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Hacking Marketing: Agile Practices to Make Marketing Smarter, Faster, and More Innovative
Apply software-inspired management concepts to accelerate modern marketing In many ways, modern marketing has more in common with the software profession than it does with classic marketing management. As surprising as that may sound, it's the natural result of the world going digital. Marketing must move faster, adapt more quickly to market feedback, and manage an increasingly complex set of customer experience touchpoints. All of these challenges are shaped by the dynamics of software—from the growing number of technologies in our own organizations to the global forces of the Internet at large.
But you can turn that to your advantage. And you don't need to be technical to do it.
Hacking Marketing will show you how to conquer those challenges by adapting successful management frameworks from the software industry to the practice of marketing for any business in a digital world. You'll learn about agile and lean management methodologies, innovation techniques used by high-growth technology companies that any organization can apply, pragmatic approaches for scaling up marketing in a fragmented and constantly shifting environment, and strategies to unleash the full potential of talent in a digital age.
Marketing responsibilities and tactics have changed dramatically over the past decade. This book now updates marketing management to better serve this rapidly evolving discipline.
Increase the tempo of marketing's responsiveness without chaos or burnout Design "continuous" marketing programs and campaigns that constantly evolve Drive growth with more marketing experiments while actually reducing risk Architect marketing capabilities in layers to better scale and adapt to change Balance strategic focus with the ability to harness emergent opportunities As a marketer and a manager, Hacking Marketing will expand your mental models for how to lead marketing in a digital world where everything—including marketing—flows with the speed and adaptability of software.
But you can turn that to your advantage. And you don't need to be technical to do it.
Hacking Marketing will show you how to conquer those challenges by adapting successful management frameworks from the software industry to the practice of marketing for any business in a digital world. You'll learn about agile and lean management methodologies, innovation techniques used by high-growth technology companies that any organization can apply, pragmatic approaches for scaling up marketing in a fragmented and constantly shifting environment, and strategies to unleash the full potential of talent in a digital age.
Marketing responsibilities and tactics have changed dramatically over the past decade. This book now updates marketing management to better serve this rapidly evolving discipline.
Increase the tempo of marketing's responsiveness without chaos or burnout Design "continuous" marketing programs and campaigns that constantly evolve Drive growth with more marketing experiments while actually reducing risk Architect marketing capabilities in layers to better scale and adapt to change Balance strategic focus with the ability to harness emergent opportunities As a marketer and a manager, Hacking Marketing will expand your mental models for how to lead marketing in a digital world where everything—including marketing—flows with the speed and adaptability of software.
278 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 21, 2016
158 people are currently reading
698 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
July 26, 2017
The first part of this book underwhelms. It includes a description of agile software development practices that will bore to tears anybody that's worked in or on software development. It does no better a job of describing agile development methodologies than any number of wiki entries or blog posts. My trigger finger was itching to return the book for a refund.
The second half of the book, however, has some very powerful, and not-at-all obvious lessons for marketing and I found myself scribbling notes, especially regarding "pace layers," taming accidental and essential complexity, and some of the lessons about how to organize a marketing team for effective and nimble work. So I'm averaging my one-star rating, and my five-star rating into a single, three-star rating.
The second half of the book, however, has some very powerful, and not-at-all obvious lessons for marketing and I found myself scribbling notes, especially regarding "pace layers," taming accidental and essential complexity, and some of the lessons about how to organize a marketing team for effective and nimble work. So I'm averaging my one-star rating, and my five-star rating into a single, three-star rating.
July 23, 2019
‘Hacking Marketing’ was exactly the book I needed it to be, and the time I needed it. I work in the marketing department for a technology company whose development department recently implemented Scrum. I found the agile methodology explanation informative but digestible. The book communicated exactly why marketing teams would benefit from a similar structure.
From reading the book, I can see why agile promotes innovation and active testing, ownership and awareness, and that it would be ideal for our small team with a wide variety of skills and backgrounds.
I shared this book with my colleagues in our marketing team as part of our book club, and both myself and each member now have a better understanding of the process that our development team uses. We will be starting to discuss implementing some of the agile structure in our own project management.
I do recommend this book for those that are working in marketing that want a deeper understanding of what has become the industry standard of project management in development, and how they can potentially use some or all of the method themselves.
From reading the book, I can see why agile promotes innovation and active testing, ownership and awareness, and that it would be ideal for our small team with a wide variety of skills and backgrounds.
I shared this book with my colleagues in our marketing team as part of our book club, and both myself and each member now have a better understanding of the process that our development team uses. We will be starting to discuss implementing some of the agile structure in our own project management.
I do recommend this book for those that are working in marketing that want a deeper understanding of what has become the industry standard of project management in development, and how they can potentially use some or all of the method themselves.
June 22, 2016
"There is still a vital role for instincts and intuition in marketing today, but data now provides more checks and balances on our gut, countering mental biases that can lead us astray." (Chapter 21)
This book is like three in one ... the first section explains the concept of "Agile" development and how you can apply the seemingly software-specific processes to marketing. The second works to prove the importance of being agile - that is, not being afraid to move away from the status quo. The last part explains the parts of your marketing process that are ripe for innovation.
Scott Brinker pulls from a lot of different disciplines to build his arguments - and does a wonderful job of citing his resources.
This book is like three in one ... the first section explains the concept of "Agile" development and how you can apply the seemingly software-specific processes to marketing. The second works to prove the importance of being agile - that is, not being afraid to move away from the status quo. The last part explains the parts of your marketing process that are ripe for innovation.
Scott Brinker pulls from a lot of different disciplines to build his arguments - and does a wonderful job of citing his resources.
December 16, 2018
Interesting if your company is in the midst of (or considering) all things agile, but I'd recommend reading it prior to joining an agile project. I read this after my first sprint and knew most the concepts and structure already, so it was a little boring at times.
July 31, 2019
Summer Reading Challenge 10/27
No place like home: Read a book that appears in your Goodreads newsfeed.
In Hacking Marketing Scott Brinker sets out to prove that the agile methodology used in the Development world can be successfully applied to Marketing, and will show similar positive results. This book is split into 5 parts, and I am going to write my thoughts about each part, as I had such varied reactions to each.
Part 1: Introduction - 1*
Brinker’s introduction is a tour through the evolution of business, technology, the internet, software development, and marketing. It was as if I was meandering through a business-in-the-era-of-the-internet exhibit in a museum, forced to read those dry display recaps explaining “the cloud”. And it was exactly as boring as that sounds. I couldn’t help but feel like Hacking Marketing was a book for my dad, who spent most of his engineering career in the pre-internet age and probably did use a CD-ROM to download important business software. Absolutely redundant and pointless information, especially considering that any marketer who picks up this book will at least be somewhat familiar with software development and thus doesn’t need to read things like “eVeRYtHiNg diGitAL iS cOntrOlLeD bY SoFTwaRe”.
Part 2: Agile - 4*
Next, Part 2 begins with an attempt to explain the key components of agile software development. I did appreciate that he didn’t go too in depth here, as it really is the core tenants that he attempts to apply to marketing in later chapters. As I work for a software company, I was a lot more aware of components of agile than I thought, and the author adds little personality to his narrative.
However, the content really shines in the diagrams that Brinker has created. As the classic saying goes, many of the diagrams were worth more than the words that explain them. And there were two key concepts that resonated with me that I will be able to practically apply in my own department - The Pull Principle and Tasks as Stories along the Buyer’s Journey. The buyer’s journey already plays a key part of what we do, however, Brinker has revealed an opportunity for me to think about the buyer’s journey more frequently in smaller tasks.
Part 3 & 4: Innovation and Scalability - 5*
Here is where Hacking Marketing knocks it out of the park for me, and admittedly this is probably a reflection of where my marketing team and I are at in our journey. Part 3 is about scalability, and the section on Collaborative Design for Marketing was stand out for me, and I hope to use it in the future. Another concept (while not created by Brinker was still helpful to hear again) is that of the “5 Whys”. Finally, Pace Layering for Marketing was eye-opening. A bit simplistic/idealistic, but was a really helpful way to look at my own department, our approach, and our processes.
Part 5: Talent - 3*
The final section of Hacking Marketing was extremely succinct. Basically, above all else (including all of the information that came prior to this section of the book) talent is the one thing that can make or break the success of marketing. While I believe this to be absolutely true, it was a bit of a drive-by addition - unrelated to the previous chapters, and not in-depth nor helpful. Brinker does not address how to recruit or how to become the elusive “10x Marketer” because, alas, that is not what the book is about.
Bottom line - 4*
Highly useful information that may have an impact on some of our processes. It wasn’t exactly a “fun” read, particularly in the beginning, but so few books have the ability to be practical and entertaining.
No place like home: Read a book that appears in your Goodreads newsfeed.
In Hacking Marketing Scott Brinker sets out to prove that the agile methodology used in the Development world can be successfully applied to Marketing, and will show similar positive results. This book is split into 5 parts, and I am going to write my thoughts about each part, as I had such varied reactions to each.
Part 1: Introduction - 1*
Brinker’s introduction is a tour through the evolution of business, technology, the internet, software development, and marketing. It was as if I was meandering through a business-in-the-era-of-the-internet exhibit in a museum, forced to read those dry display recaps explaining “the cloud”. And it was exactly as boring as that sounds. I couldn’t help but feel like Hacking Marketing was a book for my dad, who spent most of his engineering career in the pre-internet age and probably did use a CD-ROM to download important business software. Absolutely redundant and pointless information, especially considering that any marketer who picks up this book will at least be somewhat familiar with software development and thus doesn’t need to read things like “eVeRYtHiNg diGitAL iS cOntrOlLeD bY SoFTwaRe”.
Part 2: Agile - 4*
Next, Part 2 begins with an attempt to explain the key components of agile software development. I did appreciate that he didn’t go too in depth here, as it really is the core tenants that he attempts to apply to marketing in later chapters. As I work for a software company, I was a lot more aware of components of agile than I thought, and the author adds little personality to his narrative.
However, the content really shines in the diagrams that Brinker has created. As the classic saying goes, many of the diagrams were worth more than the words that explain them. And there were two key concepts that resonated with me that I will be able to practically apply in my own department - The Pull Principle and Tasks as Stories along the Buyer’s Journey. The buyer’s journey already plays a key part of what we do, however, Brinker has revealed an opportunity for me to think about the buyer’s journey more frequently in smaller tasks.
Part 3 & 4: Innovation and Scalability - 5*
Here is where Hacking Marketing knocks it out of the park for me, and admittedly this is probably a reflection of where my marketing team and I are at in our journey. Part 3 is about scalability, and the section on Collaborative Design for Marketing was stand out for me, and I hope to use it in the future. Another concept (while not created by Brinker was still helpful to hear again) is that of the “5 Whys”. Finally, Pace Layering for Marketing was eye-opening. A bit simplistic/idealistic, but was a really helpful way to look at my own department, our approach, and our processes.
Part 5: Talent - 3*
The final section of Hacking Marketing was extremely succinct. Basically, above all else (including all of the information that came prior to this section of the book) talent is the one thing that can make or break the success of marketing. While I believe this to be absolutely true, it was a bit of a drive-by addition - unrelated to the previous chapters, and not in-depth nor helpful. Brinker does not address how to recruit or how to become the elusive “10x Marketer” because, alas, that is not what the book is about.
Bottom line - 4*
Highly useful information that may have an impact on some of our processes. It wasn’t exactly a “fun” read, particularly in the beginning, but so few books have the ability to be practical and entertaining.
June 6, 2019
(The English review is placed beneath Russian one)
Одна из самых пустых книг по маркетингу, которую я когда-либо читал. Да и слово маркетинг в названии книги упоминается явно по недоразумению, т.к. никакого маркетинга тут нет. Более того, автор развивает крайне опасную идею о так называемом digital маркетинге или даже софт digital маркетинге. По словам автора, с приходом интернета маркетинг трансформировался в digital, т.к. вся окружающая обстановка стала этой самой digital. Что одновременно и верно и нет. Да, интернет влияет на маркетинг, но сильно ли он влияет на компании продающие хлеб, муку или стальные листы? Сильное ли влияние, так называемый новый маркетинг, оказывает на подобные товары? Но даже если мы возьмём, скажем, рестораны, то даже тут влияние digital не столько велико, как хочет нам представить автор. Ибо даже если вы наймёте самого гениального специалиста по digital маркетингу, он всё равно не сможет вывести ресторан выше среднего уровня (в лучшем случаи) без работы над эффективностью классического маркетинга, той области, которой занимается старый, классический маркетинг с его 4P. Если еда в ресторане – ужасна, а о самом ресторане ничего не известно или известно только в среде интернет, то такой ресторан обречён на банкротство. Все знаменитые бренды сделали себе имя не благодаря, а вопреки digital. Digital, это как PR деятельность, которая важна, но которая не является ключевым фактором. Если у компании конкурентно успешная стратегия, имеется конкурентно эффективная отличительная характеристика, то компания может сделать себе имя и без digital сферы, что показывает вся история развития бизнеса в XX-XXI вв (к примеру, Zara).
Итак, в первой части книги автор не просто превозносит digital, но описывает настолько элементарные вещи, что скучно становится уже в самом начале. Такие очевидные вещи как увеличение скорости бизнеса благодаря появлению интернета или увеличение охвата аудитории или в целом то, что привнёс интернет в нашу жизнь. Для кого это пишет автор? Возможно для сенаторов, которые допрашивали Марка Цукерберга и которые совершенно не разбираются в современных технологиях. Но думаю, даже им не нужно такое подробное объяснение. И всё это занимает чуть ли не четверть всей книги.
Вторая часть – не лучше. Автор зачем-то вставил темы SCRUM, стратегию водопада и ещё нечто подобное. Как я понял автора, он отводит огромную роль теме софт компаний, которые стоят между производителем и конечным потребителем, т.е. всевозможные SAP, Oracle и пр. софт корпорации для бизнеса. И далее автор будет долго и упорно писать, фактически, про IT сферу. Вот зачем маркетологам это? Ведь это разные профессии и обладать профессиональными знаниями в этой области, маркетологу вовсе не обязательно. Это всё равно, что ожидать от хирурга знаний в области психиатрии.
В общем, где-то ближе к середине книги я понял, что дальше читать не имеет смысла. Хотя, не имело смысла уже тогда, когда автор заявил, что маркетинг трансформировался в digital маркетинг, что является настолько сильным преувеличением, это настолько нужно не понимать предмет или даже весь бизнес в целом, что всё остальное можно смело вычёркивать из разряда «ценная информация».
Я не знаю что там дальше у автора, но те схемы и графики, что я просмотрел, были все заполнены словом «история», т.е. автор решил углубиться в ещё одну спорную идею о сторителлинге. Но не просто углубиться, а усложнить, представить её в виде разных схем (прямо как в серьёзных работах по маркетингу и менеджменту). Однако излишнее усложнение подобных тем всегда является попыткой создать из ничего стройную теорию (часто выдаваемую за совершенно новую, прорывную). А это всё явный признак плохой литературы non-fiction.
One of the holiest marketing books I've ever read. Yes, and the word "marketing" in the title of the book is mentioned clearly for misunderstanding, because there is no marketing here. Moreover, the author is developing an extremely dangerous idea about so-called digital marketing or even digital marketing software. According to the author, with the advent of the Internet, marketing has transformed into digital, as the entire environment has become digital. Which is both true and false. Yes, the Internet has an impact on marketing, but does it have a strong impact on companies that sell bread, flour, or steel sheets? Does the so-called new marketing have a strong impact on such products? But even if we take, say, restaurants, even here the influence of digital is not as great as the author wants us to imagine. For even if you hire the most brilliant digital marketing specialist, he will still not be able to bring the restaurant above the average level (at best) without working on the efficiency of classical marketing, the field of the old, classic marketing with his 4P. If the food in a restaurant is terrible, and nothing is known about the restaurant itself or is known only on the Internet, then such a restaurant is doomed to bankruptcy. All the famous brands have made a name for themselves not thanks to, but in spite of digital. Digital is like PR activity, which is important, but which is not a key factor. If a company has a competitively successful strategy and has a competitively effective distinctive characteristic, the company can make a name for itself without the digital sphere, which shows the entire history of business development in the XX-XXI centuries (for example, Zara).
So, in the first part of the book, the author not only praises digital, but describes things so elementary that they become boring at the very beginning. Such obvious things as increasing the speed of business due to the emergence of the Internet or increasing the reach of the audience or in general what brought the Internet into our lives. For whom does the author write this? Perhaps for the senators who interrogated Mark Zuckerberg and who have no understanding of modern technology. But I think even they don't need such a detailed explanation. And all this takes almost a quarter of the entire book.
The second part is not better. For some reason, the author inserted SCRUM themes, waterfall strategy and something like that. As I understood the author, he gives a huge role to the topic of software companies that stand between the manufacturer and the end user, i.e. all sorts of SAP, Oracle, and etc. software corporation for business. And further the author will write long and persistently, actually, about IT field. Why do marketers need it? After all, these are different professions and have professional knowledge in this field, marketer is not necessary. It's like expecting a surgeon to have knowledge of psychiatry.
In general, somewhere closer to the middle of the book, I realized that it makes no sense to read further. Although, it did not make sense when the author said that marketing had been transformed into digital marketing, which is such an exaggeration, it is so necessary not to understand the subject or even the business as a whole, that everything else can be safely excluded from the category of "valuable information".
I don't know what's next in the book, but the charts and graphs I looked at were all filled with the word "story", i.e. the author decided to go deep into another controversial idea about Storytelling. But not just to deepen, but to complicate it, to present it in the form of different schemes (just like in serious works on marketing and management). However, the excessive complication of such topics is always an attempt to create a coherent theory from nothing (often given out as a completely new, breakthrough). And all this is a clear sign of bad non-fiction literature.
Одна из самых пустых книг по маркетингу, которую я когда-либо читал. Да и слово маркетинг в названии книги упоминается явно по недоразумению, т.к. никакого маркетинга тут нет. Более того, автор развивает крайне опасную идею о так называемом digital маркетинге или даже софт digital маркетинге. По словам автора, с приходом интернета маркетинг трансформировался в digital, т.к. вся окружающая обстановка стала этой самой digital. Что одновременно и верно и нет. Да, интернет влияет на маркетинг, но сильно ли он влияет на компании продающие хлеб, муку или стальные листы? Сильное ли влияние, так называемый новый маркетинг, оказывает на подобные товары? Но даже если мы возьмём, скажем, рестораны, то даже тут влияние digital не столько велико, как хочет нам представить автор. Ибо даже если вы наймёте самого гениального специалиста по digital маркетингу, он всё равно не сможет вывести ресторан выше среднего уровня (в лучшем случаи) без работы над эффективностью классического маркетинга, той области, которой занимается старый, классический маркетинг с его 4P. Если еда в ресторане – ужасна, а о самом ресторане ничего не известно или известно только в среде интернет, то такой ресторан обречён на банкротство. Все знаменитые бренды сделали себе имя не благодаря, а вопреки digital. Digital, это как PR деятельность, которая важна, но которая не является ключевым фактором. Если у компании конкурентно успешная стратегия, имеется конкурентно эффективная отличительная характеристика, то компания может сделать себе имя и без digital сферы, что показывает вся история развития бизнеса в XX-XXI вв (к примеру, Zara).
Итак, в первой части книги автор не просто превозносит digital, но описывает настолько элементарные вещи, что скучно становится уже в самом начале. Такие очевидные вещи как увеличение скорости бизнеса благодаря появлению интернета или увеличение охвата аудитории или в целом то, что привнёс интернет в нашу жизнь. Для кого это пишет автор? Возможно для сенаторов, которые допрашивали Марка Цукерберга и которые совершенно не разбираются в современных технологиях. Но думаю, даже им не нужно такое подробное объяснение. И всё это занимает чуть ли не четверть всей книги.
Вторая часть – не лучше. Автор зачем-то вставил темы SCRUM, стратегию водопада и ещё нечто подобное. Как я понял автора, он отводит огромную роль теме софт компаний, которые стоят между производителем и конечным потребителем, т.е. всевозможные SAP, Oracle и пр. софт корпорации для бизнеса. И далее автор будет долго и упорно писать, фактически, про IT сферу. Вот зачем маркетологам это? Ведь это разные профессии и обладать профессиональными знаниями в этой области, маркетологу вовсе не обязательно. Это всё равно, что ожидать от хирурга знаний в области психиатрии.
В общем, где-то ближе к середине книги я понял, что дальше читать не имеет смысла. Хотя, не имело смысла уже тогда, когда автор заявил, что маркетинг трансформировался в digital маркетинг, что является настолько сильным преувеличением, это настолько нужно не понимать предмет или даже весь бизнес в целом, что всё остальное можно смело вычёркивать из разряда «ценная информация».
Я не знаю что там дальше у автора, но те схемы и графики, что я просмотрел, были все заполнены словом «история», т.е. автор решил углубиться в ещё одну спорную идею о сторителлинге. Но не просто углубиться, а усложнить, представить её в виде разных схем (прямо как в серьёзных работах по маркетингу и менеджменту). Однако излишнее усложнение подобных тем всегда является попыткой создать из ничего стройную теорию (часто выдаваемую за совершенно новую, прорывную). А это всё явный признак плохой литературы non-fiction.
One of the holiest marketing books I've ever read. Yes, and the word "marketing" in the title of the book is mentioned clearly for misunderstanding, because there is no marketing here. Moreover, the author is developing an extremely dangerous idea about so-called digital marketing or even digital marketing software. According to the author, with the advent of the Internet, marketing has transformed into digital, as the entire environment has become digital. Which is both true and false. Yes, the Internet has an impact on marketing, but does it have a strong impact on companies that sell bread, flour, or steel sheets? Does the so-called new marketing have a strong impact on such products? But even if we take, say, restaurants, even here the influence of digital is not as great as the author wants us to imagine. For even if you hire the most brilliant digital marketing specialist, he will still not be able to bring the restaurant above the average level (at best) without working on the efficiency of classical marketing, the field of the old, classic marketing with his 4P. If the food in a restaurant is terrible, and nothing is known about the restaurant itself or is known only on the Internet, then such a restaurant is doomed to bankruptcy. All the famous brands have made a name for themselves not thanks to, but in spite of digital. Digital is like PR activity, which is important, but which is not a key factor. If a company has a competitively successful strategy and has a competitively effective distinctive characteristic, the company can make a name for itself without the digital sphere, which shows the entire history of business development in the XX-XXI centuries (for example, Zara).
So, in the first part of the book, the author not only praises digital, but describes things so elementary that they become boring at the very beginning. Such obvious things as increasing the speed of business due to the emergence of the Internet or increasing the reach of the audience or in general what brought the Internet into our lives. For whom does the author write this? Perhaps for the senators who interrogated Mark Zuckerberg and who have no understanding of modern technology. But I think even they don't need such a detailed explanation. And all this takes almost a quarter of the entire book.
The second part is not better. For some reason, the author inserted SCRUM themes, waterfall strategy and something like that. As I understood the author, he gives a huge role to the topic of software companies that stand between the manufacturer and the end user, i.e. all sorts of SAP, Oracle, and etc. software corporation for business. And further the author will write long and persistently, actually, about IT field. Why do marketers need it? After all, these are different professions and have professional knowledge in this field, marketer is not necessary. It's like expecting a surgeon to have knowledge of psychiatry.
In general, somewhere closer to the middle of the book, I realized that it makes no sense to read further. Although, it did not make sense when the author said that marketing had been transformed into digital marketing, which is such an exaggeration, it is so necessary not to understand the subject or even the business as a whole, that everything else can be safely excluded from the category of "valuable information".
I don't know what's next in the book, but the charts and graphs I looked at were all filled with the word "story", i.e. the author decided to go deep into another controversial idea about Storytelling. But not just to deepen, but to complicate it, to present it in the form of different schemes (just like in serious works on marketing and management). However, the excessive complication of such topics is always an attempt to create a coherent theory from nothing (often given out as a completely new, breakthrough). And all this is a clear sign of bad non-fiction literature.
August 19, 2016
A great primer for using agile software development practices in marketing. This can create serious productivity gains.
May 8, 2017
Scott Brinker wants you to know "hacking" is good.
Hacking is making "new inventions in fast, fluid, and fun ways."
Now that marketing as a discipline and field of work is essentially digital, it's subject to digital dynamics. Brinker identifies these as:
Speed - 1) execute faster 2) avoid knee-jerks
Adaptability - No single objective reality in digital world
Adjacency - Transparency, no distance
Scale - Automated scale vs. human judgement
Precision - Ask the right questions from data
Marketing needs to manage FOR those digital dynamics now, not against them.
Brinker says: "Software is modern marketing's middleman." The marketer is now a software developer. Challenges marketers face today are what programmers faced for the last 50 years, so we should learn from them. One of the best tools is SCRUM.
Scrum is a system of standups, backlogs, and retrospectives.
Kanban uses an incremental workflow board.
Scrumban combines them both into one. We can call these approaches applied to marketing, "Agile Marketing."
By adopting these management practices we can replace big waterfalls with small sprints. That increases the metabolism of our work. Fast reactions and speed alone don't equal "agile" though--you need to think big, then implement incrementally. Shift from tasks to thinking about "stories"--what will this work item accomplish for whom?
Agile is about sensing and responding, not command and control. You also need to adapt your processes, not just work products.
The digital revolution is continuing, and marketing is moving from just communications to experiences. Marketing = the User Experience. Perpetual Beta marketing w/minimum viable products is the future of business.
Big testing is better than big data. You need things to act upon.
Innovation and scalability must be balanced. MarTech's Law = technology changes exponentially, but organizations change logarithmically. So simply. Resist over-engineering and embrace sunsetting.
Brinker concludes by discussing the new full-stack marketer. Disrupt yourself, but choose what you want to specialize in (knowing today's comparative advantage skill will likely be assumed for everyone in several years).
I've found Brinker's book to be prescient in the identification of the problems I face everyday as a marketer. When my team switched to Agile Marketing, imbibing the principles outlined above, it revolutionized our productivity and the quality of our teamwork. Marketing KPIs improved too.
Hacking is making "new inventions in fast, fluid, and fun ways."
Now that marketing as a discipline and field of work is essentially digital, it's subject to digital dynamics. Brinker identifies these as:
Speed - 1) execute faster 2) avoid knee-jerks
Adaptability - No single objective reality in digital world
Adjacency - Transparency, no distance
Scale - Automated scale vs. human judgement
Precision - Ask the right questions from data
Marketing needs to manage FOR those digital dynamics now, not against them.
Brinker says: "Software is modern marketing's middleman." The marketer is now a software developer. Challenges marketers face today are what programmers faced for the last 50 years, so we should learn from them. One of the best tools is SCRUM.
Scrum is a system of standups, backlogs, and retrospectives.
Kanban uses an incremental workflow board.
Scrumban combines them both into one. We can call these approaches applied to marketing, "Agile Marketing."
By adopting these management practices we can replace big waterfalls with small sprints. That increases the metabolism of our work. Fast reactions and speed alone don't equal "agile" though--you need to think big, then implement incrementally. Shift from tasks to thinking about "stories"--what will this work item accomplish for whom?
Agile is about sensing and responding, not command and control. You also need to adapt your processes, not just work products.
The digital revolution is continuing, and marketing is moving from just communications to experiences. Marketing = the User Experience. Perpetual Beta marketing w/minimum viable products is the future of business.
Big testing is better than big data. You need things to act upon.
Innovation and scalability must be balanced. MarTech's Law = technology changes exponentially, but organizations change logarithmically. So simply. Resist over-engineering and embrace sunsetting.
Brinker concludes by discussing the new full-stack marketer. Disrupt yourself, but choose what you want to specialize in (knowing today's comparative advantage skill will likely be assumed for everyone in several years).
I've found Brinker's book to be prescient in the identification of the problems I face everyday as a marketer. When my team switched to Agile Marketing, imbibing the principles outlined above, it revolutionized our productivity and the quality of our teamwork. Marketing KPIs improved too.
June 7, 2017
I've read a lot of marketing books. After over 11 years in the field, I often finish a book frustrated, thinking "ya, I get it - marketing is important". I pull out interesting case studies, tidbits then move on.
Not with Hacking Marketing. I ate up every word of the management approach. Specifically, I really appreciate how concrete each example of agile project management can apply to marketing. The examples of customer stories vs staff stories clearly answered a question I had for several chapters prior. Every time I thought to myself "yes but... marketing is different", I'd read another chapter that explains exactly why an iterative agile marketing management style is exactly what today's digital world requires.
The approach in this book is to maybe over-explain the software development focused agile approach, but I can see why the background information is useful for those unfamiliar with the agile model. One thing I definitely recognize in my own team planning is that while I focused lightly on "sprints" and "in progress/done" tasks - I avoided the methodology critical to agile success. This book provides a Marketing Executive with all the background and insight you need to do your job well. I have found marketing leadership to be a truly elusive topic. We talk about how to increase followers and decrease your CPA, but how do we actually innovate as leaders? This book provides some of those answers.
I will be keeping this dog-eared book for my next team meeting - this is a really good practical mgmt guide!
Not with Hacking Marketing. I ate up every word of the management approach. Specifically, I really appreciate how concrete each example of agile project management can apply to marketing. The examples of customer stories vs staff stories clearly answered a question I had for several chapters prior. Every time I thought to myself "yes but... marketing is different", I'd read another chapter that explains exactly why an iterative agile marketing management style is exactly what today's digital world requires.
The approach in this book is to maybe over-explain the software development focused agile approach, but I can see why the background information is useful for those unfamiliar with the agile model. One thing I definitely recognize in my own team planning is that while I focused lightly on "sprints" and "in progress/done" tasks - I avoided the methodology critical to agile success. This book provides a Marketing Executive with all the background and insight you need to do your job well. I have found marketing leadership to be a truly elusive topic. We talk about how to increase followers and decrease your CPA, but how do we actually innovate as leaders? This book provides some of those answers.
I will be keeping this dog-eared book for my next team meeting - this is a really good practical mgmt guide!
March 31, 2021
Hacking Marketing was an excellent primer to understanding how marketing management has evolved with the digital age. Scott Brinker does a great job in explaining the similarities and differences that marketing and software companies have implemented for management. As a young marketer working in a software company, I found a lot of inspiration in this book that helped me understand and pitch new concepts to make my company grow.
Concepts of agility, interactive marketing, and working in sprints was all stuff that made sense with Moore's Law of "the speed and capability of our computers to increase every couple of years." It's a practical guidebook on how to manage a marketing team that I think would be a great read for everyone from those just starting out in marketing, to seasoned professionals looking for ways to grow.
Concepts of agility, interactive marketing, and working in sprints was all stuff that made sense with Moore's Law of "the speed and capability of our computers to increase every couple of years." It's a practical guidebook on how to manage a marketing team that I think would be a great read for everyone from those just starting out in marketing, to seasoned professionals looking for ways to grow.
November 18, 2018
Appreciate this book. I can recommend this book/guideline not only to marketers but more generally also to the whole management teams.
Despite the jargon, that needs to be cut off, because of the rule keep as simple as it's possible, Scott's book gives a lot of valuable lessons. If you're working at a digital company, you're most familiar with topics inside of it, but thanks to this book your knowledge can be systematized so you can implement more things in your marketing department/whole company. The series of useful tips and best practices with real life-examples that every marketer had to meet in their past is an excellent way to start rethinking how you run marketing and what and how you can improve it.
Highly recommend!
Despite the jargon, that needs to be cut off, because of the rule keep as simple as it's possible, Scott's book gives a lot of valuable lessons. If you're working at a digital company, you're most familiar with topics inside of it, but thanks to this book your knowledge can be systematized so you can implement more things in your marketing department/whole company. The series of useful tips and best practices with real life-examples that every marketer had to meet in their past is an excellent way to start rethinking how you run marketing and what and how you can improve it.
Highly recommend!
January 14, 2019
If you are in need of a broad based overview of how technology and software engineering practices has changed marketing to create agile marketing, this book is definitively for you. This book covers a wide variety of topics, and yet, is able to chain all the topics into one book.
This book doesn't always provide very clear guiding steps towards achieving what it directs its readers, but overall, the book still provides relatively adequate frameworks for each of the topic that it covers. And to be honest, some of the concepts shared would be pretty foreign to me if I hadn't been dappling with some marketing tools and tech myself.
I definitely wouldn't stop at this book, and if you are interesting in MarTech, applying software engineering best practices to agile marketing.
This book doesn't always provide very clear guiding steps towards achieving what it directs its readers, but overall, the book still provides relatively adequate frameworks for each of the topic that it covers. And to be honest, some of the concepts shared would be pretty foreign to me if I hadn't been dappling with some marketing tools and tech myself.
I definitely wouldn't stop at this book, and if you are interesting in MarTech, applying software engineering best practices to agile marketing.
January 3, 2021
Good summary of agile marketing, however slightly basic for those who are familiar with it.
The final section has been my favourite with practical tips and a few ideas you can implement in your organisation.
I particularly liked his ‘philosophy’ on agile - he is of the idea that you don’t have to be a strict agile advocate to get the benefits and you truly need to make it your own. I know this is controversial but I appreciated him being open about it.
Overall worth a read to refresh the basics and think what it means for you and your organisation.
The final section has been my favourite with practical tips and a few ideas you can implement in your organisation.
I particularly liked his ‘philosophy’ on agile - he is of the idea that you don’t have to be a strict agile advocate to get the benefits and you truly need to make it your own. I know this is controversial but I appreciated him being open about it.
Overall worth a read to refresh the basics and think what it means for you and your organisation.
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February 26, 2021
While there were some parts I found that were really good toward the end, the beginning was filled with basics that I felt could have been summed up more succinctly. It feels like there's a lot of set-up then the parts that actively work to show its relevance to marketing are rushed through.
I wanted more use cases beyond huge tech companies and I wanted more detail of the different components of marketing as well and how to apply that agile methodology. I don't doubt that this would be a great book, but maybe just not for me.
I wanted more use cases beyond huge tech companies and I wanted more detail of the different components of marketing as well and how to apply that agile methodology. I don't doubt that this would be a great book, but maybe just not for me.
April 14, 2020
The book explores the various software engineering philosophies especially agile development and tries to fit it into a marketing perspective. Entrepreneurs with a foothold in software engineering disciplines can skip most chapater. The tail end chapters does have some relevance to marketing like layers etc. I wish this book is rewritten to go deeper into marketing technology with actionable content.
April 15, 2020
3 to 3 1/2 stars if you’ve had any exposure to or experience with agile software development, or 4 stars if you haven’t. I skimmed the first 2/3 of the book because I have years of experience with agile, so this was pretty repetitive to me. Some good nuggets in the last third of the book though on pace layers and avoiding complexity on marketing that I haven’t read about before.
October 14, 2021
The author's strategy is sound on paper, but aspirational at best. It fails to recognize that each marketing "test" takes as much effort, time and resources as a full-fledged program. I read it with an earnest interest to learn how to do "agile marketing" but by the end all I could see was rainbows and unicorns flying off the page.
January 3, 2022
‘Hacking Marketing’ es un libro ideal para quienes no están convencidos aún de que implementar Agile en su equipo puede ser bueno. La primera parte es un poco densa en términos de información si ya conoces algo de teoría sobre metodología agile. La segunda parte es mucho más útil, con un buen desarrollo de la necesidad de testear y promover la innovación.
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October 10, 2022Pretty decent if you're trying to dip your toes in agile marketing. He provides some good marketing-related examples, but I struggled to finish the book/find the relevance toward the end. Creating an agile marketing program for content teams is no easy feat. I think this is a good "first step" for those trying to get their bearings when it comes to agile.
November 19, 2017
This is an excellent read especially for anyone interested in Martech, because the book clearly articulates how productivity gains can be made in marketing management through the use of software management concepts.
September 17, 2018
Book's core thesis is lean and agile software principles can be applied to marketing. With that prelude, readers will be best served to learn about lean and agile principles in depth as applied for software.
December 31, 2017
good primer for anyone who needs to understand Agile practices, but pretty basic if you have any insight into the methodology.
May 19, 2018
Tamamen hedef kitleye yönelik bir kitap. Teknik terimlerden çok hoşlanmayanlar için özellikle yarıdan sonrası sıkıcı gelebilir.
August 31, 2018
A great primer into the world of Agile Marketing
The author has done a great job of talking king about the benefits of Agile marketing, and how to implement it.
The author has done a great job of talking king about the benefits of Agile marketing, and how to implement it.
February 24, 2019
Nice read. I especially liked how to apply scrum and kanban to marketing at the beginning of the book.
May 13, 2019
Полезна только часть в середине книги с конкретными примерами.
October 29, 2019
A comprehensive overview of how marketing and software mirror one another, and a most useful section on agile project management.
January 12, 2020
This is yet another book to talk about Agile methodology..
September 13, 2020
Good, basic info for marketers unfamiliar with the agile process.
October 22, 2022
One my favorites books of the year.
Super useful for my work in the nonprofit sector.
I recommend it for everyone interested in agile methodologies beyond marketing.
Super useful for my work in the nonprofit sector.
I recommend it for everyone interested in agile methodologies beyond marketing.
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