Throughout the years at Herdl, we’ve experimented with several project management approaches, weighing up which style best fits our workflow; however, variety is the spice of life. It can turn out to be more progressive and productive for an organisation to take a little of each approach, creating a unique project management process that works for you.
Our unique project management approach mostly borrows from Scrum and differ across our web design and marketing services. Scrum is a form of agile project management that originated in Japan. The initial introduction of Scrum was predominantly in the software development industry. The framework and basis of the practice allowed organisations to get minimal viable products to market quickly. They would then develop the software further in various increments, known as sprints, working towards the product’s completed iteration.
How does the scrum methodology work at a digital marketing agency?
Arguably, Scrum’s best feature is the breakdown of work into sprints. Sprints are timespans of either 2, 3, or 4 weeks in which you complete the most pressing tasks for a project. Each sprint begins with a team planning session where outstanding work is reviewed and scheduled into the sprint, based on its urgency and priority. As an SEO agency, we break down tasks such as content creation and optimisation and plan these within the sprint accordingly. Sprints are shorter periods of time by design so that when these end, a “retrospective” takes place. These retrospectives allow the team to review what did and didn’t work throughout the sprint so that iteratively, you can build on your workflow, and tackle the next sprint with more productivity. Each sprint ultimately becomes more productive as you learn, and the output of work should only grow, and keep growing!
Communication is key.
The success of many organisations comes down to communication, and Scrum is no stranger to this concept. Another fundamental Scrum practice is the Daily Scrum. The Daily Scrum brings together all team members to share the work they’ve completed and what they’re planning on tackling next. This valuable opportunity gives the ability to address any blockers that may be stopping tasks from being achieved – the team can then work collaboratively to ensure the sprint stays productive. This also means that tasks can remain on schedule as there shouldn’t be any excuses for tasks to be unfinished by the end of the sprint.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
There are lots of other Scrum practices and artefacts that allow a team to work iteratively. These continuously build and adapt a team’s workflow and approach – and it’s the reason why at Herdl, we’ve found this project management practice to be so valuable. As a marketing agency, we understand the need to be flexible and proactive as industries and cultures rapidly change. Using the scrum approach means we don’t become stayed in our creative thought process. We can change and adapt on the fly, ensuring relevant and pressing tasks become the priority for future sprints, whilst simultaneously, we review our work regularly to make sure what we’re delivering is always better.
If you’d like to learn more about our processes, please get in touch.