agile# How to Use Direct Marketing Innovation to Create Effective Sprint Demos in Retail Services (1/61)
A retail services SME running SAFe with a medium team of six to fifteen people has a sprint demo problem. The company provides a customer loyalty platform for mid-size retail chains. The platform handles point accrual, reward redemption, tier management, personalized offers, and customer analytics. The company has been around for six years. It has fifty-eight employees. The product development organization has eleven people. The organization runs Scaled Agile Framework (2/61)
. Two agile release train teams. Team one has six people. Team two has five people. (3/61)
The sprint demos are broken. They are boring. They are technical. They do not engage stakeholders. A typical demo starts with the developer sharing their screen. The developer opens the code repository. The developer walks through the code changes. The developer explains the technical architecture. The stakeholders sit in silence. The stakeholders do not understand. The stakeholders do not ask questions. The stakeholders do not give feedback. The demo ends after thirty minutes (4/61)
The next sprint starts. The same features are built. The same assumptions are made. The same mistakes are repeated. Last quarter, the team built a personalized offers engine. The engine used a collaborative filtering algorithm. The algorithm recommended products based on similar customers' purchase histories. The demo showed the algorithm's code. The demo showed the database schema. The demo showed the API endpoints. The stakeholders did not understand (6/61)
. The stakeholders did not give feedback.
The engine was deployed. The engine recommended products. The recommendations were irrelevant. The algorithm recommended winter coats to customers in Florida. The algorithm recommended baby products to customers with no children. The irrelevant recommendations caused customer complaints. The complaints caused the retail chain to disable the feature. The feature was disabled after three weeks. The three weeks of development were wasted. (7/61)
Estée Lauder built her cosmetics empire on direct marketing innovation. The model was simple. Lauder went directly to customers. Lauder did not rely on department stores to sell her products. Lauder handed out free samples. Lauder applied products to customers' skin. Lauder taught customers how to use the products. The direct approach created engagement. Customers touched the product. Customers felt the product. Customers experienced the product. The experience created feedback (9/61)
. The feedback was immediate. The feedback was honest. The feedback was actionable. (10/61)
But Lauder's approach was not just about selling. Lauder's approach was about demonstrating. Lauder did not tell customers about the product. Lauder showed customers the product. The showing was experiential. The showing was personal. The showing was direct. When Lauder launched a new lipstick shade, she did not describe the shade in a press release. She invited beauty editors to her office. She applied the lipstick to each editor's hand (11/61)
. She asked each editor to wear the lipstick for a day. She asked each editor to report back.
The editors reported back. The feedback was specific. The feedback was honest. The feedback was actionable. The feedback improved the product. The improvement made the launch successful. (12/61)
For a retail services SME, the sprint demo problem is the same. The demos are technical. The demos are not experiential. The demos do not engage stakeholders. Lauder's direct marketing innovation says: make the demos experiential. Let stakeholders touch the product. Let stakeholders feel the product. Let stakeholders experience the product. The experiential demo creates engagement. The engagement creates feedback. The feedback improves the product.
## The Core Principle (13/61)
Lauder's direct marketing innovation was built on a simple insight. The best way to get honest feedback is to let people experience the product directly instead of telling them about it. Lauder did not describe the lipstick shade. Lauder applied the lipstick to the editor's hand. The editor experienced the product. The experience created honest feedback. (14/61)
For a retail services SME, the sprint demo problem is the same. The demos are technical. The demos do not let stakeholders experience the product. Lauder's direct marketing innovation says: make the demos experiential. Let stakeholders experience the product. The experience creates honest feedback. The honest feedback improves the product.
## Four Steps to Apply Direct Marketing Innovation to Creating Effective Sprint Demos (15/61)
1. Replace the Screen Share with a Live Product Walkthrough That Stakeholders Can Interact With
Lauder replaced the press release with a live product experience. The press release described the product. The live experience let the editor touch the product. The touch created engagement. The engagement created feedback. Your team should replace the screen share with a live product walkthrough that stakeholders can interact with the same experiential replacement. (16/61)
For a retail services SME, the live product walkthrough might look like this. The product manager changes the demo format. The old format was a screen share. The developer shared their screen. The developer walked through the code. The new format is a live product walkthrough. The product manager opens the product in a browser. The product manager logs in as a test customer. (17/61)
The test customer is a fictional persona. The persona is Maria. Maria is a thirty-four-year-old mother of two. Maria shops at a mid-size retail chain. Maria has been a loyalty program member for two years. Maria has accumulated twelve thousand points. Maria is in the gold tier. (18/61)
The product manager walks through Maria's experience. The product manager shows Maria's dashboard. The dashboard shows Maria's point balance. The dashboard shows Maria's tier status. The dashboard shows Maria's personalized offers. The product manager clicks on an offer. The offer is twenty percent off children's clothing. The product manager redeems the offer. The redemption is successful. The points are deducted. The discount is applied. (19/61)
The stakeholders watch. The stakeholders see the product. The stakeholders do not see the code. The stakeholders do not see the database schema. The stakeholders do not see the API endpoints. The stakeholders see Maria's experience. The experience is relatable. The experience is understandable. The experience is engaging. (20/61)
The stakeholders start asking questions. One stakeholder says, What happens if Maria tries to redeem an offer that she does not have enough points for? The product manager tests the scenario. Maria tries to redeem an offer that costs fifteen thousand points. Maria only has twelve thousand points. The system shows an error message. The error message says, You need three thousand more points to redeem this offer (21/61)