You're faced with a crucial creative decision. How do you blend intuition and data to make the right choice?

In my experience, understanding data is crucial for informed decision-making. Analyzing relevant data helps identify trends and anomalies that can guide your creative direction. Remember, data should inform your intuition, not dictate it, serving as a tool to enhance your strategic decisions.

Data is going to give you the tactical and applicable insights you need to navigate your decisions. They are not to ignore, they're helpful in gaining insights in trending behavior, patterns, winning creatives, etc.

I believe trusting your intuition is essential as it's a blend of your experiences and skills. Listen to that inner voice guiding you, but ensure it aligns with the data you've gathered. If there's a discrepancy, explore why your intuition may differ from the data.

This is perhaps the most difficult choice one makes. Intuition is that feeling in your gut. And your gut is the culmination of all your experiences, failures & wins alike. The problem with following data is that it leads to ‘good’ communication, effective, hardworking creatives. It seldom goes into the realm of great, ground-breaking or amazing! The problem with your gut is that it isn’t like an AI monster, you don’t have all the experiences, you don’t have all the wins, some of the learnings that could be faulty. So? The catch is to not trust your gut all the time. Do the hard yards, create those hardworking pieces of creative & then when the time comes when one scares you or makes you sigh inaudibly, go with your gut on that one.

While data is incredibly helpful, using your own research skills, hypotheses, and intuition needs to be apart of your decision making. What you see in social media, new trends going on that you want to test, or a direction that data may not show is going to be essential as well. Make sure both avenues mostly align so that you're not just shooting in the dark, but take a chance here and there because sometimes intuition may push back against the data and it's worth it to see why.

Make sure to keep reflecting, analyzing, iterating, and adapting your strategy. If intuition and data are agreeing then go for it. If they're not, take a step back to see why and then dive in to adapt and fix things where needed.

Trust yourself. You're doing what you're doing for a reason -- and even if you're wrong, it's a learning lesson. Failure is just a push to learn, so be decisive and whatever happens should not be seen as detrimental. The good results and the bad teach you and you need to continue to adapt and iterate as you go.

A lot of people tend to have impostor syndrome for fields of expertise that they themselves are experts in. Knowing that fact in and of itself can help you to be more decisive. "Oh, yeah! People ask me for my opinions on this subject because they see me as a thought leader here. I guess I should see myself in that same light and make my decision and stick to it."

One time at work, I faced a crucial creative decision and had to blend intuition with data to make the right choice. I gathered all relevant data, analyzed market trends, and combined this with my gut feeling about the brand's direction. Once I had a clear picture, I acted decisively without second-guessing. This approach not only helped me implement a successful strategy but also allowed for flexibility to make adjustments as needed. Trusting the groundwork laid by both intuition and data made all the difference.