The Braintrust
Method
You’ve been asked for a braintrust meeting, awesome! That means that your opinion is valued a lot as an expert in your field.
What is a braintrust meeting?
So Pixar had a problem. Some of their directors were a bit too much in love with their own ideas, which lead to poor results. However, the solution also couldn’t be restricting the creative leadership of the director by someone higher up, which would also lead to poor results. Creativity should be free.
That’s why Pixar came up with the Braintrust Method.
The rules for brain trustees are quite simple:
Be as candid as you can be with your feedback, with a focus on problems: feedback must be honest, direct, and constructive.
You have no authority. The director is not required to follow any of the feedback so (s)he can keep following that cohesive vision.
Braintrust meetings typically involve about 2-3 people for 1,5 hours. So that’s it: be frank in sharing your thoughts and leave it up to us to create a solid story.