Pixar (3)

Pixar use regular meetings every few months called Braintrust Meetings to inspect progress made on a film, talk through what works and what doesn’t, and how to adapt the film to improve (i.e. similar to a Sprint Review).

‘put smart passionate people in a room together, charge them with identifying and solving problems, and encourage them to be candid with one another’
page 86-7

Structure (1, page 94)

Film screening
Lunch together in a conference room (to gather thoughts)
Director will give a summary of where they think they are
Feedback begins

Feedback (page 93)

Braintrust notes, then, are intended to bring the true causes of problems to the surface – not to demand a specific remedy (page 93)
The director (as mirrors the PO role) is able to change whatever he/she wants from the feedback
Feedback is given as constructive criticism (page 103)
- “The writing in this scene isn’t good enough” (just criticism)
- “Don’t you want people to walk out of the theater and be quoting those lines?” (more of a challenge and shows you want the same things)