Rethinking the Creative Process in the Modern World

At the IHALC One-Day Summit on 14 May, our round tables discussed how in-house leaders are challenging the orthodoxies of the creative process in order to cope with today’s demands for speed and scale.

The debate was set up by  Robbie Ferrara, Global Creative Director and Director of Creative (Brand) at our partners for the day, monday.com. Robbie shared his previous experience with Amazon’s in-house team where his team ‘broke’ the creative process in four ways:

monday.com’s Robbie Ferrara presenting at the IHALC One-Day Summit

We then went into round tables where the attending in-house leaders discussed their challenges and actions in adapting their own creative processes to meet the needs of their organisations.

We’ve captured the key points here:

The discussions explored how the creative process is adapting to modern demands, particularly within in-house agency structures. A central theme is the challenge of balancing speed and craft, with some arguing that speed of iteration is now more important than the quality of any single iteration, especially for platforms like social media where the risk might be lower. Knowing when to “sprint and when to slow down” is seen as key to a good process. Protecting “thinking time” for creative development is considered vital but difficult to monetize or justify.

A significant pain point is the clarity and quality of briefs. Briefs are often described as incomplete, lacking essential detail, or not clearly defining the problem or desired outcome. There is a need for a solid foundation from a clear brief, especially when moving quickly. Strategies to improve this include getting involved “upstream” in the process with strategy departments to understand the “why” behind a brief before it even reaches the creative team. Some teams are pushing back on poor briefs and asking for clarification or even sending them back. Creating documents like a “creative proposal” or “response to brief” helps ensure alignment and clarifies the information needed to proceed. Asking questions and having workshops are seen as ways to improve understanding and build trust. Some suggest that with an in-house team acting as experts, the need for a traditional, highly detailed brief might decrease, replaced by collaboration and understanding the core problem. However, others feel a brief is still necessary, especially when external teams or stakeholders don’t come with a clear problem defined. Capturing conversations or key decisions, even if not a formal brief, is seen as important documentation, sometimes acting as a “survival” mechanism when details are disputed later.

Stakeholder management is another crucial area. Getting key stakeholders to sign off briefs and agree on concepts early is highlighted as a way to prevent delays and ensure alignment. Bringing clients or stakeholders into the process earlier can help them understand the work involved and reduce resistance. Navigating feedback, particularly from non-creative stakeholders like legal or compliance teams in regulated industries, requires clarity on what kind of input is needed (e.g., legal risk vs. creative opinion). Building relationships and trust with these stakeholders over time is essential. A framework for feedback that is tied to strategic business goals, rather than subjective opinion, is considered valuable. Regularly reviewing roles and responsibilities with stakeholders ensures everyone understands where their input is required and where it is not. Finding key decision-makers higher up in the organization can also be challenging due to politics or internal structures.

In-house agencies are seen to have advantages due to their proximity to the business, enabling them to be both reactive and proactive. They also have direct access to budget holders, which can help unlock resources for ambitious ideas. However, they face challenges in shifting the internal perception from a simple “studio” that just makes “stuff” to a strategic partner that solves business problems. Some internal clients may struggle with not having a dedicated contact like they were used to with external agencies, leading to friction. The value of the in-house team’s expertise and time often needs to be actively demonstrated and sometimes even charged for to be appreciated.

Tools and systems play a role in improving efficiency and visibility. Work management systems like monday.com help centralize work, track progress, manage approvals, and provide transparency and accountability. They can also be used to flag issues like broken SLAs and track time/amends. AI tools like ChatGPT can assist in the initial ideation phase to quickly generate ideas or provide a starting point. Using templated assets or creating reusable components (like “components” in digital design) can significantly increase speed and scalability for repetitive tasks.

Culture and team dynamics are fundamental. Trust and partnership are vital for effective collaboration, which takes time to build. Clearly defining roles and responsibilities within the team is important. Bringing different teams together, even in informal settings like “kitchen conversations,” can foster collaboration and earlier involvement. Peer creative reviews are mentioned as a potential way to involve the team and get feedback before a Creative Director sees the work. There is discussion about when to involve stakeholders versus when to protect the creative space to avoid ideas dying under excessive feedback or doubt. Quick check-ins or “tissue meetings” can be a way to bring people on the journey without oversharing the entire process.

Measuring and learning from projects is seen as crucial for continuous improvement and demonstrating value. Tracking time, costs, and amends, as well as performance data, can help change behaviour and prove the value of the creative team’s work. Conducting post-project wash-ups, retrospectives, or using scorecards helps teams reflect and identify areas for efficiency gains. However, ensuring these lessons are shared and acted upon across the organization is a separate challenge.