Category Vision need a polish? Time for a Scrum!

It's that time of year isn't it? The perennial business question is rearing its lovely head:

How are we going to ensure our retail partners back our brand plans in store (and online of course) this year?

Stock answers; tick all those that apply:

1) Top notch account team. Check.

2) Awesome category team. Naturally.

3) Bucket of cash. Hope so.

4) Category redefining NPD from our marketing colleagues. Erm.

5) Super shiny Category Vision to frame it al nicely. Ah.

Let's face it, some Category Visions don't quite deliver the 'Wow' that they did a few years ago do they? This is possibly for one or more increasingly universal reasons:

1) Everyone's got them now. Damn.

2) CVs are all broadly the same. Sorry to pop the convenience / health / premium bubble. (Better ask for a refund from the agency that produced it then. Oh).

3) CVs are executed sub-optimally. Why?

4) CVs are not backed by the category defining NPD that we talked about above. Why not?

5) They lack a certain 'je ne sais quoi'. Pourquoi? Merde.

So what should you do?

SIMPLES!

DON'T invest any more money with 'those businesses' that basically charge you a fortune to churn out the same process of insight mining, driver creation, workshopping, activation planning {yawn}, let's try some different markets {snooze}, that they do everywhere {= your bank balance empty, their bank balance full}. Oooo catty.

DEFINITION OF INSANITY CHECK: YOU DEFINITELY WON'T GET A DIFFERENT RESULT FROM DOING THE SAME THING AGAIN!! and again, and again, and...

DO think properly about the other 2 key elements of successful Category Vision Va Va Voom: Embedding & Executing. (It's not just about element 1: Build). And shake it all up a bit.

Sounds awesome!... what does that mean?

CATEGORY.... VISION... SCRUM

Sounds awesome!... what does that mean?

OK let's step back a minute.

For those of you 'in the know', the Agile stalwart 'Scrum' practice first evolved in the 1990s as a backlash to the inefficient, process heavy software development slog in Silicon Valley. Fast forward 25 years, and no-one even breathes 'Gantt Chart' in the IT industry any more, because it is, quite literally, so last century. And quite frankly they'd also sound really stupid.

In our world, Scrum means facilitating a tight team of SMEs, who have complete autonomy to work through challenges and bring regular iterations of a process or product forward for feedback.

The focus is on solving problems, developing workable execution and because the Scrum team is basically a group of cross functional experts, a big creamy dollop of embedding is thrown in too. The process has an overall sponsor, and is managed by a Scrum Master who also tries to do some clever stuff.

Mmmm. Embedding.... execution.... removing inefficiencies... Hang on a minute.

LIGHTBULB GOES ON!!

That's right: we believe very strongly that running a Category Vision Scrum could give your existing CV the exact shine and lift it needs to start delivering on all the good intentions you had (or were promised...) when you first crafted it.

{Dusted down your Cat Vision folders in office store cupboard recently? I mean come on, you spent how much on them???}

Basically, we think that Cat Vision development today is in EXACTLY the same state as software development was in when Scrum evolved back in the day. That industry changed its approach, and I think we can possibly all agree, is doing rather well now as a result.

So time to try some Scrum with your Category Vision in 2019, right?

And when you've done that, howsabout tying on some really neat whistles and bells to help take your truly SCRUMptious omnichannel Cat Vision to those lovely retailers just in time for the big brand plan reveal?

LIGHTBULB EXPLODES DUE TO UNCONTROLLABLE GOOD VIBE SURGE!!!

Question answered; problem solved; thank you; good night.

PS did I mention that at Daedal at Cat VisIon experts are certified Professional Scrum Masters? Oh there we go, I just did.

See you at your gaff with a whole load of post it notes just as soon as you're ready.