How Some Teams Ship Faster
▼ Summary
– Only 22.5% of teams consistently deliver at the speed the market demands, with tech limitations as the central cause of slow go-to-market delivery.
– The approval process is the biggest bottleneck, affecting over 50% of teams, often due to fragmented tools and unclear sign-off ownership.
– 38% of marketing teams require developer support for most campaigns, causing delays and reducing developer focus on high-value work.
– Post-launch fixes affect 79% of teams, with outdated tooling compounding delays and pulling developers into firefighting.
– 58% of developers consider leaving their jobs due to inadequate tech stacks, while only 36.5% feel senior leadership does enough to support speed-to-market.
New data from the Storyblok Global Speed-to-Market Benchmark Report pinpoints the primary drivers and consequences of sluggish go-to-market (GTM) delivery, with technology limitations emerging as the core culprit.
The business environment has shifted dramatically, with rapid AI advancements and the constant influx of new digital channels and trends reshaping how teams bring products to market. Customer and organizational demands are unmistakable: deliver exceptional work quickly or risk falling behind.
The challenge is stark: while expectations for speed-to-market are soaring, only 22.5% of teams report consistently delivering at the pace the market requires. This gap between ambition and execution is a critical issue.
So, what exactly is holding teams back?
The survey, which gathered insights from hundreds of GTM teams, identified the primary slowdowns and stalls in the go-to-market process, their root causes, and what it takes to achieve genuine speed-to-market today.
The Primary Bottlenecks
Four major bottlenecks were highlighted, each linked to a technology limitation or dependency.
- The Approval Process: This is the single biggest GTM workflow obstruction, cited by over 50% of teams. More than half endure three or more rounds of content revisions, and nearly one in five go through five or more. This isn’t always about high standards; it’s often due to stack fragmentation. When feedback is scattered across multiple tools with no single source of truth, unclear ownership, and no firm deadlines, the review process becomes a momentum killer. A well-configured CMS, increasingly a headless CMS, is a common solution. By decoupling content from presentation, it provides a single, structured repository for all stakeholders to review, eliminating version confusion. Adding a built-in visual editor with in-app commenting further streamlines feedback, making it centralized and trackable.
- Overreliance on Developers: The survey found that 38% of marketing and digital teams require developer support for most or every campaign. Over a third of developers spend between 25% and 50% of their time supporting GTM campaigns. When publishing a landing page or updating a simple content block requires a developer ticket, both teams suffer: marketers lose speed, and developers lose focus. The solution isn’t to give marketing full access to the codebase but to build a stack that allows each team to operate independently. A headless CMS is key here, giving marketing teams a dedicated space to create and publish without touching the codebase, while developers focus on high-value technical work.
- Compounding Tech Limitations: Nearly a third of GTM teams cite tech limitations as a major cause of slow delivery. Key issues include complex deployment processes (39%), tool integration problems (25%), and fragmented or outdated systems (14%). This bottleneck is particularly insidious because it often goes unnoticed, quietly building as teams create workarounds and accept slow processes. A thorough audit of where technology is slowing speed-to-market is critical, as a team can only move as fast as its technology allows.
- Post-Launch Firefighting: Even after campaigns launch, work isn’t always done. Post-launch fixes affect 79% of teams at least some of the time. Errors lead to broken user experiences, compromised results, and developers pulled from planned work. For teams already reliant on developers for publishing, this compounds the problem. A headless CMS reduces risk by allowing teams to preview and implement content changes independently of the codebase, ensuring approved content goes live without unexpected issues.
The Cost of Slow Delivery
The survey examined the tangible costs of slow speed-to-market, with the top consequences being lost revenue (22%), missed market opportunities (18%), and reduced marketing effectiveness (15%). Nearly half of teams report their competitors are moving faster. The impact also extends to people: the gap between team capability and what their tech stack allows can lead to disengagement and retention risks, with 58% of developers considering leaving their jobs due to inadequate or outdated tech stacks.
An Emerging Leadership Gap
A key finding was the misalignment between leadership priorities and investment. While 56% of executives rate speed-to-market as critical to growth, only 36.5% believe senior leadership is doing enough to support it. However, data can change this conversation. When bottlenecks are quantified and tied to revenue risk, speed-to-market becomes a concrete business case, providing the evidence needed for meaningful investment.
Closing the Gap
Most of these bottlenecks aren’t new, but the cost of ignoring them has increased. In a market with compressed timelines and high expectations, a slow tech stack is a strategic liability. The teams that succeed aren’t working harder; they’ve built a tech foundation that fosters confidence, autonomy, and efficiency. Marketers own their work, developers are freed from constant tickets, and the entire process becomes easier. The full report provides a detailed framework for closing this gap.
(Source: MarTech)