If you have ever implemented or developed a business application, the chances are excellent that you’ve heard of Scaled Agile and SAFe® - the world’s most trusted system for business agility.
Scaled Agile is a highly successful organisation; SAFe has been adopted by more than 20,000 enterprises across the globe, and its 1,000,000+ SAFe practitioners are supported by over 500 world-class transformation and platform companies.
However, there’s always a ‘but’.
A matter of time and timing
While Scaled Agile has a full-stack in-house marketing department, Hannah Howard Bink, Senior Director, Digital Marketing & Operations for Scaled Agile, says there are never enough hours in the day to do everything they’d like.
“We have a rather small marketing department for a company of our size and a brand that’s present in 43 countries. Our resources are split across five different marketing teams, so it's all too easy to get pulled quite thin very quickly. We had little to no capacity to tailor what we did – so we had to take a one-size-fits-all approach with some surface-level localisation. Certainly, nothing that speaks to the unique market dynamics of each country. The challenge of working with different time zones shouldn’t be understated either – it adds a whole new layer of complexity where a simple question could take an entire week to answer.”
Accepting there wasn’t enough budget to build a truly global field marketing organisation servicing all the countries it worked with, Scaled Agile knew an agency strategy was the only way to reach its localisation goal.
Enter One Little Seed
“One Little Seed did a wonderful job of taking our input and asking intelligent, well-considered follow-up questions for clarity.”
Luckily, One Little Seed flashed brightly on the radar of Scaled Agile Asia Pacific – and became its first external marketing partner outside of the US. The agency’s primary mission (besides delivering great outcomes) was to work closely with Scaled Agile’s global team to determine what information, access, and processes were needed to onboard other agencies successfully.
“One Little Seed spent the extra time to accommodate us,” says Hannah, “and they quickly mastered the art of asking holistic questions to cut back-and-forth communication down. They adapted well to a convoluted internal navigation structure with five different teams trying to figure out who exactly owns what and has permission to give permissions. As an organisation, we had to formally articulate and agree on our brand guidelines and overall strategies to communicate clearly and actionably to an international agency. As we’d never needed to get that granular, it was a learning curve for everyone.
“One Little Seed did a wonderful job of taking our input and asking intelligent, well-considered follow-up questions for clarity. They turned out to be such a benefit to our company because we spoke the same language. So, we could easily vet the processes and brand guidelines without the added complexity of translation - and then lean on them to help us onboard new agencies in other countries. As they could bridge the time zone gap and had contributed so much to the onboarding process, they have been able to act as a trusted extension of our headquarters.”
The Scaled Agile and One Little Seed learnings have been used to on-ramp agencies in Europe, China, and Japan.
“The experience has been outstanding, and the team’s high quality, attention to detail, agility and level of care has made One Little Seed a true extension of our high-performing team at Scaled Agile in APAC."
Eventful engagement
As well as delivering the first case studies produced outside its marketing department, One Little Seed helped Scaled Agile design and run three major events in Sydney, Singapore and Bangalore. Each had different target markets, time zones, personalities, and scopes.
“Ordinarily,” says Hannah, “we would have run them all out of headquarters, but we just didn't have time. Thank goodness One Little Seed had the flexibility to take on more work despite the project scope growing as we went. The event approaches were so individual, as were the local working styles – I don’t know that we could have executed them so well without One Little Seed.”
Hannah flew to Australia before the Sydney event. She took a full day out of her agenda to spend in a meeting room with One Little Seed Senior Marketing Manager Vivienne (Viv) Winborne, a whiteboard, and an agenda to develop a list of actionable strategies. And after their first face-to-face meeting, Hannah was seriously impressed.
“Viv demonstrated that she had already taken the time to learn our business, to understand the nuances of how we think about nurture strategies versus audience acquisition. So, I didn't have to slow down to explain those or any other concepts or acronyms. Viv had already asked those questions beforehand, meaning we could use that precious time together to get straight to work.”
Outstanding experience, outstanding people
“I don't think I've ever worked with an agency that is so able to adjust on the fly to the rapidly changing needs of a business.”
“One Little Seed has been in lockstep with Scaled Agile for over two years and has enabled the more-than-doubling of SAFe adoption in the region during that time,” says Rob Howard, VP Asia Pacific for Scaled Agile.
“The experience has been outstanding, and the team’s high quality, attention to detail, agility and level of care has made One Little Seed a true extension of our high-performing team at Scaled Agile in APAC.”
One Little Seed is renowned for the quality of its people, and Viv is no exception. Such is her dedication and drive that she’s currently working her way through Leading SAFe Certification.
“Viv has been an ideal marketing partner both from her willingness to adjust and float scope,” says Hannah. “I don't think I've ever worked with an agency that is so able to adjust on the fly to the rapidly changing needs of a business. Viv is a self-starter – I’ve never worried about if she can find the tools and resources she needs or articulate what she needs to deliver on the mission she's been given. And she communicates at a level that reflects her experience in the market and working with clients of all shapes and sizes. She understands proactively and innately what we need.”
“What I have found with Viv is back to the word “trust” in a partner. I can trust her to understand what I'm trying to achieve and work with me to uncover the solutions to get there.”
Hannah Bink
Senior Director, Digital Marketing & Operations
Rob Howard
VP Asia Pacific
