Challenge Ideas, Champion Thinking

Whether or not “strategist” is your title, a core part of leading smart, effective agency work is helping ideas evolve without killing their energy. That means asking questions that bring focus, reveal blind spots, or strengthen a promising direction.

Challenging ideas is one of a strategist’s most important roles. It’s how we stress-test assumptions, interrogate data, and guard against groupthink. But we don’t question for sport. We’re making sure the work holds up: to the brief, to the brand, to the audience, to the product.

Sometimes that means asking: Does this idea reflect the strategy? Is it on-brand? Will it land with the intended audience? Are we solving the real problem, or chasing something shiny?

And sometimes it means encouraging the team to stay with an idea a little longer, to explore its potential before moving on too quickly. I’ve seen agency teams (and clients, to be honest) walk away from a good early-stage idea simply because it lacked case studies or precedents, when what it really lacked was someone asking to iterate on it with strategic rigor.

I’ve also seen weak concepts move forward simply because no one challenged them.

Neither leads to strong work.

Whether we’re shaping media tactics, brand identity, influencer activations or audience segments, the ideas have to stand up. They have to move (the right) people and build the brand.

Here’s one way to frame the discussion:

“If it did work… what would have to be true?”
It’s open. It’s curious. And it keeps the room alive. Championing ideas means helping people feel safe bringing them forward, and excited to keep building.

The role of a strategist isn’t to choose sides. It’s to make ideas stronger through both openness and scrutiny. That’s what earns trust – not just from clients, but from the teams who look to you to lead the work.

Featured image by Joshua Dixon via Unsplash