The Creative Value Lens
The Creative Value Lens · 10 min
This video introduces the first analytical tool, the Creative Value Lens, which names three kinds of value creative work produces: Creative Expression, Human Connection, and Distinctiveness. It examines each dimension, how they interact, and how authenticity relates to the value of creative work.
Key takeaways
- Expression is the experience the work produces.
- Connection is the relationship it facilitates.
- Distinctiveness is what makes it unlike any other work.
- Authenticity has two parts, the decisions in the work itself and what the audience perceives, and it ties most directly to Connection.
- The dimensions push and pull on each other, and introducing AI changes them.
- Mismatches between your priorities and your audience's priorities are worth naming.
Exercises
Your Work Through the Lens
Run the Creative Value Lens on three real pieces of your own work. For each, rate Expression, Connection, and Distinctiveness and say why in terms specific to that piece, not the category it belongs to. Then hunt for one mismatch between what you value and what your audience or market values, and rehearse one trade-off where pushing one dimension harder would cost another.
Lesson reflection
- Which rating was hardest to justify, and was the difficulty in the work or in your honesty about it?
- Which dimension would hurt most if it changed without your noticing?
What's next
The Value Lens describes what your work is for. The next lesson introduces its partner, the Production Lens, which describes what it costs to make.