Quantifying your creative work to prove value
By: Shannel Wheeler
Tags: Product Design, Design Thinking, Design, Creative, User Experience

We’ve all heard the statement “quality over quantity”, which usually rings true in most cases. But quantifying has its advantages, too. Take a look at these two statements below and determine which one stands out more:

“That was a good conference.”

versus

“I was blown away by some dynamic speakers who helped me craft five creative action steps to book my next six-figure deal!”

The second description sounds a lot more appealing, right? That’s because the second statement quantified the type of action steps needed to produce specific results. It’s the type of statement that might convince someone that they need to attend that conference as well.

The same idea can be applied to our creative work. If we can show that our work—quality work, of course—not only has aesthetic value but also has quantifiable value, then we can illustrate a greater level of efficiency and effectiveness in our work. Some reasons to quantify your work could be to:

prove its effectiveness

attract better clients

get a promotion / new job

sell/validate your services

gain credibility

scale your business and/or influence

The key here is to quantify your quality work in a meaningful way that ties its metric to a desired outcome.

How to quantify your work

Instead of simply saying, “I created ten PowerPoints this year” (quantifying without much meaning) —you could elaborate by saying “I created ten pitch decks that helped increase our sales pipeline by 15% in two quarters” (quantifying with substantive metrics that produce the desired outcome).

Here are more ways you can more meaningfully quantify and qualify your creative work:

Dollars saved

Revenue added

Audience reached over X period of time

Percentage increased or decreased

Number of impressions

Number of conversions

Engagement (i.e. time on page)

Length of time/time saved

Number of downloads

People impacted

Company growth

Specific client metrics

Creative Vectors by Vecteezy https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/creative

Why do you need to prove the value of your creative work?

It's about the business of design

There’s the creative side of design and then there’s the business side. If you’re doing design as a hobby, then you don’t need to worry too much about the business aspect. But if you practice design for its financial benefits (or plan to), then you will need to develop some business acumen to grow and scale successfully. Yes, those colors you use are vibrant and eye-catching. That font choice is stellar. Those illustrations are pretty cool. But how do they help achieve a specific goal?

You’ll need to prove the value of your work beyond its visual appeal. Why? Because design is about visual problem-solving. It needs to check the “form and function” box; not only does it look good but it also works well to relay a certain message to a particular audience. If you want to charge premium rates for your creative work, you’ll need to show how it adds value to the client’s business. What business problems can you help solve? How can you help craft a clearer message or simplify a complicated process? How does your work help create exposure, better marketing, or better brand consistency? This is about the impact of your work and the influence it has on your client’s or customer’s success.

Give yourself a leg up

It can be a tough market out there. There’s plenty of creative competition. How do you make yourself stand out in a sea of portfolios, LinkedIn profiles, and social media ads? Depending on where you are in your design journey, you may be doing just fine with word of mouth referrals or praise from coworkers. You may not be ready to put yourself out there just yet. Or you could be looking for a way to emerge through the noise and attract your ideal customer. Either way, at some point you are going to want to improve. Whether you’re competing against others or just competing to be your best self, quantifying your work will help you to stand out and show how what you create makes a real impact. You can add these metrics to the project descriptions of your online portfolio, to your social media content, include them in your proposal for a promotion, or you can use them as proof points when you pitch to potential clients.

How to obtain meaningful metrics

Quantifying your work requires follow up. Yes, it’s an extra step, but it’s affirming to know how your work has helped make an impact, directly or indirectly. A few ways you can follow up to track your work’s performance is to: