“Agile marketing is about focus, quality, and planning. We have an ultimate destination. We’re just more flexible about the path we take to get there.” A certified agile leader and practitioner, the focus of Andrea Fryrear’s work is helping marketers find greater focus in their work. We discussed process, planning, and why agile marketing is more important than ever on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast.

About Andrea Fryrear

An early convert to the ways of Agile marketing, Andrea Fryrear knows that Agile teams do better work in less time with less stress, and she loves nothing more than seeing a team evolve from chaos to high performance.

Agile marketing represents a huge shift in how marketers have historically managed their work—and, like any change, this shift isn’t easy. Through education, training, and coaching, Andrea and her team at AgileSherpas work to make this shift easier, guiding marketers along the path towards greater agility while always on the lookout for new and better routes. In June 2020, Andrea will be hosting the first-ever Marketing Agility Summit to provide a hands-on experience to energize marketers to take their agility to the next level.

In addition to being a Certified Professional in Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC), a Certified Agile Leader (CAL-1), a Certified Scrum@Scale Practitioner, and an ICAgile Authorized Instructor, Andrea is trained as a Scrum Master and Product Owner. She shares her findings (and failures) regularly as an international speaker on all things Agile marketing. Andrea is a content marketer by trade and functions best when she’s writing regularly. Her most recent book, Death of a Marketer, chronicles marketing’s troubled past and charts a course to a more agile future for the profession. When she’s not on a plane or at a keyboard, Andrea spends as much time as possible outdoors in her Colorado home training for triathlons and playing volleyball.

Episode Highlights

The biggest myth of agile marketing … “One of the biggest myths is that there’s no planning in agile,” says Andrea. “You have to have a destination but you’re flexible in the path to get there.” She went on to note that agile isn’t about being sloppy and cutting corners. It’s about focus, quality, and, of course, being on brand.

Where do you start with agile marketing? “You have to ruthlessly prioritize,” says Andrea. “You can’t have two number ones.” Start with your backlog of everything that you could be doing. From there, focus on your to-dos, what’s in progress, and what’s done.

Has COVID-19 changed the need for agile marketing? “I keep saying to my business partner, we don’t have to make the case for agile marketing ever again,” quips Andrea. That said, marketers need to be more effective—with shorter feedback loops—than ever before given current circumstances.

What brand has made Andrea smile recently? “Miro,” Andrea notes. “They’re helping those transitioning to full-time virtual training in a way that’s clever and fun.”

To learn more about Andrea, check out Andrea’s website and agilesherpas.com.

Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

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