how to give good creative feedback
in a world that's one part demon, one part dream
Hi friends,
Last month was a feedback bender. Today I ate a fresh pressed stroopwafel. Tomorrow I will stop doing everything everywhere all at once. What have your recent mantras been?
A few announcements to start:
I'm hiring a designer and partnerships strategist for our brand marketing team at NewtonX! We're the best at B2B research, and our clients/partners span Figma to McKinsey to Adweek. Here's a video I made to add more color to the JDs - please share around :)
Next: I published my first piece as a 2023 quarterly columnist for The Content Technologist!
Why content strategists should add visual concepting software to their toolkits
I share five scenarios to use tools like Figjam and Miro for strategic thinking, pulled from my experiences across B2B, B2C, in-house, and indie consulting. The piece is partly paywalled because that's what quality takes bby. Subscribe here through my referral link, whether free or paid :)
If you're in the business of content I can't recommend The Content Technologist enough - founder Deborah Carver is on a mission to build the premium resource for the field and I'm honored to contribute along the way.
Now, lessons from the feedback bender.
on creative feedback
A few new creative things collided last month: poetry workshop through Brooklyn Poets, my visual concepting tools piece, and project kickoffs with 2 agencies and 4 freelance writers/designers at work. A feedback sea. Below, a few takeaways on what makes for clear and actionable feedback, beyond the obvious (e,g. keep repeating yourself, ask questions, explain rationale):
Don't write an essay.
Your receiver's a sharp person; belaboring the point won't communicate it better. Be mindful of emotional processing time. Stay succinct and in the process you'll model the type of communication you're coaching on.
Example: My piece on visual concepting tools went through substantial edits. The intro matured into something much richer than my first pass, thanks to editor Arikia Milikan's prodding questions. Can I add more on...how the tools have changed over time, decreasing the learning curve for nondesigners? How visual learning works? Where I stand between copy and design? What it means to think nonlinearly?
Ask questions with dense answers and let the writer do the articulating.
But do tell a story.
Or, don't just get into specifics—go big picture. Use metaphors. Share vision, not just feedback.
Example: At NewtonX, I'm editor to anyone who communicates on behalf of the brand. I field daily requests for feedback from writers, designers, creative agencies, and team members in between. SEO articles, sales emails, research frameworks, branding statements—the content goes on. Our video agency recently presented music options for a video, which got me to thinking/sharing...if our brand were a sound, what would we be?
Our value prop is less about exploration, more about enabling confidence. Nix the shimmery synths; go in on the pulsing drumbeats.
This is a new product launch; we're trying to communicate how our solution revolutionizes how the target audience does research. No to the mellow electronic; pick something with more drama. Cut to the builds and drops to emphasize narrative arcs with sound.
Also, no brass or sax, that one sounded like Jason Derulo but make it corporate.
Our partner turned around another playlist in an hour and we found our sound. Weave themes around specific points to help the receiver calibrate more quickly to the final product.
For best results, make it enjoyable to receive.
Can we make feedback fun again? Embody receiver and giver as knife and whetstone in conversation?
Example: At my poetry workshop, the ten of us have collectively written and critiqued 50+ poems in a month. On one of my pieces a fellow poet noted something like: I think you could double down on the funny / and to do that, not include the sincere and vulnerable language / but rather stay jaded and fatalistic / I think I'd enjoy seeing what would happen.
Sometimes the best feedback is surprising.
Paid subscribers, read on for updates on a new creative project born from poetry workshop, music production (watch out she's on garageband), and a visual tour of a coffeeshop I write in. And welcome Susan and Meredith who have recently joined the crew - so excited to have you :)