Agile transformations promise faster, more customer-centric organizations, but they typically begin in IT or product teams—far from the brand, messaging, and experiences that shape customer perception.
When Marketing is eventually engaged, Agile is often framed in technical terms and uses delivery metrics that don't align with how marketing works or adds value. That disconnect limits Marketing's influence and risks missing the very goal Agile aims to achieve: deeper customer connection.
With those challenges in mind, how can CMOs position marketing as a strategic partner—not a late adopter—of an Agile transformation?
Delivering Transformational Change
Agile transformations are consistently successful in setting up teams to create products incrementally and in aligning technology to those product teams. It is when they seek to move beyond that boundary between technology and product—into the rest of the business—that challenges can arise.
Ceremonies are scheduled and dashboards are created, but meaningful change throughout the business often fails to materialize at the expected level.
The key reason for that stagnation is also the primary impediment to CMOs' taking their rightful and needed seat at the transformation table. Delivering change across the business requires an evolution in how the Agile transformation is delivered.
Marketing—like other business functions—operates differently from tech and product teams; it is driven by brand strategy, campaign agility, customer insight, and omnichannel engagement. Applying tech-centric Agile models and terms without translation leads to friction and limited impact.
To unlock marketing's unique value, the transformation team requires an advocate that understands both agility and the language and workflow of marketing. Experience has proven that organizations often experience a greater ROI by upskilling marketing talent on agility versus teaching an Agile practitioner what marketing does. If the organization is lacking such an advocate, outside experts with knowledge spanning both fields can fill that role.
Developing Meaningful, Flexible Agility in Marketing
Beyond developing a comprehensive playbook for delivering Agile change outside of technology, unlocking Agility in your marketing strategy also requires shifting focus on different elements to feel meaningful. These elements can include flexible planning, real-time iteration, creative alignment with regulatory, legal, or agencies, and more.
An effective strategy will embrace marketing-specific workflows, such as test-and-learn, content sprints, and campaign retros, and measure success in terms of customer engagement and brand outcomes, not just velocity.
For example, a global financial services organization sought to implement Agile in Marketing. The initial rollout stalled when traditional training, rooted in software development concepts, failed to resonate. The transformation was re-energized by bringing in experts with both Agile and marketing experience; they reframed the approach using marketing-relevant language, workflows, and examples. That reset enabled Marketing to embrace Agile not only as a delivery model—using sprints for campaigns and Kanban for event planning—but also as a partner, contributing subject matter expertise to cross-functional squads. Success depended on tailoring Agile to fit how Marketing truly works.
Prioritizing the Customer
Agile focuses on value to the customer; it delivers better products by harnessing real-time customer feedback to improve development. Agility has expanded beyond software, but truly Agile organizations recognize that sustained success starts with the business function that is closest to the consumer: Marketing.
If the goal of Agile is customer-centricity, Marketing holds the keys—through brand positioning, consumer insights, and audience engagement
For example, we recently worked with an international consumer goods company to form an Agile squad combining Marketing, Product Development, and Manufacturing to rapidly co-create and test new product concepts. By aligning around a clear outcome and embedding real-time customer insight into the process, the cross-functional team was able to prototype and validate ideas in weeks instead of months—delivering a 75% acceleration compared with traditional timelines. That not only sped up time-to-market but also ensured the product was grounded in what the customer wanted from Day One.
Breaking Down Silos
When Marketing is positioned as a core partner of Agile transformation, organizations are better equipped to break down silos.
Marketing inherently operates across functions — collaborating with Product, Sales, Service, Brand, and Digital—giving it a natural advantage in modelling Agile behaviors. That cross-functional perspective allows Marketing to lead by example, accelerating cultural and operational shifts across the business.
Marketing can demonstrate to internal stakeholders—already familiar through regular collaboration—the tangible benefits of working iteratively. As more areas of the organization experience those advantages first-hand, support for transformation grows organically, reducing resistance and building momentum across the organization.
We have also seen this approach work in practice. In a global pharmaceutical company, the commercial marketing function became the catalyst for broader enterprise Agility. By adopting Agile ways of working, marketing helped unify fragmented analytics teams, reducing duplication and aligning on shared customer insights. It also facilitated closer collaboration with legal, regulatory, and quality teams—introducing Agile review cycles that maintained compliance while accelerating speed-to-market. In addition, Medical Affairs was brought into the process earlier, enabling more relevant, insight-driven campaigns leveraging voice-of-the-customer. Marketing's transformation created a ripple effect, drawing other functions into a more customer-centric, collaborative model.
Harnessing the Value of the CMO
Positioning Marketing as a strategic partner in the Agile transformation hinges on the role of the CMO.
Effective CMOs know how to champion customer-centricity and employ their team's deep expertise and insights to enhance the organization's strategic connection with the customer.
CMOs can support the Agile transformation in several ways:
- At the outset of the transformation, sponsor or co-sponsor the change with a technology or business leader to ensure Marketing's deep connection to the customer remains central throughout the process.
- In C-suite ceremonies throughout the transformation, consistently link Agile iterations to shifts in customer intent using Marketing's unique data, insights, and storytelling.
- Ensure the transformation team uses marketing's insights and communication expertise to avoid creating redundant roles and duplicative efforts.
- Champion an Agile transformation that engages all parts of the business, striking the right balance of consistency and flexibility to meet diverse stakeholder needs while avoiding creating Agile silos within the transformation itself.
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A key learning that almost any Agile evangelist will share is that Agility is based on testing, learning, and changing as new information emerges.
In the more than two decades since the Agile Manifesto was first published, Agile ways of working have been tested outside the software world and have been effective across all areas of the business.
If organizational change for the customer's benefit is the goal, the next step is evolving the transformation by leveraging Marketing as the hidden accelerator.
More Resources on Agile and Marketing
Agile Marketing FAQs: Teams, Meetings, Leadership, Measurement, More...
How Agile Project Management Saved My Marketing Team
Four Tips for Implementing Agile Strategies in Your Marketing to Increase Efficiency and Results
How to Use an Agile Marketing Strategy to Improve Your Marketing Campaigns
