The big reveal is a dramatic presentation of a finished creative product that has gone dark during its development and therefore blocked or rejected the value of stakeholder, sponsor, and customer feedback. lt is expensive and inefficient, antithetical to continuous improvement and perpetuates an unhealthy relationship between authoritarian leaders and teams striving to please them. It rejects the possibility of delivering early value to the customer in favor of perfection and full feature sets.
The big reveal is a ritual expected of traditional agency engagements, in which companies outsource the “big ideas” rather than empowering and nurturing their development within. (That isn’t to say that unique talent from agencies can’t be well integrated into highly productive teams. An outside perspective can, in fact, bring unique value.)