Checklist for evaluating creative strategy

In a typical creative review, one person changes the headline, another moves the button and somebody arriving late reopens the strategy.

By the end, the idea contains a visible contribution from everybody and a pulse from nobody. The checklist’s smartest instruction is to avoid judging creativity on the checklist. Criteria should protect the objective and expose real problems. They should never turn surprise into non-compliance simply because a strong idea arrived by an unexpected route.

React to the whole before dismantling the parts. Describe where attention, belief or feeling broke. Resist prescribing the repair; the people making the work may have more than one answer, including one less obvious than yours. Separate personal taste from evidence. Remember that finding nothing wrong is a legal outcome. Strategy still matters. “Trust the creative” cannot become diplomatic immunity from the problem being solved. The discipline runs both ways: freedom in execution, rigour about purpose.

The most useful reviewer may be the one willing to say, “I dislike it, and that is irrelevant.” Taste can still prompt a question. It should not masquerade as a customer finding. After a poor review, the work contains visible contributions from every reviewer. Whether those additions helped the intended audience remains unresolved.