Gathering useful feedback to creative materials
The feedback cycle is crucial to marketing and communications work. At the same time, we know it’s not always an easy or smooth process — particularly for creative concepts and materials. After a while, you realize that giving good feedback is somewhat of an art. Finding a place of creative satisfaction for all parties is difficult but often yields the best results.
Deciding when and how to incorporate feedback into creative materials requires careful consideration and planning. Depending on the folks you’ve selected for input and the step in the process, your approach might be quite different — engaging your board in communications isn’t the same as engaging your community in your brand.
Whether you are working with Big Duck, another agency, a freelancer, or someone within your organization, the usefulness and productivity of feedback to creative work is typically tied directly to how it’s collected and contextualized.
Who is providing feedback?
The first thing that needs to be determined is who will review the work and the implications of their connection to you. Is this someone (or a group) in a position to be honest about their thoughts and feelings? Are there equity and/or power dynamics to be considered that could impact the process? Choosing people most familiar with the organization’s mission and goals (whether staff, community members, board, etc.) will likely return the most relevant and useful feedback. Taking time to consider who the input is coming from will also support the creation of clear questions and guidance.
What are you hoping to gain?
Gathering creative feedback is typically less helpful when it is too broad or open. Why are you sharing this work with this specific person (or people) now? What are the specific questions you have for them or the elements you’re looking for feedback about? Sharing clear questions and expectations about the purpose of the input will help ensure responses are more relevant.
Have clear parameters/guidelines been established?
A project brief is creative feedback’s best friend. It can provide, among other things, the simple context for the moment in time, project goals, key audiences, the big idea, tone and style, success indicators, and specific guardrails for language and visuals. It defines upfront the guidelines for feedback and discussion to foster more objective conversations about creative work (that can typically be somewhat subjective).
In addition to a shared understanding of the project brief, it can be helpful for all parties involved to agree to some (or ideally all) of the following norms:
- Be as realistic as possible with expectations given the stage in the process, the budget, the magnitude of the creative “swing,” etc. Especially early on, it’s important to keep an open mind (as both a feedback provider and creator).
- Be respectful. Everyone’s working hard to bring this creative endeavor to life, and something you might disagree with can still be valid.
- Be as honest as you can/feel comfortable doing. The people providing feedback can only reflect on what they’re experiencing, and the people creating can only advance the work based on the tools (including reactions) that they have. It’s less helpful when either party only has or shares half the story.
- Start the feedback process with the things that are working, even if nothing completely hits the mark. Finding the places to grow and lean into can be more productive than just a long list of things to avoid in the future.
- Take time to dig into the “why” of creative feedback. For example, a statement like, “I don’t like the color red,” may provide some direction for future explorations, but it doesn’t inform that overall process. Understanding why to avoid red might. For example, “I’m concerned that the color red is feeling too aggressive and may alienate some of our participants. Is there a different warm color that we can explore?”
- Be specific without being prescriptive. Sharing concerns or potential challenges is essential to developing materials that work for everyone, but framing them in a way to suggest a single solution is not conducive to the creative process.
What is the best way to share or collect input?
Think back to who is providing feedback and what you hope to gain.
- Are the people sharing input closely connected to the project or organization?
- Are you looking to understand or convey a more in-depth explanation of a specific element?
- Do you need to capture broad preferences?
There is a time and place for each feedback method. Individual calls, interviews, and group discussions can often yield some of the richest feedback, considering that it’s much more limited and possibly skewed toward those involved. Surveys and more general calls for input are a great way to listen to and learn from your community, but they may provide results that feel less actionable or relevant to direct creative updates.
Have you closed the loop?
Whichever approach you select for gathering creative feedback, take the time to share your appreciation for those who have contributed. Acknowledging everyone’s involvement and contributions can go a long way toward creating a more fulfilling process. It will also maintain transparency as a primary focus, building relationships that keep people engaged and in the loop as the creative process evolves.
Additionally, consider providing compensation for program participants or anyone external to the organization who may provide feedback.
Are there any clear themes or immediate actions to take?
You now have a ton of feedback, and some of it is likely contradicting. What do you do with it? How much weight should one response carry? Start by identifying common themes, keeping in mind some people may feel strongly about different aspects. Once you have a few buckets or directions forming, revisit the project brief to keep potential updates rooted in your strategy. Explore a couple of solutions or ways to implement changes, if possible, and prepare to do it all again.
