Often when I sit with clients or a team that is bringing in ideas from a client, I notice the same pattern. They’ll describe the problem they want solved, often jumping straight into “what” or “how.” But the breakthroughs and the reason they come to us as creatives rarely comes from those questions. In my opinion it comes from pausing… and then asking why?
Why fuels creativity and aligns with the customer.
I personally like to think of creativity as not pulling an idea out of thin air, but instead about looking at problems and connecting dots in a way others do not see.
The ‘Why?’ question digs beneath the surface of a problem and helps you get deeper below surface-level solutions and in essence spark fresh new ideas.
Eg. if a client comes to you says. “How do we make this website look nicer?” you do not just go straight into Figma and start taking their current design and just plastering over a new look and feel. First, ask the question “Why?”
You may then find out that the client wants this because through tracking, they have noticed no one ever scrolls down the page before leaving.
Now we are getting to the real reason of their issue, and then you can explore what would help solve that problem. We might not need a whole re-design of the site ‘to look nicer’, we may have just needed to make it clearer there was more info further down the page.
Creativity has now become a targeted action and the resulting solution will have lasting impact because they’re rooted in purpose, not trend.
Lastly you can free up the budget the client has marked for a refresh to look at other areas of the site. Growing the return value for your client will keep bringing them back and build trust that you want what is best for their business.
What are your thoughts on why? Who in your organisation is playing that part and should they be? I would love to know your thoughts.