So What Does a Creative Strategist Actually Do?

De-mystifying my elusive job title, what is a creative strategist?

You’re sitting at a table of ten strangers, whether it’s a wedding or a dinner party, usually the first question beyond your name is ‘sooooo… what do you do?’ — enter stage right a cloud of pure angst enveloping me, giving me a little friendly hug. I’d probably find it easier to answer ‘what is the real meaning of life?’ than sometimes explaining to a complete stranger what my job is. Bearing in mind the 2 minute window before they either think I’m an unhinged lunatic or adversely, get bored of their own line of enquiry, usually the former than the latter in my experience.

So here’s my automatic word vomit, Hugh Grant babbling response to any lucky stranger that gets positioned near me.

I’m basically a creative strategist… it’s sort of like a combination of design, innovation and creative mixed with business strategy and future planning…. (notices total confusion on listeners face), well basically I help (insert big brand name) plan their future projects….

The brand name generally helps kindle the fire of their intrigue. ‘Oh you work for blah blah that’s so cool’… yes, yes.. but you’re missing the point… it’s my job that’s the really cool bit! It’s just easier to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious than explain my job quickly. (CONFESSION: I had to google the spelling).

I am a researcher, a business analyst, a creative, a facilitator, a designer, an organiser, a hype-man, a presenter, a storyteller, a scientist and maybe most importantly the provider of snacks at workshops. A true polymath in the wild, if you ever saw one. Everyone who knows me well, and colleagues alike often remind me how much fun my job is, I won’t deny that, it’s just how my brain works. I need the constant back and forth between creativity and logic. It’s a space that’s become my home.

The beauty of the role, for me, is the variety. A real ‘Jack of all trades’. And I won’t end that phrase in its traditional ‘master of none’ ending because I don’t think it to be a fair reflection on us strategists out there. We have experience in many different fields, and interests in even more. We didn’t choose one path to specialise and zoom in and focus on. Instead, we see the bigger picture, a wide angle lens vision on the world and industries outside of the one we are residing in. We have the ability to connect dots others might not see and that’s our superpower.

We thrive in the unknown wilderness that is the no man’s land between design and business.

In summary, a Creative Strategist is that elusive character that sits in between the creative, conceptual design phase and a more logical, robust strategic business phase. We add meaning and context to design to help create a business that blends the emotional human connection to your product/service with a more functional business goal.

So, if you’re ever in need of sprucing up your brand; I can help, or maybe translating your customer data to some actionable design briefs, to helping plan out a product portfolio that makes sense for both your brand, customers and your business case, I’m your polymath.

This article was written to share with future dinner party guests for some light pre-reading before being sat next to me, so, you know, we can instead spend the time talking about really important topics… like aliens or something.

Who am I?

I’m an experienced Creative Strategist who cut her teeth at some big ol’ brands helping them reconnect with customers, plan their future portfolios, run innovation programmes and much, much more.

You can find more of my articles over on my Medium page.