Speaker 1: I'm Tiffany Garnaccia. I'm the CEO of KiteHealthyR. We're a technology, media, and advertising-focused PR agency. We have an office in New York City, but now I can say we are not only work from home, we work from anywhere. And that's a shift that many of you have also undergone really within the past three months. In the wake of COVID-19, our workforce has changed. The way we work has changed in terms of where we are. And that means that there's a greater need for collaboration while keeping our teams focused on results. So today we're going to cover how to leverage agile PR to do exactly that, to improve collaboration of your teams and increase results overall. And there's a tool that we use here at KiteHealthyR behind the scenes. It's something that we think is our secret sauce in achieving some of the great results that we get for clients every day. Those headline placements, those breakthrough moments, well, there's a way behind the scenes that we're doing that work. And we're also able to pivot very, very quickly and work within a changing media cycle. So let's talk about what we're going to cover today. First, we're going to talk about agile overall. Then we're going to talk about getting it done. How do we implement an agile process within a PR agency environment? This is also relevant for any of you who have tuned in, who are at the head of the table when it comes to your communications teams, broader teams, marketing cons. You want to think about agile and how it can apply to your existing team or to your service business. This information is for you. Then we'll give some benefits and examples of how we put things into practice and how it's working for us. So starting at the top, let's talk about how we're defining agile, what it means to us at Kite Hill PR, and some key things overall. So when it comes to agile, for those of you who are not familiar, it is a practice. When you think about agile development, you think about agile, most people think about how it's used by the technology industry. It could be the process that was used by the team of engineers that designed maybe many of the apps that are on your smartphone and your devices that you might use every single day. Something that's very, very common in the technology world. But the use of agile, specifically in terms of agile development and some of those processes and workflow, is less common in the service business and certainly not common in the PR industry. So what we did when we thought about how we could work together as a team, we actually lifted some of those principles from the tech world and applied them to the PR industry for the first time in a very exciting way. So when we think about agile overall and why we did that and some of the background and some of the movements that we saw in the tech industry, what was exciting because we know that agile is focused on short work phases. So they're thinking about what's the product I want to develop, what's the cycle that I need to develop it in, what's the output that I want to get to. So that also means that within that cycle there's a frequent assessment of the work that's being done and what's really important here is that you can constantly adapt. Agility, it's about change, it's about adaptation. That means teams can move quickly, easily, and in real time. So we love some of the things that really help us benefit from using agile. When you think about some of the principles, one key thing as we sat back and we thought about that workflow is that we can really look at the workflow overall and a key takeaway for us as we started to think about using agile for the PR industry, well that means we can focus on development being iterative and there's that incremental delivery rather than the linear workflow. So if you think about the image that we have here of the typical waterfall planning image and workflow that is probably familiar to a lot of you as you think about how you plan your PR campaigns. You think about what you need to do up front, you put together a 90-day timeline and plan of activities, you start to execute against that, get to that bigger phase, get to the end of the campaign as you move through day by day, week by week, month by month towards those bigger activities. But there's a problem with that now, maybe there's always been a problem with some of those workflows, is that we can't predict some of the future outcomes within a changing media environment. We've actually got to be faster, we've got to think about how can we be iterative, how can we change the work that we're doing while we're doing that work because we know that we're working in this fast-paced media news cycle that really there's so many changes that are cropping up even if you look at some of the things we've experienced over the past three months. We think about disruption in many ways, disruption from COVID-19, from social changes and movements that we've seen and that also means that if we're going to be effective communicators, if we're going to work together as teams in a more efficient way, think about the other image that we have, it's being more agile, it's looking at how do we run through a cycle, how do we plan, execute, evaluate and then continue to think about the outcomes that are changing on a regular basis. Let's break that down a little bit more because if you think about, yes, we all understand the benefits of agile from a top-level perspective. If you really start to think about, I'd love to be more collaborative, I'd love to generate more results but what you might be second guessing as you tuned in today, as you thought about it, you might be saying, you know, hey, Kite Hill, that sounds great but how can you really break that down for PR because we're in a business of our media. So unlike the tech industry where you can plan for the launch of an app and you know some of the outcomes, some of the realities of the business we're in means that there's some unknowns that we have to factor it into our existing planning but that means we have to be even more agile when we think about the existing plans. So Kite Hill PR sprint model, what we've done is we really, we took that inspiration as I noted at the top from the tech industry, we looked at the agile workflow and we redesigned how we plan and execute against PR campaigns behind the scenes. This allows us to really be quick and nimble and begin to translate that into real results for our clients and impact that we see overall. A key part of how we're using this planning cycle is something that's called the PR sprint. That's something that's accomplished within a two-week time frame that our teams are going through an existing planning of existing campaigns, reviewing the information they have, they then roll that into the sprint as we evaluate and then go through a review and retrospective. Those are three steps that I just outlined. I'm going to break down each one so you can see how we get it done. We think about that first phase, that first part, what you can think of it is as I'm, if you're at home, you're taking notes, you want to try and plan this for your teams tomorrow. Let me break it down for you not only in different phases, but if you were to plan it day by day, what should you do? How can you get it done? Let's say day one of your sprint, you're going to use more principles of agile for your team. They've bought in, they're excited. What's the next step? How do we get it done? The first part, of course, is planning. To put the sprint model into practice, think of this as day one, you want to get your team really on the same page with some of the existing plans. What we like to do is think not only about long-term PR goals, but to think even more in the mindset of our clients and put ourselves in our client's shoes. We take a step back and we think about our clients' VHAGs. That's that big, hairy, audacious goals. What are they looking to achieve? That might be for your client, more app downloads. That could be the announcement around a new product. We're going to look at what is that big goal for them. What drives their business forward? How are you going to help them with that? Then break that down into something that can be achieved within a two-week time frame. You're giving your team the control of the big things that they want to accomplish. You're also, as a leader, looking at the timeline in which that needs to be executed in. Then you're breaking that down into smaller, achievable tasks. What's also important within this model, really within team management overall, is thinking about accountability and responsibility. Really helping your team prioritize who's the owner, how are they going to work through that, and giving someone the responsibility of driving things forward. In the past, we created a physical springboard in our office. The way we do that in a virtual environment is through monday.com. There's a lot of great tools and solutions out there that you can use to be able to take those tasks and pull them together. We have some examples as to what that starts to look like. That could be where some of the goals you have. How are you breaking it down? Here are a couple of examples here. You could almost think of these as post-its or virtual line items on monday.com. Some of the things that your team might be working against and really what you want to achieve. That could be a byline article. Not only a byline, but publishing that in a timely way. That could be execution of what we're calling now the help message within the existing campaigns we're seeing off the back of the pandemic. Everyone is really starting to refocus their campaign. They're thinking about how can I help my audiences? What can I offer to them? How am I doing that in an authentic way? It could be execution on social good campaigns, execution on some of the broader key areas that your client needs to break through, whether it's a local or vertical perspective. Another thing could be taking data and doing more data-driven storytelling. Really breaking this down into not only those big goals, but what's achievable and what's achievable in a small time frame. Then you want to roll that into the sprint itself. Now here's where the magic is. Let me take you a little bit behind the scenes as to how it's generally done. If you're going back to that plan of execution for your team on day one, you got everyone together, you did your planning, you broke down your tasks, you have the goals, you're on board, you're ready to go. Well, how do we start to sprint through that activity? How do we run our teams in a way that's going to focus on collaboration and results? Well, the way we do it here, we look at what we need to achieve. It's generally our home sprint is a two-week time frame. The existing true sprint, it's usually days two through nine when we're taking everyone through the process. We're starting to move those activities overarching from the workflow from what's in progress, what's going to be achieved, and then what's the result and what's done. That really allows our team to have a couple of different phases as they go through the sprint. What we do is we do have a daily, we call it a stand-up, a daily Zoom meeting that everyone goes through the tasks that they have in their plan, the status of their tasks, and if it's done, we'll talk about the results. We'll take time to celebrate some of the results. It's not only about moving through those activities, but one thing that I'd love for everyone who's thinking about using this model to put in practice is it's really not just about standing up, so to speak, and talking about the list of to-dos and activities that you have. That's actually the opposite of what we want to accomplish. It's about the goal that you're trying to push forward and helping your team really understand how they can make progress against that specific goal and task. A key thing as a leader and as the rest of the team should be thinking about is really, is there a roadblock? Is there a challenge? If there is, how can we remove it? If we can't remove it, how can we create a new tactic, a new strategy that replaces the initial tactic but allows us to accomplish the same outcome that our client is looking for? So that's also a little bit of where the magic is because you're keeping the team, everyone is in the same mindset of achieving these big client goals. Everyone is exposed to really the day-to-day insights of some of the work of their team members, but they're also hearing what a team member might have as a challenge or a roadblock, and everyone is working together and thinking about, okay, how can I help my team member solve for that? Because we all want to get to those end big goals. We all know within a two-week time frame, we have this big exciting goal that we want to get to for a client, and we're going to get there together. We're going to collaborate. We're going to think of new ideas. We're going to brainstorm. We're going to be able to shift and pivot to get to that end result that we need for a client as we think about what needs to change along the way. So that is definitely something that we'd love to see everyone focus on. So at the end, after we've gone through the existing sprint, well, it's also really important as we take a moment to pause, we think about if we've gone through the examples of day one, day two through nine, and now on day 10, and it really depends on your business and what you're looking to accomplish. We've adjusted this. We've done two-week sprints. We've done three-week sprints. We've also, for very short projects that are moving very, very quickly, we've done a week and a half. So as a leader and as someone who is a communications expert, you really have to determine what is achievable for your team because you want to set them up for success, and really what the timeline should look like for you, for your business. So at the end of the existing sprint, you want to have a chance to pause, have your team present the work to the broader team and key members in the business. You also want to make sure that you're taking the time to review what went well and what could be improved, and you want to plan for future sprints, and that enables your team to understand that it's an ongoing cycle. It's not just a one-off burst of activity. You want to have that burst of activity, that push around a product launch, around a new initiative for a client. It's also great if you're thinking about, if you're in an agency environment, you're first kicking off a client campaign, or if you're like Kite Hill PR, we also do events for clients and for ourselves. So as we're planning things like communications week, we're going through sprints in that planning cycle. So you want to have that time to review, have both a review and retrospective to evaluate, to present, to discuss improvements, and to plan for the future. So in summary, we think about really putting things into practice. We're going through two-week period sprints. We're focused on achievable goals. We're also, as we're going through the sprint itself, we're identifying roadblocks. Then we're looking at how do we pivot strategies and evaluate campaigns overall as we plan for success in the future. Now that you've had more insight as to Agile, how it can be used for the PR industry, and an example of the way that we work here at Kite Hill PR, you might be thinking, well if you've been using that at Kite Hill, if you've been using it for the past two years behind the scenes, how is it benefiting the business? Is there any data or results that you can share that you've really seen it be put into practice in a way that is impactful? Of course, the answer is yes. We did pull our existing team. This is internal data. We looked at some of the key things that we really wanted to know from our key team members and across the board. How is this working for you as we go through this planning of activity, the review, and there's a couple of key things that emerged for us that were clear-cut wins. One is that as everyone is moving through this kind of workflow, they did feel like 92% teamwork and collaboration, they felt like it was increased. So having more transparency, having an opportunity to communicate what we're working on, some of the goals, going through that breakdown and getting everyone to rally around the same goals together, that certainly improves collaboration. The team also felt that going through this model and having this mindset allowed them to pivot even more quickly. So that's crucial for us as we think about, we know that the media and news stories and headlines in a post-COVID-19 world are moving even faster than before. There's the need to truly be agile and having this workflow and setting up campaigns in this way did enable our team to be able to think about that pivot. If something is not working, it's not a matter of continuing to push forward. Usually that means that you need to stop, evaluate, and replace that with something that will still achieve that bigger goal. And what we also, last but not least, what we love to see is that it's also encouraging the team to have even more new ideas and brainstorming that they're seeing come off the back of that meeting. And that is something that we do here as we're going through a sprint, as you're moving through that cycle, as you're in the execution mode, as you're in those days two through nine, we're really encouraging our team if they are working on something and they've hit a roadblock and they flag that hand up, I had a roadblock, they're doing impromptu or quick brainstorms after that daily stand up to come up with new ideas. So it's all happening in real time. We also, as I mentioned, use the sprint model in many different ways. When we think about those results that we're seeing for our team, so there's a lot of internal benefits that I just covered, but that also means that it's resulting in external benefits for clients. When your team is working more efficiently, when your team is collaborating, when you're getting more ideas, when you're seeing people really focused on results, that means that those results are going to be impactful for your clients or for your business if you're in-house, if you're thinking about using this for your existing internal team. So one client, one quick example that we have, talking about sprinting, I'm sprinting through some of this key information. So one quick example that we have today is a company called Unicast, and in case you're unfamiliar, Unicast is a location data provider. They're someone that came to us to work with KiteHealth PR at the start of COVID-19, and that was something, even as in the midst of really some of the realities unfolding back in March, we looked at how can we start to elevate the story, not only of Unicast, but they had a specific social distancing scoreboard, which really had a lot of great data. You can go to Unicast's website if you do want to check it out, that we knew would be of interest to the media, so we took a more earned media-centric approach to announcing the dashboard. We did some quick planning in day one, went right in after signing the contract on day one, did the planning essentially overnight. The team moved so quickly because this data and this dashboard was so relevant to what was happening in the news cycle, went right into that day two through nine sprint and focused on how are we going to push out the initial announcement, drive interest around local news outlets, but also national news outlets and vertical press, and really looked at the end result of coverage and media impact and how that drove back to the business goal that Unicast wanted to achieve, and the results really speak for themselves when you look at not only the impact that we saw from an earned media perspective, 300 pieces of coverage, over 100 broadcast clips, but about a thousand new business leads were brought in for Unicast off the back of the work that was accomplished during the campaign that we had. We're still working with them on an ongoing basis, and you might be wondering, well, the first sprint that you worked with them on was all about that initial announcement and that kickoff, and that's what the team really focused on for that result. What does the next sprint look like? Well, we've done a quick pivot to look at how we're readjusting the data. That's a part of it, but also looking at thought leadership and breaking down the bigger goal of thought leadership into tactical areas for them as we think about planning for the future. So that was a quick overview, not only from the top of Agile, why we think it's exciting for the PR industry, we took you behind the scenes, we talked about how we put it into practice day one through day 10, and gave a great client example. We did that all in a pretty quick sprint timeline, so hopefully you found that useful information that you can put into practice, but I would love to talk to you if you want to dig in even further, if you want to know how this can be put into practice for your team, or how you can work with an Agile PR agency like KiteHealth PR, please drop me a line. I'm at tiffany.kitehealthpr.com. Again, thanks so much.