4 Tips for integrating left brain into the creative process
Corporations are changing and with it, expectations of creatives and creative leaders. Many companies have limited creative resources compared to their company size, and as a result left-brain thinking is becoming increasingly important to current and future creative leaders. Concise communication, data, and goal-setting aren’t necessarily natural parts of the creative process - but it’s crucial for creative leaders and can actually help relieve process pain points and kick off experimentation.
1. Find the why and use it to set goals
Creative teams that have a clear and concise answer (even on low-impact projects) are more likely to govern their time properly, be able to self-prioritize, and provide a unique creative solution. Basically, you’re giving your creatives a strong yard stick to measure against.
If you’re a creative, and not getting the why, I highly encourage you take time to understand the person on the other end of your design - who are you making this for? What impact will it have? Many corporate designers and copywriters feel that their work goes out into a void so ask, how will I know this worked? You’ll be surprised to find that there are measurable ways to see your impact.
As a leader, take time to think through/understand the reason behind the ask and help your team put themselves in the users shoes. If it’s your style - paint a picture of an end user using the product or creative. The goal here is to build a stronger connection between the project and your end-user. That naturally creates an impactful though unmeasurable goal and builds empathy.
2. Make a team practice of rolling up and out information
Every team member should be able to concisely sum up their work/current project and share what’s on-track (green), at-risk (yellow), or blocked (red). Once a week or periodically during sprint, make a practice of having your team send you their week in review and ask them to flag future issues. For some this may be effortless, for others it might take practice - regardless, be sure to read the roll-ups and provide feedback on what was useful. This not only builds communication skills and prepares creatives for executive communication, it provides and easy way for leaders to stay informed cross team.
3. Capture and share design data
You may be asking… what’s design data? There are certain aspects of user behavior data that when tracked, can tell a creative about the effectiveness of their copy or design. These differ by project but an example might be A/B testing two different ad designs. By comparing the two and measuring click through rate designers or copywriters gain valuable insight into what the audience is gravitating toward in real-time and can make the next batch of ads more impactful.
But for these data points to work, you need benchmarks and may even need to change how your data is presented to the team. Most companies assume that design is uninterested in data. However, with a few tweaks to the sharing process data can become actionable and accessible, empowering your creative team to provide more compelling work. As a leader you can easily show your team their positive impact using data and it can be an interactive experience. Pull together a deck that shows the designs next to their data or shows A/B tests side-by-side and guide the team through a creative review. An example flow might look like this:
Shout-out areas of greatest impact - If your team just ROCKED one campaign or re-design, call it out right up front. Show samples of the creative and the numbers (taking time to explain any unknown stats). Ask the team what about that project worked well for them.
Callout surprising trends - Did you notice that blue ads flopped for 3 months while orange ads soared? Did your audience’s tastes change significantly in a way you didn’t expect? Show the creative alongside user behavior numbers one slide per trend. Ask the group to put themselves in the user’s shoes and share why their creative may have performed differently than planned.
Hold a brainstorm - Ask the team what insights we could use to better connect with the audience in future creative. End in a format they know well and find energizing.
4. Keep a healthy balance
Creatives are successful because they connect with others on an emotional and visual level. Right-brain expression, creativity, and ideation need to run the show, but left-brain thinking can be a useful tool in the toolkit to validate design choices.
Strong creative leaders should have a solid understanding of when and how to integrate left-brain into their team’s creative process. The balance differs by team, experience level, and can shift over time, requiring routine check-ins. Ultimately it should be used to empower your team and encourage them to get to know the end user. I would warn against using negative data to provide constructive feedback unless there is a very clear design connection. For example: if a web designer buried a link in a spot no one can find it and click through drops off - share that you believe the placement may be an issue and cite the data as a proof point. But if an ad or social post doesn’t perform as well as you’d like - rather than cite the data, let the designer know the situation and ideate together on what could be tried next time.
Why the sensitivity? There are a number of processes, placements, and budgets outside of the creatives control and it will feel unfair that data performance is the final say. Using left-brain data and communication is also sometimes new for creatives and building positive first experiences will encourage your team to return, and use data in the future.