In this episode, we’ll talk about how 3M is using Agile marketing, how they got started and how they overcame challenges like personnel changes.
Frank Days 00:03
I’m Frank Days here with Melissa Reeve, your hosts for today’s episode. Joining us is Giannina Rachetta, Product Marketing Manager at 3M and an Agile marketing evangelist. Thanks for joining us today, Giannina.
Giannina Rachetta 00:36
Hi, Frank. Hi, Melissa. Thank you for having me.
Frank Days 00:39
Great. Well, in this episode, we’ll talk about how 3M is using Agile marketing, how they got started, and how they overcame the challenges like personnel changes. Let’s get started.
Melissa Reeve 00:53
Giannina, tell us about your journey to Agile marketing, did it start at 3M?
Giannina Rachetta 01:01
Melissa, kind of. It started previously, in 2015. Now that I think about it. I was gonna say 2014. And I looking back, you know, just looking personally, my background has always been in marketing. And I say it happens in the last probably 20 years doing marketing, I’ve always gravitated towards the software, technology company field. And back in 2000, if you can believe that long, when I was working in marketing at a fast growing tech company in upstate New York, I actually watched how the development team at the time went from a waterfall approach over to adopting Agile methodologies and how they evolved that way. And it made total sense for me from a software development perspective. And again, in marketing, I’ve always been in the product marketing type of marketing, communications, product marketing, but always supporting software products. So I kind of had that in the back of my head. And then when I joined 3M in 2013, the division that I joined that I currently work in, produces software solutions for the Health Information Management, division, among other things, and from the get go, it was very clear that it was an Agile scrum team that I was joining. And, you know, right then and there, I knew I was gonna fit just fine. And part of my job in product marketing, I was very much involved in all the development teams, grooming sessions, sprint reviews, prioritization meetings, etc. So I was very familiar with the methodology from the software development side. And now, you know, switching to agile marketing, it was really back in 2015, when I came across the really applying Agile to what I do, while I was doing some research on agile methods, and really through working on, you know, launching a product, there was a lot of coordination at the time, back and forth many stakeholders, presentations, updates, things we needed to produce out to the market, and things like that. And we we needed to work fast and independently, and we knew we knew what we needed to do, and have clear goals. So with a cross functional team of product owners, marketing, marketing, communications, advertising and all that, so we applied really very rudimentary way of looking at what we were doing and kind of applying some Agile principles to it. And so, yeah, so I guess, really, from an agile marketing perspective at 3M That’s kind of how I got started. I did a lot of self education.
Melissa Reeve 04:27
Yeah, it sounds like it it. Along the lines of education, what kind of support did you find? You know, there isn’t a lot out there specifically around product marketing. So did you find some resources or were you having to make it up as you went along?
Giannina Rachetta 04:43
Well, back then, when I’m talking about, you know, 2015, 2016 Yeah, there was there was not a lot out there. I wanted to train myself on how to better understand the software development team from a marketing perspective, because I was sitting in there, you know, sprint reviews and in the grooming sessions and just the lingo itself, right? It could be a little intimidating. What do you mean sprint? What do you mean, you know, backlog? You know, what’s the story point, things like that, just from the basics of what is this to then you know, little by little, finding online information videos on how to do an agile with a business mindset and then further commercialization of products and into marketing into product marketing. So little by little, I think that when I came across it this book called Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker, that’s the one that’s the that’s the time when I was like, Okay, I got this.
Frank Days 06:05
Can you share a little bit about what it looked like when you got started implementing agile in marketing? Sounds like you were already there was agile was fairly prevalent at 3M. Right? What was that process of crossing the chasm or crossing the department to get people?
Giannina Rachetta 06:21
Sure. So I mean, I had that mindset, right, I had that a, you know, kind of self education I had done for a few years. 3M as an organization, they, they like, I don’t know, specifically when they started it, but they I know that we all got invited to this one forum where all marketers can join from different areas and online. And it was introduced as a new initiative, let’s be an Agile team, and how to how to apply some of the concepts. So, back then, I think it was 2018 or around 2018. So to me, that was that was great, because I was right there. Right with it. And then fast forward to right before COVID. And you got to understand, when you are when you’re in a big corporation has to be on again, I’m just me, right? I’m doing my job. And you know with the team with the division, but there’s so many divisions that we have so many businesses. So it was it was a lot of tapping people, hey, you know, what about this? What about doing, you know, changing the way we’re doing things? So it was a lot of, you know, consider myself an evangelist. Now, because I was I was doing that I was tapping I was I was knocking the doors, I was putting PowerPoint presentations together and say, Hey, how about we do this? We’re going to be solving XYZ problem. And everybody knew that I worked that way. So if I got a new teammate, or an new project that I had to work cross functionally, like that is how I, I organized myself, I very much looked at it from an organization perspective. So how do I organize my work with priorities with story points to to understand the level of effort of any particular deliverable. And then in right before, it was right about COVID, time 2020 is when we did the implementation of agile techniques and tools with my team, that 3M Health Information Systems. So that’s the division that does all the software for healthcare for 3M so we started in 2020, took about a year. And it’s been it’s been great. It was a great learning opportunity. From my part on just how to introduce a such a large concept is a mindset shift is applying new principle principles and also apply new tools in a more practical way. So it was a it was a great learning opportunity, implementing agile marketing at three MHS.
Melissa Reeve 09:48
Could you walk us through that transformation that started right before COVID? I know we’ve got a lot of listeners out there who are wanting to embark on their own transformations you mentioned, you know, this transformation involved an initiative called Winning with Agility. Maybe you could back up, tell us what drove the decision to, to launch into this Agile transformation, maybe the steps you took around training and tooling. And then a little bit about the challenges you overcame?
Giannina Rachetta 10:24
Yes, definitely. So it was, it was, it was almost a story of, you know, when things fall in the right place, as we were, as a team, within my division, embarking into deciding, yes, let’s apply this. Especially because we were all remote. If there was any hesitation of, of changing the way we’re doing things, or improving the ways we were doing things, definitely the fact that we all became remote employees, made things very clear that we needed to have a way of doing things faster, more transparency. You know, visibility into each other’s workloads. We weren’t, you know, sitting next to each other to, to, like, look at a board. If we were to have a board of the things that we’re doing and, and when things are done, and so forth, or if there is any impediment. So we had to look at it very practically. How do we get everybody together? There have been some struggles that we had identified in the past where, you know, I was doing my work, and I used Jira, for my, my own organization at the time. Some other folks also use JIRA that had, you know, slowly but surely converted into, but others used, you know, spreadsheets or SharePoint sites or other tools. And there was a lot of duplication. A lot of duplication a lot of amount of time that was wasted on kind of just updating things, you know, updating people updating places on, you know, different SharePoint sites or whatnot with what are we doing then monthly reports and things like that. So it was a lot of, of that work that was probably necessary at one point.
Melissa Reeve 12:41
Sorry to interrupt, but you were looking for some efficiencies. So that was one of the things that was driving the the decision to go Agile, is that fair?
Giannina Rachetta 12:50
Yes, absolutely. We needed to do a change. And we needed to, to, you know, get rid of some silos and some duplications. So you mentioned Winning with Agility. So right at the time, when we started the charter of our project or on project to do this Agile transformation, 3M, also launched a Winning with Agility initiative, which I thought was great. Under this umbrella of winning with agility, let’s bring in projects that are doing that exactly, or any any project that we have, that we were trying to get done to improve our own processes as an organization. And how that is going to make us be more agile, that that is going to make us be more effective. So I tapped into that we were, we were not launched yet, we had not launched our our new process or new, this transformation. We were in the middle of kind of just starting to charter starting the discussions. How are we going to do this? You know, we were a team of about 35 marketers from different areas. We had integrated marketing, we had product marketing, we had marketing communications. We have web experience and things like that. So we were a large team, and placeholder coordinations with an ad agency and so forth and events. So, different different arms, extended arms. And so we were right in the middle of trying to figure out how do we do this and this is when the winning with agility initiative came about and they tapped into that and it was very interesting because 3M is a Lean Six Sigma company that will follow Lean Six Sigma processes for improvements. And it was a very interesting combination of Lean Six Sigma and agile, where I used to some of the Lean Six Sigma. You know, processes are, for lack of a better word, just methods to bring this project to light. Some of the things that I used what are the things that I really liked about the Lean Six Sigma approach was on identifying the critical why’s. Critical whys are basically the problems to solve. So, what I spoke earlier, getting rid of the siloed work, have that visibility, increased productivity, decrease duplication, those were were very much our goals, and also the metrics that we will use. And then, and then recognizing, what are our critical access, which are basically the things that can go wrong? And how do we, what do we do to control them? Right? So, identifying what are some of the things that could go wrong, like, our team’s going to revert back to what they used to do? Are they? Are we going to go back to having multiple places to keep track of work? Or are we, you know, not really going to follow Scrum or, you know, sprints? Or how are we, you know, how are we going to, you know, other things that we’re implementing, so change management as a change for the organization? And then how, what are the things that could go wrong? And how are we going to control them?
Melissa Reeve 16:53
Yeah, that’s really interesting.
Giannina Rachetta 16:55
So yes, it was very, it was very interesting process on how to do that, and making sure that we have those controls in place, to, you know, to keep make sure that the the project is successful,
Frank Days 17:09
You shared a lot about how your efforts have matured over the last few years, right? Where do you see your agile efforts going next?
Giannina Rachetta 17:20
Well, it’s, it’s interesting, because we had a lot of change in the middle of it, like, after we launched the project, we were all you know, utilizing the tools and utilizing the process. As you know, people come and go, you know, roles change, we had a lot of change in the last year. And looking back, and there are definitely some, some challenges that we are as any normal organization going through. Any, anytime there is a new employee coming in, for instance, we have to understand, it is still a very new concept. In, the business world on having an agile mindset, following Agile principles being an Agile team. I would love to see if there is any part of the curriculum in universities, when you’re getting out of marketing, if you have a something that along the side, the lines of an agile track, right, but there isn’t one right now that I can see. So you have folks coming in. And you have to train them. Well, from from this is, you know, from the practical ways of how this is how we work, these are the tools that we’re using to more of the mindset of having that, you know, uninterrupted buffer, having a prioritization, negotiating, when there is a, you know, a backlog that that needs to be there, you know, prioritize and groomed and how do you, you know, how do you work as a team independently by very highly aligned to the goals of your organization, all of those things combined? Is it it is a constant, you know, being on alert, that that is something that needs to be groomed within your teams, because they, you know, do you’re not coming in knowing that so you got to learn it. And yep, go ahead.
Melissa Reeve 19:47
So, I love what you were saying about teaching it early in the schools, even in colleges, getting people prepared to participate in an Agile team. What other guidance might you have for individuals who are trying to initiate a transformation in their organization?
Giannina Rachetta 20:10
I read this before, so it’s not, I’m not coming up with it on my own, but definitely getting the leadership on board. It is crucial. It’s definitely crucial. You have to have leadership on board. And in not only on board, but continued ongoing support. Because it because it is it is very, it’s very easy to go back to our old habits. And I’m talking from my marketer of, you know, 20 plus years have been been around doing what I’m doing. It’s very easy to go back and be like, Okay, well, let’s just, let’s just, you know, roll with the punches.
Melissa Reeve 20:50
Yeah, that’s really, it’s really great advice. And I totally agree with you, you not only need the leadership support in the beginning, and it can’t just be this hand waving. Here’s a check to do some training. You need that true involvement. And I really appreciate your sharing your insights with us today. And participating in the Marketing Agility podcast. .
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