The Value of Non-Prescriptive Feedback
Thoughts on Client Notes
When a creative project is in the review stage, giving notes is hard. Receiving them is hard, too. If there is an outsized ego on the team, the feedback stage is where it will rear its ugly head.
More importantly, an inadequate note will only result in more rounds of revisions if the creative team can’t understand the client’s intention.
So how do clients/sponsors give more effective notes? And how can the creative team learn to “hear the note behind the note”? There are a number of things everyone can do to make this process easier, and plenty of blogs elsewhere that cover them (here’s one).
In this blog however, I’m interested in one aspect alone: the difference between prescriptive and non-prescriptive notes.
1. Clients: Avoid Prescriptive Notes
As the sponsor of a project, it can seem helpful to ask for a specific change in the revision stage. After all, you just reviewed the project, and you know you’d be happy if that color were red instead of blue, or if that lower-third graphic were positioned a little higher, etc.
This is a common mistake, and it usually comes from an intention to be helpful. But sponsors need to understand that less-prescriptive feedback is actually more helpful. Counter-intuitive, I know.
The most helpful notes are simply stating the problem. “Cut out the scene where he cries” is not a good note. “I think the movie is a bit too weepy,” is a better one. Why?
The latter note allows the expert creative team to go to work on solving a problem with a creative solution. They may know that simply cutting out “the scene where he cries” will inflict further collateral damage to the movie. However, they can find creative ways to keep the scene and make the movie less weepy.
I know it feels like notes such as “the movie is too weepy” or “that character isn’t funny” are whiny and unhelpful, but in the opinion of this writer, they are vastly preferable to prescriptive notes. A prescriptive note like “cut out the scene where he cries” will prevent the creative team from discovering better solutions because they won’t know what problem they’re solving.
You’ve hired the creative team to use their expertise to solve problems, so don’t try to solve it for them. Get your money’s worth!
2. Creatives: Find the Note Behind the Note
So you’re the director of a project and you’ve just received an unhelpful prescriptive note such as “cut out the scene where he cries.” What do you do then?
Ask a follow-up question.
In the likely scenario that you receive prescriptive notes, it becomes your job as the person responsible for the project to find the motivation behind the note.
If the note is “turn that red color into a blue color,” ask follow-up questions that will put you deeper into the headspace of the client. Why do they want that change? Do they want an overall cooler look for the whole project, or is it just that the current red is too red? Is this a macro- or a micro-note? It’s your responsibility to excavate the real problems lurking behind your client’s prescriptive note.
Be genuinely curious. When you ask, “Why do you want that change,” don’t have a tone of defiance. Get over yourself. All creative work is done for an audience, and your primary job is to make sure that the intended audience gets the message. So if the project isn’t working for some reason, you should want to understand why. Maybe it really is the worst-case scenario and the client is misunderstanding the project or misrepresenting the audience, but don’t assume that. More often than not, they are wanting to protect the end product just as much as you are.
The revisions and note-taking stage of a project can be a difficult one, but if we place the audience forefront in our minds, keep the team small, avoid prescriptive notes and assume good intentions on all sides, we can make it a whole lot easier.
