Should You Prioritize Speed or Agility? (No, They Aren’t the Same)

Have you seen that video of Mark Zuckerberg talking about the difference between Meta’s and Apple’s development approaches?

For some reason, LinkedIn keeps serving me a clip from the September 2024 episode of the Acquired Podcast.

At the beginning of that segment, Zuckerberg notes that Meta takes a different approach than Apple regarding product strategy:

“We’re the opposite of Apple…They take this approach that’s like, ‘We’re going to take a long time, we’re going to polish it, and we’re going to put it out.’ And maybe for the stuff that they’re doing that works, maybe that just fits with their culture.”

In other words, they move slowly, and we move fast.

But you can see that Zuckerberg visibly struggles during this 8-minute segment to separate the ideas of speed and agility. When questioned about prioritizing speed and releasing suboptimal things, he backtracks, saying, ‘Well, I don’t want to overstate it.’

Gradually, he works his way to the realization that he means their ability to learn and adapt quickly — in other words, their agility:

“Product strategy is about learning and iterating as fast as possible…If we can learn faster than everyone else, we’ll win.”

The punch line, however, lies in the audience’s reaction. Most LinkedIn comments (and the articles covering the interview) interpreted the clip as Zuckerberg saying that velocity defines a great strategy.

One commenter said, “Speed is everything in marketing.”

Spoiler alert: It isn’t.

The pitfalls of reckless velocity

I wrote recently about how the “move fast and break things” motto has permeated marketing’s culture.

I’ve seen too many marketing teams rally around new technology and activities in the name of prioritizing speed. Companies encourage teams to “fail fast” and deliver more and more content and iterative advertising faster.

In 2025, most marketers will move significantly faster than in 2015. Marketing has become more efficient and more algorithm-driven. Unfortunately, it’s also become more superficial.

Have marketers hit “peak speed,” where the downsides of constant acceleration outweigh the benefits?

Speed isn’t inherently bad. In fact, it’s critical in specific scenarios — such as responding to customer needs (as Jay Baer points out), managing crises, or adapting to rapid market changes. Yet speed for speed’s sake can lead to chaos and, paradoxically, hinder the capabilities it’s meant to enhance.

Last year, I worked with an organization whose marketing team was so focused on optimizing their automation tools to launch email campaigns faster and cheaper that they failed to recognize the consequences. Their prospects were buried under a relentless wave of emails — sophisticated, personalized, and, unfortunately, overwhelmingly poor content.

This reckless velocity culture makes teams feel like the work is happening to them rather than with them. Nobody questions where the content came from or whether it’s the right content for the goal — there’s no time for that.

Priorities become muddled, collaboration breaks down, burnout surges, and the pressure to deliver sacrifices creativity, learning, and, ultimately, quality.    

Consider Meta for a moment. The company started rolling out AI-driven (ostensibly fake) profiles platform users could chat with. After some serious blowback over the last couple of weeks, Meta has decided to delete these profiles (at least for now). None of these choices were a good look for the brand. (I talk more about that misadventure in this video and article.)

Facebook may be large enough to weather this misstep, but the lesson for smaller brands is clear: Moving too fast has serious consequences.

But what’s the better way?

The answer is the same one Zuck ultimately settled on: Agility.

Intentional agility is a far more effective way to approach marketing efforts. It involves deliberate, thoughtful, and adaptive action rather than racing forward for the sake of momentum.

Intentional agility: More than speed

Agility has also become a buzzword in marketing, touted by many as the only way innovation and adaptability can happen. But, too often, people wrongly conflate agility with speed.

Speed refers to how fast you can move in a straight line, while agility describes the ability to quickly change direction with a purpose.

So, “If we can learn faster than everyone else, we’ll win” actually means, “If we can process where we should change direction more quickly than everyone else, we’ll win.”

That’s intentional agility: the ability to respond effectively to change built on a foundation of expertise, preparation, and deliberate practice. It’s about knowing when to act quickly and when to pause, assess, and plan.

It’s about moving forward with intention, not just momentum.

Move toward inventing things intentionally

At the heart of this discussion is a philosophical shift for marketing teams: from valuing rapid, iterative change to prioritizing deliberate, creative progress.

Stop long enough to question the need for speedy change. For example, ask:

• Why do we need the Ferrari of marketing automation systems when our strategy calls for a truck?
• Why do we need to figure out how to get to 42 AI-generated versions of content when three will get us 95% of the way to our goal?
• Why do we need to create 100 pieces of content for that social media channel when it’s not delivering the desired level of benefit?

When I work on content marketing strategies for organizations, I often recommend changing the content creation process to start with the story rather than the containers (e.g., the designed asset). 

For example, if they’re planning a thought leadership piece, I recommend they avoid saying, “We need a white paper!” Instead, I recommend they define the story first and then plan whether it should be a white paper, an e-book, a webinar, a podcast, an email, or all of the above.

The No. 1 pushback I get on this recommendation is, “It sounds like you’re going to slow down the content creation process.”

My answer is, “Yup, absolutely. And by doing that, you’ll exponentially increase your re-use and repackaging capabilities.” 

Intentional agility as a strategic advantage

In a world obsessed with speed, it’s tempting to equate velocity with progress. However, the most successful organizations understand that real progress comes from moving with purpose.

Fortunately, I’m noticing more and more marketing leaders raising their hands and saying, “Maybe it’s time to pause, take a breath, and slow down.”

By shifting the focus to intentional agility— toward inventing things intentionally and away from breaking things quickly — you can create a work environment that is more sustainable, innovative, and impactful.

So, the next time you face pressure to move fast, don’t. Consider whether you’re merely chasing velocity or driving toward a meaningful destination.

Then move forward — intentionally.

It’s your story. Tell it well.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute