Once we know something, it becomes hard to imagine what it feels like not to know it.
More quotesThe creative says the research killed the idea.
The researcher says there was precious little life to begin with.
Both may be right, which is irritating and useful.
Research becomes destructive when it is treated as a public vote on unfinished work. Participants are shown something without its real context, asked whether they like it, then promoted to unpaid creative directors. The unfamiliar loses because familiarity is easier to approve in fifteen minutes. Grey wins wearing a badge marked evidence.
Creative judgement has its own scam. Confusion is renamed bravery. Personal taste becomes instinct. Any poor result proves the audience was unready, while any good result confirms genius. That system always wins because it has exempted itself from being wrong.
The worthwhile argument concerns a specific uncertainty. Did people notice the thing? What did they think it promised? Could they identify who it was from? Did the unusual feature attract attention or merely consume it? Those questions can improve the work without asking respondents to write it.
Evidence has no authority to decide what deserves to exist. Craft has no right to declare its intended effect achieved by force of personality. Their jobs overlap at the result, and that is exactly where the shouting usually begins.
Perhaps the healthiest sign is dissatisfaction on both sides. The creator loses the fantasy of unquestioned authority. The researcher loses the fantasy that a method produces neutral truth. The next execution gets sharper because neither tribe receives complete control.
Total mayhem, certainly. Sometimes mayhem is what accountability sounds like before people learn to enjoy it.