The CEO Framework - Applying Agile Practices and Scientific Experiment to Marketing

Sometimes the best thing you can do is dive right in.

But, that doesn't mean that it's a good idea to dive from 60+ feet up on your first try.  Take for example my recent trip to the secluded Blue Hole in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.   After the guides jumped in from where I thought would have been certain death, they brought us down a narrow path to a significantly easier cliff of about 10 feet high.  I must admit though, even after watching the guides jump from much higher it was still pretty terrifying to take that first leap.

But that's what life is all about, taking a leap into unknown waters.  Many people have come to this same realization including acclaimed life coach Brian Tracy, who says "Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new."  But there is a big difference between trying something new and tempting fate.  

The best decision you can make then, is to take educated risks that are gradually and consistently pushing you a little further than you've been before.  Having a guide, taking small steps, and knowing the right direction are the keys to achieving your end goal.  Whether that goal is jumping off a 60 feet cliff or finding just one more new customer a month.

The CEO Framework^TM is that guide which enables you to get to your end goal.  It is your compass, allowing you to find your way faster, with a lower investment and less risk.  And it comes down to three simple words combined with two different approaches toward progress: agile development and scientific experiment.

Create. Engage. Optimize.

Separately, these words don't mean much, but together they can mean the difference between success and failure:

• Create: Coming up with an idea, deciding on an expected result, and then designing a solution that you expect will get you there.
• Engage: Taking action on your idea, executing it and collecting as much data about your success rate as possible.
• Optimize: Organizing all of your data to draw conclusions on whether your expected result was correct and what things you can change to have a higher success rate.

If we look at scientific experiment, it is performed in exactly the same manner.  A scientist discovers a problem, then comes up with a hypothesis about the cause or cure.  Then, they design an experiment to test the hypothesis and execute it.  The key to determining if their hypothesis is correct though, is that they collect data consistently throughout the experiment.  Lastly, they organize that data to determine whether or not their hypothesis is correct.  

And guess what?  A lot of times, they discover that their assumptions were wrong!  This is completely fine in the world of science, but when we do the same in the business world people consider it failure.  Why? because that failure cost time and money.  But what if we could build many tests and run them at the same time with the expectation that many of those tests will fail, but as long as one really takes off it will 10X our entire business and by far offset the cost of failure?

This idea of expecting failure brings us closer to the software world of Agile Development and Test Driven Development.  If we apply these same principles to how we do marketing, we come up with "Agile Marketing" which ultimately aims at reducing the cost and depth of failure by doing marketing on the smallest budget, over the shortest time periods possible.  

The CEO Framework^TM takes this one step further - it is the combination of a winning strategy along with the effective execution of that strategy to achieve your goals.  By implementing the CEO Framework^TM you can systematically create competitive advantage across all areas of your business and build a culture that embraces innovation.