Practical Guide: How work in progress management boosts your B2B marketing performance

Agile marketing is a dynamic approach to managing marketing projects that prioritises flexibility, collaboration, and rapid adaptation to change. This method is particularly useful for B2B marketers, who often face complex and lengthy sales cycles, as well as demanding stakeholders, such as sales leaders. One critical component of agile marketing is maintaining work-in-progress (WIP) limits to ensure that teams don't take on too many tasks at once, leading to inefficiency and reduced productivity or burn-out. In this blog, I share five ways B2B agile marketers can maintain their WIP limits while quantifying the value of their sprints, incorporating learnings to continually improve their processes, and juggling the demands of key stakeholders.

1. Clearly define WIP limits and set expectations

To maintain WIP limits effectively, B2B agile marketing teams must first establish clear boundaries for the number of tasks in progress. This can be achieved by allocating a specific number of tasks per team member or by setting a limit for the entire team. By enforcing these limits, teams can ensure that work is distributed evenly, preventing bottlenecks and allowing for the smooth flow of tasks throughout the marketing project. It's crucial to communicate these objectives, priorities, and WIP limits to stakeholders to set realistic expectations and reduce the likelihood of disruptive requests.

2. Use a visual management system and engage stakeholders in the planning process

Using a visual management system, such as a Kanban board, can help B2B agile marketers track their work in real-time. These tools enable teams to visualise their progress, monitor WIP limits, and identify bottlenecks quickly. By having a clear overview of ongoing tasks, agile marketers can redistribute work, adjust priorities, and make informed decisions to maintain their WIP limits and ensure that the team's resources are used efficiently. Involving stakeholders, such as sales leaders, in the planning, weighting and prioritisation of tasks helps them better understand the rationale behind decisions and the impact of their demands on the team's workload.

3. Prioritise and manage backlogs while fostering collaboration

Regularly reviewing and prioritising the backlog is essential for B2B agile marketers to maintain WIP limits. By ranking tasks based on their urgency, potential value, and alignment with KPI & objectives, agile marketers can ensure that the most valuable tasks are addressed first. Additionally, managing the backlog helps teams avoid exceeding their WIP limits by providing a clear understanding of the work that needs to be completed in each sprint. Encourage a collaborative relationship between marketing and sales teams through regular meetings, shared goals, and joint initiatives to build a sense of shared responsibility and reduce friction caused by competing priorities.

4. Quantify the value of sprints and establish a transparent process for handling urgent requests

To measure the success of a sprint, B2B agile marketers should establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect their objectives. KPIs can include metrics such as leads generated, conversion rates, website or social engagement. By quantifying the value of each sprint through these KPIs, teams can assess their performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimise their B2B marketing strategies. It's also important to leave room for ad-hoc requests from stakeholders that may disrupt WIP limits, so where appropriate they can be incorporated into the current sprint or scheduled for a future sprint.

5. Encourage continuous learning and adaptation

Incorporating learnings from previous sprints is crucial for B2B agile marketers to evolve and optimise their processes. By conducting sprint reviews and retrospectives, teams can reflect on their performance, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes based on their learnings. This ongoing feedback loop helps agile marketers maintain their WIP limits by adjusting their processes and understanding how best to respond and prioritise in future.

Maintain WIP discipline to unleash the value of agile marketing

Implementing agile marketing practices in the B2B landscape delivers significant business value by fostering innovation, driving growth, and enhancing the ability to adapt to changing market conditions. Effectively maintaining work-in-progress limits and managing demanding stakeholders, ensures that marketing teams can align their strategies with business objectives and maximise return on investment. By embracing these principles and fostering collaboration, B2B marketing teams can achieve more, create a competitive edge and deliver results whilst adapting to today's fast-paced business environment.