The traditional 6-month launch cycle is dead. It burns cash, delays revenue realization, and by the time you hit the market, the problem you set out to solve has likely evolved.

Early in my career IBM set out to revolutionize the development of large systems with an ecosystem it called AD Cycle, where AD was an abbreviation for Application Development. AD Cycle was undoubtedly the ultimate expression of the traditional waterfall method of building software systems, where development projects moved en masse through distinct stages.

I often hear people question how approaches to work like Lean and Agile can apply to marketing, an activity they see as highly creative and resistant to the discipline required of software engineers. Sadly, this reflects a lack of understanding both of the creativity inherent in software development and of the many ways that Lean and Agile can make marketing better.

I’ve suggested that you should shift your story perspective to one where your customer - not your company – is at the center. In that context your role should be as a contributor to your customer’s ongoing progress, not as the linchpin that kept their wheels on.

My apologies for going dark for a week. I’m in Austin, and we Austinites spent last week cooking in the dark, boiling drinking water, and watching a Texas winter’s worth of firewood disappear in four days. But where it was 5 degrees here last Tuesday, today it’s nearly 80 and the snow is completely gone.

“Duh,” you say, “that’s obvious. It’s a customer story. That’s why their name is at the top of the page…” And you’d be right, but let’s go beyond the obvious. In what respect is it important for your success story to be about your customer?

Brand Company limped along for twenty years, somehow surviving. A pressing problem was their employee expense reporting system, the shortcomings of which threatened the company’s very existence. Brand Company was just about to sink into the swamp when they found Tech Company, an expense reporting software company.