Embracing agile creativity, Part 3: how to use process to be more successful with creative projects
There are several components to a creative-friendly process.
How to use process to be more successful with creative projects
It would seem that process and creativity are at odds with one another. How, for instance, could a rigid set of rules help inspire great design, great experiences, or new approaches to challenges? In fact, the two can not only co-exist, but work together to create better results and enable teams to be more creative and productive.
Let’s explore this a bit, in the second article in this series.
How to design a process that enhances creativity
You can’t have a truly successful design without the full team involved, as well as stakeholders, knowing and understanding the problem, and being able to contribute in an appropriate way towards its solution. Thus, there are several components to a creative-friendly process, and I’ll briefly explore this in five parts below:
Collaboration is key
A creative process that doesn’t embrace collaboration, and in some cases, requires it, is not sustainable. If an individual or even small group is able to unilaterally push their ideas through a stage of development in a project, regardless of how strategically aligned it is, or even the potential resource costs of implementing it, you don’t have a successful process and your project will suffer.
The same goes for the feedback and review process. Don’t mistake this for “design by committee” either. There is a big difference between collaborative approaches to decision making where expert opinions are respected and “groupthink” where good ideas are watered down to appease naysayers. There is not enough room in this particular article to do that topic justice, but this is something you will need to consciously solve for when implementing a process.
In addition, consider co-creation, which eliminates the tendency for a “lone wolf” to take a project too far on their own, only to pass a point of no return that diverges from the original strategic objectives. Co-creation might not be natural to many, but once it is accepted and enacted a few times, it can become a more rewarding process for all involved.
Mistakes are part of the process
Any creative process in which experimentation and room for error are not present isn’t going to be successful. Instead of shying away from these things, they should be embraced, while being managed. In other words, there should be times when experimentation is encouraged and even required, but then at other times these activities should be reigned in.
This allows for creative minds to find great solutions, but doesn’t mire a project in endless iterations and dead ends.
Clearly identify objectives and responsibilities
Ever been in a meeting where great ideas are shared, lessons for next time are learned, but no one walks away with any tangible next steps? Make sure that both the objectives and the responsibilities of who will do what and by when are covered before you break from a meeting, or even when you write a suggestion in an email to a group.
It’s not enough to share a good idea. Those ideas need responsible parties to take them, and act on them. Sometimes acting on them means figuring out what the next steps are, but make sure you don’t leave a meeting, room, or email, without making it clear who will be taking action on something and what they should be trying to achieve.
Make decisions out loud
Part of the beauty of collaboration, co-creation, and creative output guided by process is that there is often help with making tough decisions. Sometimes, the process dictates things be solved within certain bounds, and at the very least, individuals should make decisions “out loud” so that teammates understand how creative decisions are reached.
Even if the decisions are not spoken out loud, they are documented. This is also a key way to ensure that others will learn both during a project, as well as afterwards. If you are a consulting firm or creative agency, it is also helpful to document these decisions so you can inform the end customer why certain actions were perform, elements added to a design, and so on.
Definition of “done” and focus on results
Define what completion of the project, task, or deliverable should be, so that any time above and beyond that can be budgeted. This will prevent endless reviews and revisions that provide diminishing returns.
This definition of completion should also be heavily based on the desired end goals. Otherwise, you could have a never ending series of incremental improvements that don’t truly drive the needle, but satisfy a perfectionists’ need to achieve the unattainable.
How to get started
So, what does it take to start using processes to enhance your creativity? Instead of the most “creative” outcome being the end goal, try answering a few of these questions as metrics of success, and you will start to see the creative output improve as a byproduct.
Compare notes to the very beginning of the product. Do the end results map back directly to the original strategic objectives?
Compare your latest project to the previous one. How much of the process portion was repeatable?
How is your team’s morale after the last project was completed? Are they energized by the creativity they were able to explore, or burned out by having to figure out a process that would achieve the end results?
If you are a consultant or agency, are your clients more satisfied and feel like their expectations were managed? Are they happy with how the latest project or campaign went and want to work with you again? Do they want to work with you because the process was so smooth, or in spite of the process of achieving results?
There are many more goals and outcomes, and it should go without saying that the creative results are also paramount. Creating more efficient, effective, and repeatable processes, however, help to increase your rate of success. I wish you the best possible outcomes in your journey to more agile creativity.
In the next part in this series, I’ll discuss how process can actually help individuals and teams be more creative.