5 steps for navigating project ambiguity as a creative leader

We’ve all been there - that project that you don’t quite know what to do next, how to delegate to your team, or what its impact is. In our rapidly changing world, ambiguity is commonplace across projects in many corporate offices - as nimble teams work to build marketing and creative around a constantly changing global ethos.

The good news - strong creatives are naturally attuned to clarifying ambiguity. Artists and writers of all kinds are used to hearing words like “pop”, “pizazz”, or “it just needs something more” and have to turn that feedback into new drafts. So take heart, you’ve likely already got the base skills.

That said as you move into creative management - there are new ambiguity challenges. Hard deadlines for projects with no briefs, re-brands that need direction, and navigating and pivoting to real-world feedback are just a few examples. So today I thought I’d share a few of the strategies that I’ve found helpful to light the path forward from nothing.

1. Start with the why/goal

As the leader on the team - you absolutely have to know why you’re making the creative and the answer shouldn’t be “because ____ said so” or “because it’s in my KPI’s“. This information is crucial to map a path forward and to provide your team with better guidance. Flying blind is a recipe for frustration, extra drafts, and delays.

In many companies this may require a little digging, but what you’re looking for is the current problem statement that’s triggered the need for creative.

Ex: You’ve been asked to refresh a brand campaign.

Finding the Why: What in the current brand campaign is causing that need? Has it simply gone stale or saturated the market (clickthrough and page views dropping slowly over time). Or was the visual/language not a market audience fit? (Campaign never takes off, sluggish conversion from the start).

If you can find the why, it will also help inform the tactics and next steps. This tip is all about asking questions until you can ground yourself in what the creative needs to fix or solve. Once you feel you identified the why, share it with other leaders to confirm/tweak.

2. Assemble/present possible creative tactics based on the goal

Once you know the problem statement, you can brainstorm on how to fix it. Use that goal as a springboard to highlight recommended creative tactics - don’t worry about order of ops or work backs at this point, just make sure your toolkit is full of possibilities. Your list should be grounded in the goal/against the problem statement. Your toolkit needs to be effective, so weed out any oddballs before hand. Below is a brief example:

EX: We establish that our campaign wasn’t a market fit (it never resonated). The scope of what’s needed to truly solve the problem is now bigger than if the campaign had simply gone stale (simply freshening up the visuals likely won’t fix the issue). What tactics may better solve the issue?

Possible Toolkit:
Short-term: 2 A/B tests, one focused on language, the other on visual - to see if there needs to be a greater focus on either.
Work cross-department to ensure that current copy is aligned with the audience and company needs
Re-Draft headlines and CTA’s - based on cross team input
Distinctively change creative, ensuring it matches new headlines. Visual needs to be noticeably different
Ensure creative permeates other departments - does your sales team know this campaign exists? How can they integrate it into their work?

Ex. of a tactics that shouldn’t be here in an average situation - Refreshing the Brand, Changing product, changing creative visual alone, posting more on social alone.

Share your list with your higher up and talk through it - be sure to know your cross-department needs and bandwidth. You may find that some tactics are out of scope, this is why we want options. Make sure you leave that meeting having validated your goal/problem statement and with a clear list of in-bandwidth tactics.

3. Find the first step, then the next

Now that you’ve got your tactics you can start turning them into team work. Take a look at what you need to get done, and create your order of operations. What needs to get done first? Are their key dates?

Let the team know the project is coming, but don’t officially assign work to individuals until you have what your team needs. Seeing that to-do sit on their list when they can’t do anything about it will be frustrating and build stress the longer it sits. I set up a holding area in our team sprint for upcoming/unassigned work for transparency.

Do ensure a cross-functional meeting takes place to communicate creative dependencies - and leave with clear due dates for creative project inputs.

4. Be flexible/Find the path to yes

As you move into setting dates and cross-team dependencies things will absolutely go a little sideways. Inputs will be late or incomplete, cross-functional priorities will be different - It’s going to happen. Remember - your goal is to get it over the finish line and provide your team with support.

If a blocker pops up, I look for a detour. Can we phase the deliverables? Are team members willing to skip a review sessions somewhere to make up the time? Briefs and other creative inputs are crucial to the process - but working cross-functionally to find the path forward will win you collaborators in the long run.

That said - any time you pivot or detour, make sure that clear dates are attached and articulate what will happen if they’re missed. Flexibility is okay up to a point. If someone continues to miss dates, be clear that the team or individual in question is blocking the project and it will not move forward until they give you their input.

5. Return to measure impact

Technically this step happens after the ambiguity has been navigated but it’s important. To build confidence amongst peers as a leader - make sure you touch base after the creative is in market to get an initial read on impact. Capture any stats, positive or negative, and take notes on how effective your toolkit tactics were - this should make future moments of repeating this process easier and in a data-driven world, can provide you - the creative leader - with a way to validate your approach/recommendations. In some orgs - data may not be accessible - use what you can access like social engagement or high-level stats.

Take time to share with your team how their work contributed. Many creatives feel as though they’re design factories - cranking out new work and never hearing how it went. Share some of your hypotheses or insights with them on what you can try in future projects.