Evaluating Creative Work

One of the toughest jobs in the creative industries is feeding back on ideas that have been presented to you. You have to articulate raw emotion combined with business sense in as rational a way as possible whislt trying to tease out even better work.

Paul over at Life in the middle has provided a brilliant set of techniques for providing as helpful, honest and inspiring feedback as possible:

To follow is a list of rules, questions and thoughts I try to follow. It’s not supposed to be an exhaustive list, merely some scribbling on the tube. There are other techniques that look more into the content of the work but in terms of attitude this is where I would start.

1. Prepare to see the work. What am I expecting to see? What are we trying to do? What will impress me?

2. Get in the mood to see the work – read the brief – remember what if feels like to have the problem fresh in your mind.

3. What’s my instant emotional reaction – do I like it? Hate it? Am I surprised – why? Is it confusing? (It’s not always a good idea to share these thoughts, but note them.)

4. What caused the reaction you had – is it ‘what’ the work is saying? Or, ‘how’ it’s saying it?

5. Does the work contain a real brand idea that changes perception, as opposed to a nice advertising idea?

6. Never act like Simon Cowell. My job is not to say whether something is good or shit. But to say how right something is, and to find ways of expressing how to make it more right (if that’s what it needs).

7. Feedback does not mean criticising. It means trying to understand and articulate why the things that are working are working, and why the things that are not are not. These are equally important.

8. Start macro when feeding back but go micro. As long as feedback is something the agency can action then all comments add to the intelligence around the problem,even the little things.

9. Post-rationalise. If something you didn’t think was previously important or salient now looks like it might be. Try and understand why – strategy never ends.

10. Be aware of the self-serving bias and the confirmation bias – interpreting things in a way that confirm preconceptions, or meet your interests.

11. Always say thank you. Creative work is hard work.