On Process: The Briefing Workshop

We’ve learnt the hard way that thorough, methodical, almost over-the-top Briefing is critical to a successful Concept.

It wasn’t always like this - back in the day, when Ever was a small sole practice, the briefing could be handled quite informally. Things hinged on the relationship, and there was this overarching sense of exploration and adventure.

What changed our minds? Well, a couple of years ago, as the Studio grew, we began a rebranding process. The first marketing company briefed the way we did - through coffee and conversations. It felt warm, inviting, almost like a friendship. But something felt a little off; like we were partially understood but not really. We then decided to work with Frankie from what was Studio Neubau (now DDY). If I recall correctly, the briefing questionnaire had something like seven sections in it. It was thorough and long, and took almost a whole morning to fill out properly.

Frankie took the responses, and the new visual identity that she developed was clearly reflective of someone who knew and lived the heart of what we wanted to be.

This experience convinced us that our Briefing process needed to be flipped on its head.

Getting the foundations right

In hindsight, it’s quite an obvious thing - if we don’t take the time to get to know our clients deeply, it’s more likely that we may miss or misunderstand something. But in practical terms this means that the whole process of how we approach a project had to change. Whereas Briefing was conducted initially through conversations, after which we would provide a sketched diagram with the Fee Proposals to indicate a possible design intent, we now take our hands off, and spend the early part of the process asking questions and listening.

The first meeting - now purely a Meet and Greet.
The second - a chance to catchup, meet the team, and have a look at some comparative projects perhaps.
The third - and this happens before we step into the project - a Detailed Briefing Workshop.

What we’ve found is that client developed briefs are often focussing on the quantitative aspects - number of rooms, functional needs, and a guess at Budget. Many are prepared with lookbooks or Pinterest boards.

With our Detailed Briefing Workshop, we are going beyond these needs and wants, and we seek to understand qualitative wants. What makes you tick? What do you enjoy about where you are living, or where you are building? Is it a sense, an emotion, a moment? Coffee in the morning, a cool breeze perhaps?

There’s usually a short Questionnaire for you to prepare before the meeting. Then, the actual Detailed Briefing Workshop will involves multiple members of our team, sitting down with you for a couple of hours, taking you through a series of structured workshop activities and questions. We want to get to know you. To hear about your needs and wants, and to listen thoroughly before we act.

Preparing a Return Brief

Once the Workshop is completed, we work on a Return Brief over the coming week or two - basically putting down on paper our understanding of what you are asking to achieve. The key goal of this early Return Brief excercise is to show our understanding and find common ground before we start. At the same time, the Return Brief is also usually a high-level test of the viability or suitability for your Budget. We don’t want to begin work if we don’t believe that your aspirations, and the available funds, match up.

We will then have a fourth meeting to run through our Return Brief findings, and to agree on a path forward.

In this era of escalating construction costs, we feel a thorough Return Brief process is an absolute necessity to safeguard our clients. Structured, methodical and a little bit painful even - we rather be over-the-top at this early stage, than to begin working on ideas that miss the mark because we haven’t taken time to listen properly.

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