How to Present and Review Creative Effectively

Tips and Best Practices for Presenters and Reviewers

If you’re working in the marketing industry of any kind or have a job in any type of advertising, it requires that you either give feedback on someone else’s creative work or someone else gives feedback to you. Whether it be a video, a static design, a presentation, a social media post, a campaign, or a budget, the process of presenting and reviewing feedback can be arduous, and very few people get this right. How could you? Most company cultures skip over any type of coaching around presenting and reviewing. Our people and products have paid the price. Because what may seem like an easy thing to do, if done wrong, can result at best––wasted time, and worst––a hurt and burned-out workforce. Presenting and reviewing creative work is extremely personal and one of the most crucial processes that contribute to successful teams and products. Here are the tips and best practices of successful presenters and reviewers.  

PRESENTER

You’ve created something awesome. You’ve poured blood, sweat, tears, and maybe even a little bit of pee out because of this project. Whether you’re proud of it or not, you’ve found yourself on the other side of the hard work it took to create your masterpiece. Even though it’s version one, it’s perfect (to you). You share it with your manager or client, and the first words out of their mouth are not “NO NOTES!” and that’s when you realize––the dreaded process of feedback has begun. Here are three tips to present your creative effectively and win the review over on round one. 

Always Know The Why Behind Your Work

Start at the highest level: Why do the choices you made help solve the problem you were facing? Why should your proposed solution be the one to go with? Then you can get more specific: Why did you choose that color? Why do you have it look, animate, or operate the way it does? This will require something of you. Sharing why you did what you did requires ownership. Dig deep, and don’t be afraid to acknowledge your feelings around the vulnerability you may feel from sharing your work and your why. 

Find The Insight Behind The Feedback

Many people know how to give creative feedback. Very few people know how to give creative feedback well. Hear each comment with grace and give the reviewer the benefit of the doubt knowing that they are speaking into your work for a reason. What is the insight behind that rude or unhelpfully vague comment? Be curious and ask questions that reveal or “mine the diamond in the rough.” Questions like “why did you specifically call out that you don’t like the color orange?” or “Say more about why you feel like this currently doesn’t pop.” What would they have said if they knew how to say it well? Pro tip: You don’t have to read your reviewer’s mind––just ask. 

Have Confidence In Yourself And Your Work

When presenting your creative work for feedback, there is nothing more true than the faded 90s poster in your local dentist’s office that still hangs to this day: “Confidence is the most beautiful thing you can possess.” Whether your work is complete or not, confidence will fill the awkward gaps of “works in progress” and instill confidence in your reviewer that you can be trusted with their mission, vision, ideas, budgets, products, clients, and customers. It will show your reviewer you believe in your proposed solution solidifying to them that you can be trusted. Which is what we’re all after. 

REVIEWER

You have a problem. You hired a graphic designer to create a logo for your new company and your worst fears are confirmed. The logo looks horrible and doesn’t represent your new brand. How could they do this to your baby? The colors are all wrong. The shapes they used do not make logical sense. You’re not even sure what you’re looking at. It takes a twisted kind of person to make something like what they’ve presented to you. They clearly don’t understand you or your style. You’re thinking about just calling it quits with them but then you remember how much you’ve paid for this and can’t risk wasting that money. On top of all that, your new company launches in 3 days. How do you give feedback in a way that turns this failure of a logo around––and fast? Well, you’re in luck––read on. 

Avoid Vagueness

Failure and pain result for both the creator and client when vagueness is present. How can someone succeed when they don’t know what’s expected of them, and then are punished for not meeting or exceeding those expectations? That’s a poor feedback process and poor leadership. It is your job to be succinct and specific with your feedback. Communicate your expectations for the creative quality and changes you wish to see. As the reviewer, you have the power in the situation so be quick to relinquish that power by asking for feedback if any further clarification is needed with questions like “Am I being too vague?” or “How can I help further clarify my feedback?” Creating an environment where you and the presenter are equals will exponentially enhance collaboration getting you creative that moves the needle.

Be Curious

The biggest mistake managers or clients make when reviewing creative is believing they have to come up with the solution for the creative or presenter. Always being the problem solver is micromanagement and detrimental to successful collaboration and will result in poor creative output. So I’ll say it again–it is not up to you to come up with the solution. You’ve hired the creative talent for a reason. It is up to them to come up with the solution to the problem. Trust that. When reviewing creative work, do not rush into problem-solving. Focus on constructive feedback and ask questions that establish a curious mindset for the creator. What would happen if we made the text bigger here? What would it look like to change the color? This will help guide the designer to reach the end goal and ultimately allow them to trust their decisions. And trust is a powerful force. It will propel the creative work into new and innovative spaces.

Avoid Personal Preferences

Remember that problem you have? The logo monstrosity where the designer clearly doesn’t understand you or your style? Unfortunately, success is not determined by your style or personal preferences no matter how cool you think your creative taste is. You must shatter the idea that anything you like is good and anything you don’t like is bad. Successful creative is made up of so much more than your personal preference: data, professional design thinking, human behavior, trends, etc. all go into the equation of creative that will move the needle. Acknowledge your personal preferences, it can be helpful to communicate them to those doing the creating for or with you, but don’t let your creative rise and fall on a personal preference. 

Whether you’re the presenter or reviewer(chances are you will need to be both at some point in your career), there is a large need in our companies and teams to do this better. It’s not about reaching perfection but understanding this is a process to grow in. And as you grow, it will unlock true collaboration and innovation in you and your people. When successful and clear conversations are had around creative, it fights against burnout and staff turnover. Mutual respect and trust abound leading to effective creativity that helps scale companies but even greater––creates better humans. 

RESOURCES

See how Common Thread Collective’s Multimedia Designers visualized these tips with this Figma creation. 

Read more about how to deliver excellent business and design critique here