
collected 700%
Double Down Tests
•  Step 2 of registration •  Improved design/text
Results: Step 2 of Registration
•  22% boost in sign ups
Results: Improved Design/Text
Test +44.5%
Control
2015 GH Accelerated Testing
GH accelerated testing to 3+ per week
after growth plateaued
Team + Process = Silver Bullet
Unbridled
ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
tests
Capture
learning
Join Canvas private beta
at Canvas.GrowthHackers.com
1) Team Ideation 2) Prioritize Testing 3) Capture Learning
Purpose-Built Agile Marketing System:

Agile Marketing Meetup: Moving Beyond the Marketing Plan So You Remain Relevant