Hi Reader,
I just wrapped up discovery calls this week for a new project and was once again reminded why I will never, never trade in-person conversations with clients for a form or questionnaire.
The first week of my 5-week brand strategy process is dedicated entirely to those calls: 2 of them, clocking in at 90 minutes each. I’ve even had clients say that those calls were worth the entire package on its own.
Which is why anytime I see a branding package where the entire “strategy process” is a questionnaire and 30 minute kickoff call, I get a little skeptical.
I mean, I get it: forms are efficient! There’s no meeting to show up to, you can pull together the info on your own time or pull from content you already have. It’s lower pressure and takes less time out of your schedule.
BUT.
And I will die on this hill:
Discovery questionnaires — even the really detailed ones! — don't go deep enough for real strategic work when the future of your brand is on the line.
If you’re bringing in a specialist to help you solve any kind of strategic problem in your brand, the best thing you can do is talk to them. In person. At length.
There are a few reasons for this:
The way you talk about what you do is different than when you write about it.
Hearing you talk out loud about what you care about and where you want to go helps me understand your brand voice, the language you naturally use, what lights you up when you're describing it.
There's nuance in conversation that I just can't get from a written form. (Especially now that many of us are turning to AI to help us write things — it waters down the uniqueness of your voice even more.)
And since most of my clients come to me saying something like “my brand just doesn’t feel like me”, getting to what does feel like you is critical. The best way to do this is to talk about it.
In-person conversations let me dig deeper
A big part of my job is to listen for the things you're not saying. What's between the lines? What emotion is sitting underneath the language you’re using?
Sometimes it’s an interesting turn of phrase that catches my attention and makes me say “tell me more about that”.
And sometimes it’s an assumption or something that makes perfect sense to you but is unclear to me.
And lots of times, it’s the client who says, “Well, actually, what I really mean is…”
Forms don’t allow for that kind of back-and-forth.
Strategy is about decision-making, not data collection
If the job was just to take what you already know and turn it into a marketing asset or a social media template, fine — a form could maybe handle that. (Maybe.)
But brand strategy is about helping you make decisions about who you are as a brand and figure out where you're uncertain or where you need more clarity. To help you understand your options and choose a direction.
To do that we need to brainstorm, pull ideas apart, and hold them up to the light to see what makes the most sense for you.
Those kinds of light-bulb moments only happen in conversation.
I’m not against discovery questionnaires. I have my own! But I am concerned anytime I see a questionnaire carrying the entire strategic load in a process.
This is thinking partner stuff, and making the space for it is always worth it.
Have a great weekend,
Kristen
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