I've managed creative teams where people quit not because of workload… But because of workflow. Broken systems do more than just waste time. They crush spirits. Seen it.

Creative briefs are the steering wheel of the entire testing process. But a lot of teams treat them like a checklist: “Target = broad. Goal = conversions.” And THEN they wonder why nothing works. A truly great brief forces the team to commit to the test before a single pixel is

This goes for ANY business model: Clear briefs → Smooth workflows → Fast feedback → Better outcomes Break any link and the whole chain fails.

I’ve watched scrappy 3-person teams outproduce 30-person teams at Fortune 100 companies. The difference? Operational clarity. You can have all the firepower in the world. But if you can’t use it… There’s no point.

Every CMO knows Q4 is a warzone by default. CPMs spike, inventory swings, teams stretched thin… I’ve seen it for the last 15+ years. And when you’re behind schedule, the instinct is to scramble: MORE offers MORE formats MORE budget Which is precicely how you burn the house

The journey from $1M → $10M is all about pretending. Acting in a way that your existing team: A) Thinks bigger and B) Moves faster. With the right Volume × Variety × Velocity…. You can 10X the output you’re currently at. (IF you have the systems for it) This is what

Things that don’t make sense to me: Creative teams asking "where's the latest version?” (instead of creating) Marketing teams making the same request 47 times (instead of shipping) Designers spending HOURS hunting for assets inside Figma (instead of designing)

The path to 10xing creative throughput? Simply asking the right question: NOT: "how do we make more?" BUT: "how do we remove friction so that we can make more?" Every minute spent on logistics is a minute stolen from creativity.

I’ve scaled and led many teams. I love hiring, but it’s never my first thought to solve a scale problem. It’s always to build better systems. Why? Because people amplify systems, not the other way around.

Your creative team's hourly rate: $75 Time spent hunting files: 6 hours/week Weekly cost of broken workflows: $450/person Multiply by team size. Multiply by 52 weeks. Still think "good enough" systems are cheap?

I used to think creative problems required creative solutions. Then I realized most creative problems are actually operational problems wearing creative masks. Fix the boring stuff (ops) and out comes the creativity. Funny how that works.

Creative teams have never been more productive. They're producing 3x more assets than last year. They're also 3x more burned out. I’ve been in those rooms. Volume without efficiency WILL turn into expensive suffering. Guarantee it.

Winter is coming. An AI winter, a third one. Sunk cost bias is uproductive.

For all the brands still using 12 different tools to manage creative… Those days are gone. All you need in 2025 is 1 system that connects: - Brief to concept - Concept to execution - Execution to performance - Performance to insight Integration > accumulation.

Please use CreativeOS this Q4. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The grift that keeps on getting.

Fair warning Mary Barra and GMC. If you remove Apple CarPlay from my 2025 vehicles (both $100K+) in the future, I will get rid of them as quickly as I can and never buy another GM vehicle.

is there a better slack message?

The continued short-sightedness of most tech firms is causing layoffs. They are simply balancing budgets as they "invest" in AI. The first have already re-hired many roles. The next phase will follow suit. And so the story goes, chasing short-term gains leads to long-term pain.

Pitiful, Sam Altman. smh