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When I receive feedback that’s helpful but hard to swallow, or I can’t stop thinking about feedback I’ve given, my husband tells me to think of Battleship.*

In this strategic guessing game for two players, you take turns trying to guess the location of each other’s ships on a grid. The classic game comes with red pegs — for when you guess correctly and “hit” part of your opponent’s ship, and white pegs — for when you guess incorrectly. There are far more white pegs than red pegs because you’ll be wrong far more than you’ll be right. It’s true in Battleship and in life.

The value of internal feedback

Here at DMW (and most other ad agencies, I imagine), internal feedback is an important part of the creative development process. It serves as a checkpoint to guarantee the final product meets the objectives outlined in the creative brief and ensures the agency feels good about the work. Whatever the outcome, everyone’s in it together.

Most importantly, internal feedback provides everyone who’s invested in a project an opportunity to get involved — sharing diverse perspectives, professional expertise, and ideas for the primary purpose of making the final product as good as possible.

So why is feedback a bad word?

A lot of us have a complicated relationship with feedback. Sometimes (usually in hindsight), it’s a gift. Other times, the f-word is “feedback.”

As valuable as it is, feedback can be a tricky topic. Giving it can be hard if you fear your feedback may cause the recipient to dislike you; you don’t think they can handle it; or you think they won’t do anything about it. On the flip side, receiving feedback can be difficult if you think it will damage your confidence or you’ve been hurt by unsubstantiated feedback before.

It may seem like you receive feedback only when something goes wrong — but that assumption would be wrong. Feedback is part of life. It makes what’s good, great.

Since you can’t escape it, you might as well make the best of it. These 5 tips can help you thoughtfully deliver creative feedback and/or put feedback in perspective when you’re on the receiving end.

5 tips for giving and receiving creative feedback

1. Believe in the brief
The creative brief is the North Star for all creative deliverables. As a creative contributor, it’s smart to look at it throughout the creative development process and ensure your final assets align with the brief before presenting your work.

If you’re reviewing creative work, revisit the project’s creative brief — paying special attention to the key elements of the project, especially the target audience and main messages. If possible, experience the work at least once before providing any feedback. View it, read it, watch it, etc. without making any notes. Get a sense of the creative vision, paying attention to what’s there before focusing on what isn’t there.

2. Give and receive
Regardless of how formal or informal an organization’s internal review process is, everyone benefits from working in an environment in which feedback flows both ways. In a strong feedback culture, those who provide feedback also get the opportunity to receive it.

If you’re interested in building more of a feedback culture within your team or organization, consider asking for your team members’ thoughts about the feedback they receive. Since people are generally better at responding to requests for specific information, ask questions like:

• When providing feedback, what should I do more of?
• When providing feedback, what should I do less of?
• In what ways can I improve my communication with you?

3. Communicate
If you’re reviewing a deliverable and see something you think could be better, provide specific information stating the problem, why it’s a problem, and what qualities you’re looking for in the next revision. Being specific rather than prescriptive demonstrates your trust in your team, which can increase productivity, collaboration, and creativity.

As a creative contributor who receives plenty of feedback, I know how hard it can be to accept constructive criticism. Here are some things to keep in mind when you receive feedback:

• Remember: The feedback is about the work, not you
• You don’t have to express whether you agree or disagree with the feedback on the spot. You can simply say thank you and request time to think about the feedback.
• If you need more information, ask
• If you aren’t sure if you understand the feedback, paraphrase it to check your understanding
• If you believe something was misunderstood, explain your rationale, but try to understand the perspective of the person providing feedback. Chances are, if this person doesn’t understand something, your target audience won’t, either.

4. Be positive
When people think of feedback, they usually think of constructive feedback, which is evaluative or corrective information. A lot of time and energy is spent on identifying and delivering this type of feedback to ensure it’s timely, actionable, and promotes learning opportunities (this blog post is no exception).

Beyond the sandwich metaphor — where constructive feedback is “sandwiched” between layers of positive feedback — not much thought is usually given to positive feedback. But that should change — positive feedback has real value.

Specific, genuine, and detailed positive feedback softens the blow of more critical comments, and it has tangible business benefits, too. It inspires people to maintain high standards, motivates them to remain productive, keeps them engaged, and can increase their trust and improve their morale.

5. Keep your eye on the target
As a marketing writer and a consumer, I love viewing ads that are targeted to me and seeing how many answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”

This question informs my next point: If you’re providing feedback on creative, maintain perspective. Your personal opinion should take a back seat to your professional expertise — and your target audience should always be in the driver’s seat. This doesn’t mean you can’t “go with your gut,” it just means you have to challenge your initial reaction. Why did you react? Do you think the target audience will have a similar reaction?

Work in progress

I may never love feedback, but I can’t deny that it’s a crucial part of the creative process.

My biggest professional accomplishments, like most people’s, are red pegs — the times I got it unequivocally right. But they’re usually the byproduct of lots of feedback … countless iterations … several versions … and piles of white pegs.

I’m learning not to feel weighed down by my white pegs; but some days, I need my husband to remind me of Battleship. (And he’s always more than happy to remind me that I’m seldom right.)

Let’s work together

DMW is a full-service Medicare marketing agency. We’ve been marketing to the 65 plus population for 40 years, and some of our employees have been with us for over 20 years. Our collaborative internal feedback process engenders the best results. Reach out. We’d love to partner with you on your next project or challenge you to a friendly game of Battleship.

*My husband is incredibly clever, but he can’t take credit for this metaphor. He heard it at a professional conference.