If creativity makes the world go around, data is the force that stops it from spinning off its axis, hurtling toward a black hole, and being ripped into a trillion pieces.
Every content strategy needs the right blend of art and science to make it tick. Too much art and you have a self-indulgent creative project that exists solely to tickle its creator under the chin. Too much science and you have a mechanical, immovable Death Star that can trample on the soul of creativity.
If you’re a content creator, you’ve likely encountered this tension before. And the reason why it is a tension is because the A/B testing army and the inspirational infantry don’t really understand each other. At least not fully.
Over the years creatives have been encouraged to embrace the power of data, and for good reason. Some have – albeit with slight suspicion – become enthusiastic besties with headline testing and thumbnail testing and all the other ways their creative output can be measured. Yet sometimes they feel a tingling in their bones. Their experience tells them something a survey or an Adobe report can’t. But unfortunately that bone-feeling doesn’t fit neatly into a pivot table.
On the other side, the data-natives wander through life thinking since everything can be measured the world is inherently predictable. If you move lever A and get result B, you just have to keep doing the same thing over and over again.
And in some cases that is true. But this mindset overlooks the uncomfortable fact that life is an unpredictable mess and unfolds in random, unexpected ways. Some successes are simply happy accidents that couldn’t have been predicted with all the qualitative and quantitative research in the world.
A big part of the problem is empathy. By understanding each other and embracing notions that are outside of your comfort zone, you’ll foster a sense of understanding that will help you assess situations with a well-rounded mindset.
So here are some tips – mined from my experience of working with both creative and data teams – on how to inject the right blend of art and science into your culture.
For Creatives
- Remember that data is just a mirror of human behavior. Don’t think of spreadsheets and graphs as numbers, but as a representation of actual humans who have done actual things. Numbers aren’t your enemy, but a close friend that’s decided to wear an outfit that you might not fully appreciate.
- Data is not trying to stifle your creativity, just shape it. Think of it like you think of ChatGPT – it’s there to create useful boundaries so that you can hone your ideas appropriately. Data is an important input that allows you to efficiently narrow your ideas down. And in the sprawling thicket of the creative process, that can only be a good thing.
- Your audience may not care for your creative ideas so don’t stay stubbornly married to them. Remember, you exist in a bubble and spend all day thinking about your brand and content in a level of detail that most people don’t. Your audience may not appreciate your brilliance and data can help to give you the reality check that your ego might need.
- Creative instinct can be unreliable. You may feel that you “get” the brand and know the audience instinctively, but be careful about how many assumptions you rely on.
- Remember that your content is only as good as the results it drives. Data maximizes your chance of success and is perhaps the biggest ally you have in getting there. The best idea in the world has very little value (at least in a business) if nobody reads or sees it.
For Data-Natives
- People are notoriously bad at predicting what will make them happy. Surveys and focus groups can be good guides, but shouldn’t be followed with static rigidity as the undisputed record of truth. If you ask people if they want something, they’ll probably say “yes”. Because as people, we tend to want everything. And that’s why relying on unreliable human foresight is a dangerous game to play.
- Luck plays a bigger role in success than we think. We over-estimate our role in driving success, when often it just comes down to plain luck. Here’s a great book that puts things into perspective (spoiler – randomness plays an out-sized role in most of our wins).
- Chaos is sometimes a necessary stage in the learning process. Embracing creative chaos can be uncomfortable in a world where orderly metrics rule. But sometimes you need to let go and watch the messy, frenetic swirl unfold. Then data can come along, mop up the mess and put everything back on the shelves in the right order.
- Remember creatives’ brains are wired differently. In the same way you wouldn’t ask a data scientist to write a killer headline, you shouldn’t expect a writer or editor to automatically understand how to run audience segment reports in Adobe Analytics. Respect the differences. Creatives need to understand at least the basics of data synthesis, but you likely hired them for their ideas – not their bar-chart creating abilities.
- Tailor your language. Creative people often don’t understand some of the technocratic language routinely employed by data experts. From titles of charts to full-on presentations, try and simplify the language as much as possible. Cohorts. Segmentation analysis. Conjoint analysis. Can we keep it simple and clear, please?
While this list isn’t exhaustive and may not apply to all people in all cases, I think it’s a useful guide to make sure you’re fostering a culture of metrics-driven creativity.
It’s a cliche, but as with most things in the universe a balanced approach is what makes sense. Which is perhaps not the most creative conclusion in the world, but it’s also one that doesn’t need a raft of advanced metrics to back it up.
The relationship between data-and-creativity is probably the most important connection that exists in any content company. And when the two work in synch with mutual respect……that’s when great things start to happen.