Project Reviews & Proofing

“That color is weird.”, “flat face emoji :| .”, “It needs to be more premium.”, “He has angry eyebrows.”, and so on.

As creatives, we receive feedback from partners and leaders who aren’t versed in design or layout, and/or partners and leaders who want to be and a few who are. Regardless, they all have an opinion - at least one. Additionally, many of them are subject to (or seek out) outside influences that may shape/change their opinion along the way.

The quotes above are challenging in their own way. Especially in that they’re subjective and vague. Taken out of context, they’re frustrating, useless. We need a foundation for this feedback loop, it’s our opportunity as a creative lead or project manager to establish the framework for the creative team and our partners in the org.

One size does not fit all – while every project is unique in its own way, they do tend to fall into buckets of different sizes and impact. From the business-critical, large-scale projects to routine design tasks that require less time to create than to manage, the variety can be vast. Overlay that range with leadership interest/influence and levels of urgency (implied or stated) and you have a recipe for pandemonium. Granted, there’s a fair amount of that which is simply out of your control. You can direct, guide and assist the team by being ahead of the work and communicating expectations and process to your partners across the business.

This guidance (guardrails) helps keep the project moving ahead in a meaningful way. Share your expectations with the people reviewing the proof. If you’re sharing a proof with product people, ask them for their technical review. Be specific with them – “Is the product content correct?” For sure they’ll have opinion about design/color/etc. and there can be positive take-aways from those comments. In order to value their time (and yours ;) ) providing clear expectations is freeing. Be nice, acknowledge their opinion/contribution, thank them and move on with what is right for the project and the project’s owner. While owning our role as creatives and our “design domain” we also need to guard against our own ego when it comes to receiving feedback and discussing work.

Divorce yourself

I don’t know a single creative who doesn’t put personal/emotional value into their work, and that is NOT a fault. How we communicate that value – and when needed – move past our own ego is a lifelong challenge.

I’ve been that creative who’s in love with my concept or design and had it squashed, trampled, crushed, misinterpreted and diluted to death. I’ve been the creative who’s put up work just to “check the box” to move onto the next rush. I’ve been the creative who’s divorced emotional value from work for both healthy and unhealthy reasons. I’ve been the creative who over-invested personal value in the work I was doing.

Lots of “I’s” in that statement. Reads a bit self-centered right? Instead, take a step back and when submitting/reviewing work, divorce yourself from the emotional value you’ve placed on the work.

“My Work”, “My Concept” vs “The Work”, “The Concept” are far different points of view to use as you present the work and open up to be critiqued without implying personal value from your side or opening the door to take critiques or negative feedback personally.

How you navigate the feedback loop is a soft skill, perishable and consumable. By perishable, I mean that it needs to be practiced. A creative team needs a routine process for reviewing and critiquing concepts and ideas. Ideally, this process happens within the team and before the work is shared up the ladder. This gives all of the creatives insight into refining a concept, design principles, and the opportunity to practice soft skills. If this internal review opportunity doesn’t exist for the creative team or can’t be accommodated, then–at a minimum–the creative needs to be present and participatory in the review as the work is shared up the ladder. If only to hear the feedback and direction, that is valuable for that individual, the creative team, and the organization as a whole.

In addition to time, this process requires mental energy. That energy is the attention, patience, humility, thought, honesty, and gumption to see the process through and to come out the other side with work you believe in, work that is understood, and stronger relationships. This mental energy is a consumable, it gets used up and needs to be replenished and maintained. Even better if it is appreciated.

I wish there was a simple answer for replenishing and maintaining this energy. Any answer I could put up as the ‘fix’ would be trite – like “Take care of yourself”, etc. But here it goes. Take care of yourself – emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually. Be aware of how your work impacts these elements of yourself, and how these elements impact your work. The more aware you are of these, the better you’ll be for yourself, your loved ones and your peers, oh and yes, your work too.  I’ve learned this lesson a hard way, so in part, I’m writing this to my previous self. “Hey Matt, sit down and listen…”

Recap:

Creatives – This section was written for you, and I hope that it offers some insight to help in your career, and in your day-to-day interactions with peers, managers and partners in your organization. It is natural to take our work personally, after all we use our eyes, heart, head and hands to produce it. When someone provides vague feedback, doesn’t like or “get it”, or takes your energy for granted its more likely that they don’t know how to communicate those things than that they are doing it out of spite. Coach them along in the process, draw out what they mean when they have comments like “Those eyebrows aren’t premium enough.” And remember, the work is not you.

Project Managers – I imagine most of you are more than just along for this ride, instead actually conducting this process train down the track and keeping it on the rails regardless of speed. You have a responsibility to yourself, your team and your organization is to stay objective and keep the whole moving ahead. Your point of view is unique within your organization, you have insight into the creative team, and your organization’s needs. You keep us all on track, and we thank you for it.

Marketers – Thank you for slogging through this soup of expectations, emotions, process, and creative-centered ideas. I hope that this gives you a bit of perspective about how creatives work. We NEED your objective participation in the creative process, and we want to understand your subjective opinions about the work. Be ready for us to ask “What do you mean?” Your clear, honest and decisive feedback enable creatives to produce better work, and work that we can all be proud of.