10 Tips To Provide Better Creative Feedback

A client once said to me, “It needs to be beefed up…” – and that was their creative feedback.  Not the most useful and insightful I’ve ever heard, but sometimes people can find it difficult to convey their emotions and thoughts.

I put this list together after lots of experience working with clients who changed their mind on a regular basis and so we needed a clear and concise way to get everyone’s views relayed back to the Creative Team.

Better communication of thoughts at this stage ensures the right results are achieved in a quicker timeframe – hence the client is happy and the cost is not an issue!

1. Positive feedback

I can’t stress this enough.  Nothing is more disheartening to anyone when they’ve spent time and effort on something to get negative and unhelpful feedback.  Open feedback with a positive attitude and convey what is liked about the creative.  This shows respect to the person who has been doing the work and sets a good tone to follow through onto the points that need work.

2. Clear messages

Start at the top of the design and work your way down, even better to label areas of the creative e.g. top header, menu section, left nav etc. to ensure everyone knows which area is being discussed.

3. Concise messages

Use bullet points.  Not only is this a concise and clear way of presenting the feedback, it also helps later on as a checklist to run through and tick off once the issue has been discussed and worked on.  These points should be simple and as short as possible though – no long paragraphs.

4. Descriptive messages

“It needs to be beefed up” is not descriptive and doesn’t help the Creative team in any way.  They’re not mind readers and hence this doesn’t give the necessary guidance to make constructive changes.

5. Limit the design review meetings

Personally I think 3 rounds of amends are needed to ensure all potential issues are reviewed and fixed.  Anything more then you need to be disciplined with the client and the budget/timescales.  Sometimes you do need more reviews so this is dependent on the type of project.

6. Focus on the Project Deliverables and Outcomes

Sometimes teams can go off on tangents with copy and design that doesn’t necessarily fit into the deliverables and outcomes of the project.  It is the job of the PM to ensure that the Creative Team is focused on the task at hand and not let other messages or ideas drift into scope.

7. Use storyboards with moveable elements

A HCI expert showed me this once, but it worked a charm for the Creative team and the client.  We took all the elements of the website’s front page and subsequent email template and then spent an hour with the client and a Lead Creative trying the elements in different places to see how they looked in different positions and what worked/what didn’t work.  A Usability expert is also useful in this scenario as they can help with feedback and useful ideas.

8. Get EVERYTHING in writing

Yes it is quicker to call the PM and say “It needs beefing up” and then expecting them to provide a new design in 10 minutes, but any formal feedback should be in writing.  Any PM worth their weight should also request this to be done and will not proceed forward with amends until the client has confirmed the written feedback to the PM.  This is a very simple safety clause for both the Client AND the Project Team.

9. Fix client conflicts before contacting the Project Team

It is not the job of the PM or the Creative Team to fix differing issues between the Client team.  The last thing the Creative Team need is conflicting feedback.  If there are differing views, then they need to be resolved before proceeding.

10. TRUST the Creative Team

They’re called the Creative Team for a reason and this is usually because they have investigated and researched a lot of designs, ideas, concepts, colours and so forth.  If you don’t trust their judgment and feedback on some things then there is little point in hiring them in the first place.  The client knows the brand/product/service…the Creative team knows the creative.

Let me know what you think of these and if you have any further to add.

Cheers,
Tony