Does Your Agency Suffer From Premature Execution?

Been pitching Ideasicle X to agencies constantly lately. I can’t tell you how many share the following reaction to the platform: “It’s so refreshing that you’re forcing the team to focus on the big idea and not on the execution.” Apparently agency teams get too executional with their ideas too quickly instead of getting the idea right first. Having been in the virtual-idea business for ten years, I thought it was obvious that you needed a big idea first AND THEN execute it. But I guess not. And I have some thoughts as to why this may be happening.

Execution is so easy today, but it’s a trap.

Creative teams have incredible tools and resources they can use to quickly comp up their ideas. Be careful, it’s a trap. There’s design software like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and hell even Keynote has decent design tools to comp things up. And there are tons of free, high quality image sites out there like Unsplash and Pexels that can really give a comp almost-professional visual appeal. So a half baked idea can look pretty damned great after a decent art director gets ahold of it.

But it’s still a half-baked idea. And that’s the trap I think agencies are falling into.

Before even thinking about execution, spend time fleshing out that half-baked idea so that it’s either 100% baked or discarded. Then come up with more ideas and pressure test them. Be sure it’s great first or else you might convince yourself that your buffed turd isn’t still a turd.

Remember those “tissue sessions” Chiat Day pioneered? That.

An actual Chiat Day tissue for Apple’s famous “1984” spot - thanks to Rob Schwartz for the photo.

I remember way back when early in my career hearing about Chiat Day doing “tissue sessions” where the teams could write/draw their ideas onto pieces of paper and tape them to the wall. That’s right. Paper, pen, tape, wall. No computers, no design software, no fancy images. And what did this process do? It forced the Chiat teams to focus on the idea and not the execution.

And better yet, it forced the clients to focus on the ideas, too! If I remember correctly, Chiat would bring the client into the room with a wall filled with ideas to get their thoughts and involve them in the process. Brilliant.

You can start doing tissue sessions today and keep from falling into the execution trap. But there’s an even better way.

Ideasicle X “forces the team to focus on the big idea.”

Agencies, as I said in the opening of this piece, are feeding this back to us. While the Ideasicle X platform does allow freelancers to embed image and video references in order to get what’s in their heads out clearly and compellingly to their teammates, it’s not about pumping out finished comps. Instead, there’s an assignment/brief and the freelancers can post their original ideas, thought starters, or even insights surrounding the problem for the rest of the team to build upon.

In fact, if they want to post an idea the button doesn't say “Post Idea” it says “Start idea.” That’s on purpose. The vibe of Ideasicle X is for the team to be constantly starting, building, riffing, and shaping the ideas with their comments. It’s about making the idea better, not about making the idea look good prematurely.

Better yet, the Ideasicle X teams are not responsible for execution so it’s only about generating the ideas. You, the agency, then go through the 30-50 ideas generated by the team and execute the ones you feel are strongest.

And that’s where execution belongs. AFTER you have strong ideas to execute.