I call it the post-production doldrums.
Maybe you’ve been there. For me, it looks something like this....
I’ve put my heart and soul into producing a communication product, and I’m convinced it should make a big splash. Once the audience sees it, they should be begging to become part of the project and the mission.
And then the response is lukewarm, the equivalent of polite nods rather than the jumping-up-and-down enthusiasm I was hoping for.
Over the years, I’ve learned that when a communication product fails to deliver, the fault is usually not a lack of effort, or even a lack of skill. In most cases, disappointing results come from a lack of vision.
The corrective, I’ve found, is to invest more time and energy in intentional visualization, which is one of the most powerful tools you can use to enhance your creative process
The brain science is clear. Where the focus goes, the results flow. And visualization enables you to embed deep in your subconscious the outcomes you want to achieve.
For knowledge mobilizers, outcomes need to serve as the true north of any project, and visualization aligns your creative compass with the impact you want to achieve.
Here are three ways you can use visualization to create communication products that truly deliver:
1. Visualize your audience in their world
In our data-driven world, many of us think of “the audience” as a set of data points. But even when you’re writing to a large, diverse crowd, that crowd is made up of individual people. Real people with physical bodies and needs, emotions, and worries.
When your message fails to resonate with your audience, that’s a sign that you haven’t really taken the time to picture them in detail, functioning in their world.
For example, let’s say you’re creating a video series to help prevent falls in “older adults.” Who is an “older adult”? Right now, I’m engaged in a project in the health ageing space, and I’ve heard the term “elderly” used to describe people in their 60s and people in their mid to late 80s.
That’s a huge age range, two different generations, in fact. Before you even think about drafting your first script, you need to be able to describe your audience in much greater detail. Visualization, not a list of data, is the best way to do that.
Picture different members of your audience in your mind’s eye. Imagine them as fully fleshed-out characters. Consider not just their age but also their family status, their living circumstances, the clothes and hairstyles they wear, the food they eat, the activities they enjoy, the jokes they laugh at, their favorite possessions, their pets, the people they hang out with (or don’t hang out with).
Until you can envision the people you’re writing for with such clarity, your compass isn’t properly calibrated, and your creative efforts are headed for mediocrity.
2. Visualize the audience response
Because I’ve spent much of my career working with software developers, I approach the creative process through the lens of human interaction design. Think of your audience not as the passive recipient of the communication product your crafting but as an active user of it.
Then visualize them interacting with it. This means considering questions like these:
What has the audience/user been doing before engaging with your communication product?
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How did they come across your communication product?
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Why have they decided to engage with your communication product?
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What do they want to get from the product?
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What will they do once they’ve finished engaging with the product?
That last question is critical. If you can’t picture what your audience will do once they’ve finished using your communication product—once they’ve reached the end of your video, for example—then they're unlikely to take the next step.
If your communication isn’t delivering results, it could be that you’re not visualizing your audience as the active collaborator you need to produce those outcomes.
3. Visualize yourself in creative mode
Creative projects have a way of sucking up as much time and energy as you’re willing to invest in them, and the more arduous the creative process feels, the easier it is to become overinvested.
When you’ve poured everything you’ve got into a creative project, it can be tough to preserve a critical perspective on it. Yet you need that perspective to ensure that you’re keeping on track with the outcomes you want to generate, not just creating for creativity’s sake.
Reduce the risk of overinvesting by reducing the sweat equity you put into your creative process. You’re more likely to resist revising a draft video that took you six hours to create compared with a draft that took you two hours to whip together.
In my experience, using visualization to picture the creative process flowing smoothly can increase your productivity twofold or more. Doing this is as simple as taking a few minutes before bed to imagine yourself completing an upcoming creative task the next day.
For example, if you plan to write a video script, visualize yourself quickly scanning the source materials you have to work with and then sitting down at your computer with a sense of ease and anticipation. Feel how easily the words come to you as you type steadily, the words flowing onto the screen with little effort. Enjoy the feeling of confidence that comes as you complete each section of the script. Picture yourself glowing with a sense of accomplishment as you wrap up the draft, save the file, and send it to a colleague to get their input.
AI can be a great time-saver, and I’m all for trying new tools to boost productivity and produce more tailored communication products.
But don’t underestimate the untapped potential in your own mind. Imagination is still the greatest asset we have to help us connect with other humans in ways that kindle their curiosity, engage their imagination, and win their buy-in.
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