10 Practices of an Agile CMO

The role of the CMO is crucial to the successful adoption of Agile Marketing practices within an organisation. An Agile CMO thinks and behaves differently to the standard CMO. They create the conditions that enable their Agile Marketing team, as well as the wider organisation, to move faster, react quicker, and learn iteratively to deliver experiences that are more attuned to customers' needs, wants and desires on an ongoing basis.

Agile Marketing has been shown to: accelerate speed-to-market of activities and campaigns; increase the ability to switch-gears more easily and rapidly; grow team productivity, motivation and happiness; and improve prioritisation resulting in greater customer alignment and ultimately revenue generation and growth for the business. It is how modern Marketing teams should operate.

CMOs therefore need to adopt an Agile agenda as they form their teams, define their strategies, and execute to deliver their marketing activities. Agile is very different to the way that CMOs have traditionally operated. It entails a collection of methodologies, practices and processes that change the way that the marketing team works on an everyday basis. Yet it melds much of what is considered ‘best practice’ for marketers to be successful in today’s hyper-paced, hyper-competitive, and hyper-demand world.

The following 10 practices represent the essence of what it means to be an Agile CMO: