Why you need strategy first

Creatives: Don’t. Do. The. Work.

At least not until you know why you’re being asked to do it.

The “why” is the strategy. It’s the business need driving the creative work. “Why?”— like “No.”— is a complete sentence. Depending on the context it can be truly inquisitive to downright rude (parents you know what I’m talking about). But like the crack of a whip, it’s one of those questions that cuts through the noise of a meeting. It succinctly challenges the status quo and forces everyone to take a step back and deeply analyze the motivations behind the tactics.

And so many times I see individuals and companies putting in tens, hundreds, even thousands of hours of throwaway work that never leads to the outcomes they hope for.

Many times as a creative I’ve been lucky enough to have a seat at the table when business decisions are being made. I never claim to have an MBA, but I have asked “why?” thousands of times. If I was going to be spending weeks and possibly months of my time supporting a project, I wanted to fully understand the business strategy driving these decisions.

And you know what, it worked.

My colleagues were — most of the time — more than happy to explain the business reasons behind the work they were requesting. And as a creative, not only did this give me the sense of being more connected to the business I was supporting, but it gave me freedom to experiment with solutions that I wouldn’t have thought of if a singular creative brief or JIRA ticket came across my desk with no context.

It's easy to jump to tactics. They are palpable “action items” that ultimately end up on someone’s ever-growing to-do list. And don’t get me wrong, it feels good to scratch items off your list. But without a strategy behind them, it’s like trying to shoot at a target blindfolded. Yeah, you might hit it occasionally, but you’re not likely to be successful long term.