The case for retrofitting a strategy.

First thing to note, there’s no one ‘right’ strategy/solution to a business problem, there’s multiple.

You just choose one.

I understood that just because I had strategist in my title didn’t mean, I was the smartest person in the room or that I owned the strategy.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the most talented creatives in the world (David Lubars, Ari Weiss, John Patroulis, Lauren Connolly, Greg Hahn, Susan Golkin) look up their work its legit.

We made a lot of award winning work together that had real business impact.

What does retrofitting actually mean?

A brief has these core components;
Audience
Business Problem
Consumer Problem
Single Minded Proposition (Insight x RTB)

When your brief gets challenged with a creative idea the job of retrofitting is working out what the pieces are with the creative idea and whether it is better than your original idea.

I never worried when the single minded proposition or insight got challenged. This is the first creative leap, I would often share multiple takes for this part.

However when you have the consumer or business problem challenged, that often takes more research to work out.

I would push back if I thought it wasn’t solving the problem but when it was taking on a bigger problem then I would retrofit.

This is the key part to the retrofit, you need to speak up when it doesn’t make sense.

For me retrofitting was always a gift, it reminded me I was working with the best creatives in the business and that I needed to up my game.

Don’t be ashamed to retrofit.