Thought Leadership™: The Quiz
A quiz, a satire, and maybe a little coping mechanism.
Some creative leaders are better known for their takes on design than for opening the files themselves. They speak in metaphors, lead with vibes, and proudly announce they’re “not in the weeds anymore”.. as if the weeds weren’t where the work actually happens.
If that sounds familiar, you might enjoy this highly scientific quiz crafted lovingly by yours truly:
🧠✨ Are You a True Creative Leader? ✨🧠
1. Your favorite design tool is:
A. Figma. But lately you’re playing around with every new AI tool.
B. Google Slides, it’s just so simple to share ideas cross functionally.
C. A whiteboard you never erase because it “tells a story.”
2. Your team launches a feature. You:
A. Celebrate their work and gather feedback.
B. Drop a cryptic “so proud of this team” tweet and disappear.
C. Say “we didn’t just ship a feature, we shifted a paradigm.”
3. What’s your biggest strength as a leader?
A. Giving specific, actionable feedback.
B. Storytelling. (Also: overtalking.)
C. Looking pensive during meetings.
4. What’s your idea of mentorship?
A. Pairing regularly and sharing design critique.
B. A Notion doc called Creative Growth Playground.
C. Telling a designer to simply “trust their gut.”
5. Your most-used Slack emoji is:
A. ✅ — Clear, confident, getting it done.
B. ✨ — For when you want to seem encouraging without committing to an opinion.
C. Your own custom face emoji, which you also use on your own messages.
6. Your team is behind schedule. You:
A. Reprioritize tasks and pitch in.
B. Host a spontaneous “creative energy recalibration” call.
C. Post a screenshot of the word “BREATHE” and log off.
7. When someone shows you early design work, you say:
A. “Looks like a solid start—let’s refine it.”
B. “Hm, this doesn’t feel quite there yet. Definitely needs something. Keep going until it feels right.”
C. “Have we explored the metaphorical container this lives in?”
8. When’s the last time you opened a design tool?
A. This morning.
B. During quarantine.
C. Not sure why I would need to.
9. How do you keep your skills sharp?
A. Practice and feedback.
B. Reading Monocle and looking at retail packaging.
C. You’re skill-adjacent. You inspire skill.
10. Your presence in a project is:
A. Helpful and grounding.
B. A bit like a windstorm: sudden, disruptive, unclear.
C. The creative equivalent of a ghost haunting the file.
BONUS:
11. Your most recent “deliverable” was:
A. A reviewed and approved final design.
B. A word doc outlining a potential visual creative strategy for H2.
C. A long Slack thread that ended in “food for thought.”
Mostly A’s – The Operator (aka: The Hands-On Hero)
You Still Do the Work
Awesome, you’re hands on and down in those weeds with your team. You might be the lead, but everyone on your team is important. You're not just a creative leader—you’re a lighthouse in a storm of deliverables.
Mostly B’s – The Spriritual Guide (aka: The Present-but-Vague Creative Director)
You Appear When the Deck is Ready
You’ve officially transcended the need to design and are now free to shape narratives. You’re fluent in frameworks, allergic to feedback, and possibly incapable of opening a zip file. You’re a prophet of process. A living Notion doc. Pray that no one asks you to jump into a Figma file.
Mostly C’s – The Oracle (aka: The Floating Design Guru™)
You Have Transcended Deliverables
Congratulations! You haven’t touched a design tool in years, and that’s exactly how you like it. You provide vague insights, drop one-liners like breadcrumbs, and use the word “essence” unironically. People look to you for vision, not answers. The work happens far below you, and you’ve never scrolled to page 12 of a deck in your life.
Just don’t ask anyone to explain what it is you actually do.