The Brief Creative Newsletter
001 - So It Begins...
Really hope you like Lord of the Rings references because you're probably going to see lots of them.
The Spark
This is stuff I'm enjoying out in the world (it's probably not B2B).
With Summer wrapping up, I'm trying to spend less time in front of a screen and more time outside. This was the sunset over Lake Champlain in B2B Mecca (shout out Exit Five, iykyk). Even though I was surrounded by some of the brightest minds in the industry, I kept finding myself standing in this spot. So go outside, pump this into your headphones, and go touch some grass.
If you're looking for actual content, I'm also wrapping up (and enjoying) The Silo Series. The story is an unintentionally good sci-fi metaphor for most big orgs, the silos that develop, and who's actually in charge.
The Deep Thoughts
This is what I'm thinking about.
One of my favorite talks at Drive was Devin Reed's Linkedin for B2B Leaders. He walked through his 5-Step process to posting. There were lots of great takeaways but one slide in particular stood out.
Kyle Coleman followed him and talked about "beating the friction out of your process." I've been beating that drum for years so it was exciting to hear two people I admire doing the same. The thing about being in the process game for so long is hearing how many people are "allergic to process."
It's a phrase I can't stand but I get it—a lot of people have been burnt by bad processes. So before exploring how you overcome the objection I wanted to share why so many processes end up failing.
Well... It's because it's old.
At some point it probably worked but processes need to adapt to the teams using them and the work that they're meant to achieve. Otherwise they just get in the way. There's no 'set it and forget it' in the process game.
So how do you keep your processes fresh?
Proactively review your processes and look for gaps
Be honest with yourself, the more you go through a process the more obvious the problems become.
- Working on podcasts and video now? Add questions to intake
- Too many steps? Cut things out (I'm more of an ask forgiveness guy)
- Not getting use? Rethink how you distribute links, docs, and videos
Collect feedback from your users
Every six months, you need to ask your users what they think. You might love a process (that you designed), that doesn't mean they do... You can do this via survey but I like to meet with people too. I break down interviews into 3 groups:
- Active users - these are the people who love the process, use the process, and maybe even promote the process. You 1000% know who these people are
- Occasional customers - these are the people that deal with it but aren't necessarily happy about it. To them it's a necessary evil. These people tend to be harder to find
- Haters (in an NPS you'd call them detractors) - these are the people who complain about the process to anyone who'll listen. You 1000% know who these people are too
Take the feedback seriously, make your updates, and communicate them loudly.
Experiment, experiment, experiment
You don't want to lose your audience with too much activity but try out new questions, formats, and tech.
- Using a spreadsheet? Try a form
- Form getting too long? Upgrade to a multi-step or dynamic setup
- Still working manually? Automate it or use AI
By showing you're proactive, you'll have more of your team willing to check out your progress—even if just out of curiosity.
And if you're still with me, you're probably wondering about that "process allergy." If the three steps above didn't cure it then you need show people the value that the process brings them. Grab time, demo the process, walk through the time savings, walk through the efficiency gains, and walk through the outputs.
At the end of the day, that's all anyone really cares about: will this process help them hit their number more easily? If it does, you can skip the Benadryl.
