Are Agile and Scrum Limited to Technology Projects or Technology Industries?
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum's built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage.
Agile and Scrum were once the sole domain of software development. However, the benefits and results have not gone unnoticed by others. Practices are being adopted by additional departments and industries. Examples follow.
- The State of Scrum Report(1) revealed that 21% of Scrum projects are run by departments outside of Technology such as Marketing, Finance, and Sales.
- An article published in The New York Times(2) noted agile's use in diverse industries—with examples ranging from a museum in Sydney, Australia, to an automobile dealership in Maine.
- A business brief(3) illustrated how varied businesses—including John Deere, NPR, and Mission Bell Winery—employed agile.
In summary, agile and Scrum are used broadly. For more information on agile/Scrum, pick up a copy of the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. For more information on the publication, and to connect:
- Digital press kit https://AgileScrumGuide.com
- Trailer https://vimeo.com/178858753
- Video channel https://vimeo.com/channels/AgileScrumGuide
- Amazon https://amzn.to/2fVA3lW
- Twitter https://twitter.com/AgileScrumGuide
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AgileScrumGuide/
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/AgileScrumGuide/
- Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/AgileScrumGuide/
References:
(1) Scrum Alliance (2017). The State of Scrum Report. Westminster, CO: Scrum Alliance, Inc.
(2) Hardy, Q. (2016, November 25). "The New Workplace is Agile, and Nonstop. Can You Keep Up?" The New York Times, page B1.
(3) Rigby, D. K., Berez, S., Caimi, G., and Noble, A. (2016). Bain Brief: Agile Innovation. Boston, MA: Bain & Company.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Research by Scott M. Graffius Referenced in the 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'
Select here to download a PDF of this article.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) references Scott M. Graffius' research on the half-life of social media. Highlights follow.
Thanks to the authors of the PNAS journal article:
- Philipp J. Schneider - College of Management of Technology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; and
- Marian-Andrei Rizoiu - Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo NSW 2007, Australia.
Citation for PNAS journal article:
Schneider, Philipp J., & Rizoiu, Marian-Andrei (2023, August 22). The Effectiveness of Moderating Harmful Online Content. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120 (34): e2307360120. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2307360120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307360120.
Citation for Graffius’ research:
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, January 1). The Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2023. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-2023.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19783.98722. Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
About the PNAS
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), is an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans the biological, physical, and social sciences. The journal is global in scope and submission is open to researchers worldwide.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi-award-winning author, and international keynote speaker. He is the Founder of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. He has generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology (including AI) leadership at 87 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/pnas-blog
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Pinterest Inc. References Scott M. Graffius’ Research
Pinterest Inc. References Graffius’ Research!
When content is published on social media platforms, relevance and engagement have a limited lifespan. Most posts receive half of their total engagement (such as likes, shares, and comments) relatively soon, with the remainder spread out over a comparatively longer period. Said differently, plotting engagement against time typically reveals a distribution where the peak engagement occurs early, with a long tail of diminishing interaction, resembling a positively skewed unimodal distribution.
Given the above, an advantageous, objective metric for social media posts is half-life. It’s the time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement. Data can help inform strategic and tactical decisions, such as the frequency and scheduling of posts.
Reports by others on the longevity of social media are often outdated or based on the experience of one person, one organization, or one limited set of data. With any of those common limitations, findings are at risk of being non-representative, inaccurate, or unreliable.
It’s vital to have a large dataset from multiple sources. In addition to generating results that are more likely to be appropriately representative, accurate, and reliable, this approach provides a clearer picture and helps identify trends.
In 2018, Scott M. Graffius first published data on the average lifespan (half-life) of posts on Snapchat, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and blogs based on a large dataset of multiple, diverse sources. Algorithms and other factors on platforms change over time. For that reason, Graffius periodically updates his analysis.
A visual from the current (2024) edition of his ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ is shown below and the details are here.
Scientists, researchers, journalists, academics, YouTubers, podcasters, digital marketing experts, businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and others around the world have featured and used Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ research, indicating a broad spectrum of influence and application. Examples are listed in the Coverage of Graffius' Research section of the article.
Pinterest Inc. is now also on the list! It referenced Graffius’ research in an article on the Pinterest Inc. Business Blog.
Details follow.
On 26 September 2024, Pinterest Inc. requested permission to use Graffius' research in an article on the Pinterest Inc. Business Blog. Graffius agreed.
Email 1 of 3 is shown below.
Here's email 2 of 3.
And here's email 3 of 3.
On 2 October 2024, Pinterest Inc. published ‘Unlock the Full Potential of Pinterest with Marketing Mix Modeling’ on their Pinterest Business Blog at https://business.pinterest.com/blog/unlock-potential-pinterest-marketing-mix-modelling/. The top of the article is shown in the visual below.
As shown below, the article includes: ‘Content on Pinterest lasts, on average, over 100 times longer than on other platforms.³‘
That ‘³’ footnote is a reference to Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ research.
The Footnotes section is located at the end of the article. Selecting the "+" symbol reveals the footnotes content.
Footnote 3 references Graffius' work: "Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-24.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21043.60965."
Pinterest's business blog article is available here and Graffius' research is here.
About Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual search and discovery platform where people find inspiration, curate ideas, and shop products—all in a positive place online. Headquartered in San Francisco, Pinterest launched in 2010 and has over half a billion monthly active users worldwide.
Coverage of Graffius' Research
Graffius' ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ has captured the attention of a diverse global audience of businesses, digital marketing experts, scientists, journalists, podcasters, YouTubers, government agencies, and others. Here are select examples:
- Bensley, Robert J., & Brookins-Fisher, Jodi (2023, December 14). Community and Public Health Education Methods: A Practical Guide—Fifth Edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. [The authors cover Graffius’ work in Chapter 10 (Using Social Media) and list Graffius’ work as reference number 84 on page 256. A link to the publication at Google Books is here: https://bit.ly/cphem-5.]
- Berkessel, Juergen (2021, October 27). How Evergreen Posting on Social Media for Podcasters Creates Growth. Season 1, Episode 9 of the Podcasting Strategy Show. Available at: https://polymash.com/evergreen-posting. [The podcast references Graffius’ research. Show notes include Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual as well as a hyperlink to Graffius’ full report.]
- Buffer (2024, February 7). 9 Ways to Grow Your Following on X/Twitter. Available at: https://buffer.com/resources/get-more-followers-on-twitter-x/. [It has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Burton, Taylor (2022, November 2). Social Media Marketing: Leveraging LinkedIn. Pennsylvania Bar Institute. Available at: https://go.pbi.org/blog/social-media-marketing-leveraging-linkedin. [In the article, “LinkedIn posts are shown to have a longer lifespan” is hyperlinked to Graffius’ research.]
- Center for Direct Marketing (2024, March 25). Best Marketing Podcasts, Lifespan of Social Media and Blog Posts. Available at: https://dmcenter.com/march-2024/. [The article references, and has a link to, Graffius’ research.]
- Center for Direct Marketing (2022, September 27). What Is the Average Lifespan of a Blog or Social Media Post? Available at: https://dmcenter.com/lifespan-of-a-post. [The article includes data from Graffius and a hyperlink to his research.]
- Chaturvedi, Saurabh (2024, September 27). How Often to Post on Social Media. Available at: https://recurpost.com/blog/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/.
- Chowdhary, Tanish (2023, March 21). 13 Best Twitter Thread Tools to Go Viral in 2023. Geekflare. Available at: https://geekflare.com/best-twitter-thread-tools. [The article includes Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants (CEWEP) (2023, June 15). The Power of Social Media and How to Use It. 10th CEWEP Waste-to-Energy Congress, 14th - 16th June 2023, Berlin. Available at: https://www.cewep.eu/congress2023presentations/ and https://www.cewep.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/4.1-Monika-Michalska.pdf. [CEWEP Congress presentation slide 9 featured Graffius’ visual, representing a summary of his research findings.]
- Degraux, Xavier (2022, November 5). Quelle est la Durée d’un Post sur Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.xavierdegraux.be/quelle-est-la-duree-dun-post-sur-twitter-instagram-linkedin. [In his article, Xavier Degraux — a social networks and content marketing consultant based in Belgium — discussed Graffius' work and provided a hyperlink to the research. Here's the title in English: How Long is a Post on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn.]
- Encompass Online Marketing (2023, March 15). How Often Should You Publish New Content? Available at: https://encompassonline.ca/blog/how-often-should-you-publish-new-content. [Among other points, the article references the lifespan of tweets and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Fallah, Georges (2023, December 18). The Best Times to Post on Social Media. Available at: https://www.vbout.com/blog/the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media. [The article has hyperlinks to Graffius’ research.]
- Gebauer, Susanna (2022, October 25). Twitter Scheduling: How to Schedule Tweets for More Impact. Available at: https://susannagebauer.com/blog/twitter-scheduling/. [The article includes a link to Graffius' research.]
- Geyser, Werner (2023, September 20). 34 Mind-blowing Pinterest Stats for 2023. Influencer Marketing Hub. Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/pinterest-stats. [The article references the durations of “three months” and provides a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- GoDaddy (2023, February 20). How to Do Social Media: A Guide for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs. Available at: https://www.godaddy.com/resources/skills/how-to-do-social-media. [In discussing the lifespan of tweets, the article provides a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Gotch, Nathan (2023, December 4). How to Start an SEO Business (2024 Update). Available at: https://www.gotchseo.com/start-seo-company/. [The article includes Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Hawes, C. W. (2023, January 24). Social Media Half-Life. Available at: https://www.cwhawes.com/social-media-half-life. [The article identifies Graffius’ research and has a hyperlink to it.]
- John, Vanessa (2024, September 5). Website vs. Social Media - Do You Still Need a Site in 2024? Madgicx. Available at: https://madgicx.com/blog/website-and-social-media.
- Karr, Douglas (2024, February 18). The Half-Life of Social Media Posts in 2024: Navigating Lifespan for Strategic Impact. Available at: https://martech.zone/half-life-of-a-social-media-post/.
- Lin, Yunduan, & Wang, Mengxin, & Zhang, Heng, & Zhang, Renyu, & Shen, Zuo-Jun Max (2021, June 9; revised 2023, June 28). Content Promotion for Online Content Platforms with the Diffusion Effect. SSRN. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3863104 and https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3863104. [The scientific paper mentions Graffius’ work, and it delineates his research in the References section.]
- McErlain-Naylor, Stuart (2022, March 24). Social Media for Academia - All You Need to Know [Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka88MxZbU8o. [At timestamp 13:59 in the video, Dr. Stuart McErlain-Naylor displays a visual which summarizes the 2022 edition of Graffius’ research.]
- MeetEdgar (2023, April 2). Everything You Need to Know About Repeating Social Media Content. Available at: https://meetedgar.com/blog/repeating-social-media-content. [This article from social media management tool company MeetEdgar discusses the lifespan of posts and it has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Memom, Alafiya (2023, June 14). Master the Art of Using Pinterest for Blogging in 2023. ContentStudio. Available at: https://blog.contentstudio.io/pinterest-for-blogging. [The article rounds up the half-life of Pinterest pins as “4 months” and it includes a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Metricool (2023, October 31). YouTube Marketing in 2023. Available at: https://metricool.com/youtube-marketing. [The article includes “According to Scott Graffius’s data ...” and a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Midvalley Coach / Evercoach (2023, March 10). Proven Strategies To Enroll Coaching Clients [A Detailed Guide]. Available at: https://www.evercoach.com/coaching-guides/enroll-coaching-clients/. [Where the article addresses the life span of social media, “24 minutes (Twitter) to 24 hours (LinkedIn)” links to Graffius’ research.]
- Patel, Neil (2023, May 23). 18 Powerful Twitter Marketing Tips [That Actually Work]. Neil Patel. Available at: https://neilpatel.com/blog/twitter-marketing-tips. [In the article, “The average lifespan of one tweet” has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Pitzalis, Josh (2022, November 21). Finding Social Media Calendar Ideas for Twitter. Chirr App. Available at: https://getchirrapp.com/how-to/find. [The article references the half-life of a tweet and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Pugalia, Akash, & Lalani, Farah (2023, September 29). Digital Safety: How a Multi-Faceted Approach Can Help Tackle Real-World Harm. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/09/digital-safety-multi-faceted-approach-tackle-real-world-harm. [The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) included data by Graffius on the half-life of social media. The World Economic Forum covered that PNAS study in their article.]
- Rainey, Clint (2023, August 15). Social Media’s Toxic Impact Can Last Up to 8 Days. This Behavioral Scientist’s Solution Might Surprise You. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90939081/social-media-toxic-impact-content-moderation-solution-behavior-science. [The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) included Graffius’ research data on the half-life of social media. Fast Company covered that PNAS publication — and summarized Graffius’ data from it — in their article.]
- Rynek Pro (2023, June 26). Długość Życia Postów (Half-Life) w Mediach Społecznościowych w 2023 Roku. Available at: https://rynek.pro/half-life-dlugosc-zycia-postow/#pll_switcher. [Rynek Pro, a Poland-based advertising agency, featured Graffius’ research in their article. Here’s the title in English: Life Expectancy of Posts (Half-Life) in Social Media in 2023.]
- Sallaway Paul (2024, June 1). Using Social Media The Right Way! Available at: https://mivision.com.au/2024/06/using-social-media-the-right-way/.
- Schaffer, Neal (2024, September 17). Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: A Practical Guide to Building Your Brand and Driving Results. Irvine, California. PDCA Social.
- Schneider, Philipp J., & Rizoiu, Marian-Andrei (2023, August 22). The Effectiveness of Moderating Harmful Online Content. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120 (34): e2307360120. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2307360120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2307360120. [The scientific paper references Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” research and uses his data.]
- Small Business Development Center (2024, September 30). 10 Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Small Business [Video]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WelVAmXuxPU&t=1181s.
- Social Selling CRM (2024). Demi-vie de Vos Publications: Stratégies d’Optimisation 2024.’ (In English: Half-life of Your Publications: 2024 Optimization Strategies). Available at: https://www.socialsellingcrm.com/demi-vie-de-vos-publications-strategies-doptimisation-2024/.
- Statler, Jacob (2024, September 12). How to Schedule Social Media Posts: Best Tools and Tips. Post Planner. Available at: https://www.postplanner.com/blog/how-to-schedule-social-media-posts/. ["The lifespan of a social media post" — in green text, located towards the end of the article — links to Graffius’ research.]
- Strozyk, Kaylee (2023, November 3). 11 Tips on How to Use Pinterest for Real Estate. Fit Small Business. Available at: https://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-real-estate-agents. [The article references that the half-life of Pinterest pins is “about 3.75 months.” Selecting the respective hyperlink brings up Graffius’ research.]
- Thailand TV News (2022, August 16). Half-Life of Each Social Media Post. Available at: https://thailandtv.news/half-life-of-each-social-media-post-thumbsup. [The article incorporates data from Graffius’ work, and it has a hyperlink to his research.]
- The Tech Reps (2023, January 23). SEO or Social Media Marketing, Which is Better for Sales? [video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmQdHDXCrw. [The Tech Reps used Graffius’ “Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts” visual as the background image in their video.]
- Two Rivers Marketing (2020, December 9). 8 Social Media Channels and Tactics to Consider Adding to Your Marketing Mix. Available at: https://www.tworiversmarketing.com/blog/8-social-media-channels-and-tactics-to-consider-adding-to-your-marketing-mix. [The article references the lifespan of posts and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- Walters, Christy (2023, May 4). How To Curate Content for LinkedIn: Handpick Your Next Post. CopyPress. Available at: https://www.copypress.com/kb/social-media-promotion/curate-content-for-linkedin. [The article discusses the lifespan of a LinkedIn post and has a hyperlink to Graffius’ research.]
- What What SEO (2024, September 5). 5 bonnes raisons de créer un compte Pinterest si tu es entrepreneuse. (In English: 5 good reasons to create a Pinterest account if you are an entrepreneur.) Available at: https://whatwhatseo.fr/creer-compte-pinterest-entreprise-avantages/. [The article incorporates Graffius’ research; to see the details, select 'Sources' located towards the end of the article.]
And many more.
References
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 1). Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts: Update for 2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/social-24.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21043.60965.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, September 30). Supplement to Graffius' 'Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts' Research: Typical Engagement Distribution Pattern for Social Media Posts. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/distribution-pattern-for-social-media-posts.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15820.22402.
- Pinterest Inc. (2024, October 2). Unlock The Full Potential of Pinterest with Marketing Mix Modelling. The Pinterest Inc. Business Blog. Available at: https://business.pinterest.com/blog/unlock-potential-pinterest-marketing-mix-modelling/ and other locations. [Navigate to the Footnotes section at the end of the article, and then select the corresponding "+" symbol to see the footnotes which includes Graffius' work.]
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
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How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 10). Pinterest Inc. References Scott M. Graffius’ Research. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/pinterest_inc_business_blog_features_graffius.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31296.55041.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Pinterest Inc., attributed to Pinterest and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Pinterest name, mark, and content are the property of Pinterest. Graffius’ ‘Lifespan (Half-Life) of Social Media Posts’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius.
Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/pinterest_biz
'Cat Herders': Retelling the Massive Success Story
Introduction
The 'Cat Herders' commercial is a remarkable piece of advertising history. But, more importantly, it's a case study in how creative work can transform a company's fortunes.
Video of the commercial is embedded in this article.
Here's the Story
In 2000, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) endeavored to change the company’s image to help advance growth and improve the morale of its employees. It hired the Fallon agency to create a campaign ... and the 'Cat Herders' commercial was born.
Alluding to the management-speak idiom, 'It's like herding cats'—referring to the impossibility of controlling the uncontrollable—it advances an analogy between herding cats and the solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems.
The commercial showed cowboys (most were real, non-actors) herding thousands of cats across the Montana prairie, and it closed with the message, "We bring together information, ideas, and technologies and make them go where you want."
'Cat Herders' was shown on January 30, 2000, at the Super Bowl XXXIV and was cited by then-President Bill Clinton as his favorite commercial. 'Cat Herders' won the First Boards Award, a Cannes Silver Lion, a bronze Clio, Advertising Age’s Best Visual Effects Award, and a silver EFFIE Award. It also received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Commercial.
'Cat Herders' was a massive success. In addition to awards and accolades, EDS enjoyed an improvement in employee morale and corporate image, along with new business contracts and acquisitions. In 2000, EDS reported fourth-quarter earnings of $5.2 billion (equivalent to about $9.2 billion today), an increase in earnings and a new quarterly record high for the company.
'Cat Herders'—inclusive of its message, "We bring together information, ideas, and technologies and make them go where you want"—resonated with EDS, its employees, its existing clients, new (soon-to-be) clients, those otherwise working in the technology industry, and many others. One way to think about the successful commercial and its message is that there are solutions to seemingly impossible problems.
Credits for EDS' 'Cat Herders' (2000) Commercial
- Director: John O'Hagan
- Agency: Fallon
- Agency Producer: Judy Brink
- Agency Producer: Bob Wendt
- Agency Producer: Marty Wetherall
- Creative Director: David Lubars
- Production Company: Hungry Man
- Producer: JD Davison
- Assistant Director: Lee Blaine
- Cinematographer: Olivier Cocaul
- Production Designer: Leslie McDonald
- Stylist: Colleen Atwood
- Editor: Gordon Carey
Sources for This Story
This article was based on information from the Television Academy - Emmy Awards, IMDb, The Wall Street Journal, HP, and the author. Note: EDS is currently part of HP.
Watch the 'Cat Herders' Video
Re-sharing the “Cat Herders” success story
Video: #EDS | #Tech #Marketing #Advertising #Ideas #HP #Fallon #Cats #CatHerders #CatHerding #HerdingCats #Cowboys #SuperBowl #Commercial #SuperBowlCommercial
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In 2000, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) endeavored to change the… pic.twitter.com/jAnc7U68IJ
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
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How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 22). 'Cat Herders': Retelling the Massive Success Story. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/cat-herders-success-story.html.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Content Acknowledgements
The image at the top of this article shows a circa 2000 television with a still frame extracted from the ‘Cat Herders’ commercial on-screen. The still is used under the doctrine of fair use (17 U.S.C. § 107) for the purposes of news reporting, commentary, and educational analysis. The use of this material is transformative in nature, serving to enhance public understanding and discussion of the subject matter. The still is not intended to substitute for the original video, nor does it aim to fulfill the same purpose. The selection of this particular frame was made to illustrate specific points relevant to our analysis, ensuring that the use is both minimal and necessary. The copyright for the video remains with EDS, the owner of the commercial. Note: EDS was subsequently acquired by HP.
Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.