What can a legendary guitarist learn from Agile?

Guitarist John Sykes in 1984

You may or may not know who the legendary guitarist John Sykes is, but you probably know at least one thing that he's been a part of, most notably his extraordinary contributions to Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake. Sykes is an inventive guitarist with incredible technique and tone that is unmistakable. After leaving Whitesnake in the late 1980s, Sykes formed a really great band called Blue Murder, releasing two studio albums and a live album before breaking up in 1994.

Sykes maintained a solo career, releasing albums through about 2005. He also led the reformed Thin Lizzy throughout the early 2000s. Not much has been heard from the guitarist in the years since. Several years ago he even announced that a new solo album would be forthcoming, even going so far as to release a few samples of the music. That was pretty much all we heard from Sykes on the subject until January of this year when a single song appeared on YouTube. By some accounts, Sykes has been so focused on perfection and making the best music he can, that it's paralyzed him.

I love John Sykes so this is not meant to put him down at all. He's a legend and a fantastic musician, and he's not alone. We've seen other artists do this over the years - most notably Guns N' Roses and their Chinese Democracy album, which took 8 years and reportedly $14 million before it was finally released.

We all have that project that we just can’t seem to get right, now matter how much effort, or time, we throw at it. In this particular instance, however, it makes me wonder: with today's music distribution methods, if the whole album isn't coming together, would it be a better strategy to work on making one track really great, then releasing it? You can get it out there on social media, share it on the streaming services, gauge your interest, then move onto the next one? There are precedents for this strategy in business.

Here Comes Agile

In software development, there's a concept called Agile. I'm not a developer and I don't claim to be an expert on this topic, but it was started as a "manifesto" created by a group of prominent technology leaders in response to previous development methodologies, which promoted careful planning and extensive documentation prior to any project getting underway. The old methods started to become a hindrance as we moved into the internet era, where markets were changing rapidly and software development wasn't keeping pace in terms of timeliness or customer need. Incidentally, the original Agile Manifesto site is still up, in all of its 2001-era "let's use a tiled background image and center everything in HTML" glory.

The Agile Manifesto stressed the importance of team communication. Regular communication between developers, as well as between developers, the business side, and the customers, was vital to this methodology. Setting up this team approach with regular communication, according to Agile, was better than strict adherence to processes set from the top down. Efficiencies, and new processes that eliminate bottlenecks and respond to changing customer needs could be implemented on the fly using this strategy.

Working software was another principle found within the Agile Manifesto, and “iteration” became a term that you heard a lot when listening to agile development teams - particularly those working in fast moving startups. What's the shortest path to getting something working and out there in the market? Once it's done, then release it and move onto the next thing, eating the proverbial elephant a few bites at a time, rather than all at once. You get something working, then move on to the next thing, and the next thing, sustainably, indefinitely.

There's more to it but those are some of the highlights. You can read more about it in the countless books, white papers, blog posts that have been written about Agile over the past two decades. I'm sure I didn't adequately describe it in the way a project manager might.

Agile Grows and Expands…into Marketing?

An industry was formed around Agile as the popularity of the concept snowballed. Software and services were created around managing projects and communicating with teams. Agile experts started appearing in corporations, first helping software developers adapt to this new paradigm, then taking the concept to other areas of the business.

One of the main areas where the Agile Methodology worked its way into was marketing. As digital marketing grew, people started to realize that the processes marketers were using to build and create good content wasn't that different from processes that software developers might use. In fact, in many cases, marketing, designers, and developers were working together on projects. It only made sense that marketing teams should look at using methodologies that allowed for potentially quicker speed to market on projects. Agile marketing experts started to appear at marketing events around the world, with new books, webinars, and white papers promoting a new, efficient way to manage projects within small marketing teams. I had a chance to attend a few of these event sessions throughout the years and they made sense to me. Marketing teams are always struggling for budget, and Agile gives you a fighting chance at accomplishing more, with a little less.

How can Agile Marketing Help You?

With that in mind, here are a couple of the areas in which I think you might benefit from some of Agile's concepts, no matter what business you're in:

Persona Development

If you've read anything on content marketing, you know that personas are one of the first things that come up. They are important. A persona should be a fictional representation of your ideal customer. They're important as they allow you to keep your point of view fine-tuned. They help to keep you on track, and they do keep you efficient by making sure you aren't wasting time on things that don't matter to your target buyer.

I've heard expert marketers who I have great respect for say that there are no shortcuts to persona development. That may be true, but that's also why most companies don't actually have them. So here's my Rock and Roll Reclaimed shortcut for that in which there can be no shortcuts: Make one up. Just imagine somebody who is a likely buyer. Maybe think of a customer you know something about. They're your audience, for now. Is a wrong persona better than no persona? Probably, unless you are completely clueless about your buyers. I'm guessing that's not the case.

Where does an agile approach come into this? Speed to market. You're using your knowledge - or your team's collective knowledge, to create your target quickly, then get it out there and start testing it. Over time you'll look at data to see what's resonating and what's not, and you'll fine tune that persona as you go. More to come on this in future posts.

Content Marketing

Is it better to have 10 really great things that you published consistently over 10 weeks? Or is it better to work for 10 weeks on a huge, all-encompassing project that takes 10 weeks to develop and looks beautiful, but potentially misses out on an important market that happened along the way. I know what I would choose. Remember the Agile concept of "working software"? It applies to content too. Creating one thing quickly, then building on that by moving onto the next thing gives you speed to market and consistency that you can use to fuel your social media, email campaigns, search, and more. It also gives you the flexibility to repurpose individual content assets into things that are different or bigger - a gated ebook perhaps. Or, if you're John Sykes and have been releasing new tracks every several months for the past 8 years, an album with a lot of great data backing It up. This might tell him or his record label which tracks performed the best over time, which could in turn inform which tracks appear on the album, which are played live, etc.

These aren't new ideas. I'm not the first to publish them. I think they're important. After many years of working in a business and developing content strategy, they're ideas that I think people know, but they aren't always mindful of. Here's your introduction if this is new to you. If it's not new, then I hope it's a reminder.

Like Sykes, There’s More Agile to Come

I can say for certain that Agile is an influence on Rock and Roll Reclaimed. I'm a one person team right now and that won't change for the foreseeable future. I can’t do a “standup” meeting right now without looking crazy, or appoint a “scrum master” (that word makes me uncomfortable), or all of the other things Agile teams do. However, doing more with less, building on what came before rather than starting over, and being prepared to make quick changes based on what customers are looking for - these are all principles on which I'm trying to use in building this project.

I haven't given you all my thoughts on this. Look for deeper dives into these concepts in the weeks ahead. Questions? Comments? Something I've gotten wrong or haven't thought of? Tell me what you think.

I'm prepared to make the claim that this is the first ever post to compare the career of John Sykes to Agile software development and marketing. Please let me know if you feel otherwise while you listen to this killer Sykes playlist I've created.