We had our first portfolio brief last week. It went horribly. I think that’s the point. 

It’s funny, after Marc set us our portfolio brief, he flippantly remarked, ‘oh you won’t have many deadlines this week so you have time to reflect’. Upon reflection, I will now forever assume that there will always, ALWAYS be more deadlines. They slip past the security of Google calendar like a Glastonbury gate crasher. Every single one is fun and excited to be there, but you can’t quite spot their heads in the crowd. I’m starting to worry that at this rate I might end up causing a mad crush at the main stage if one doesn’t get on top of managing all these deadlines, just being honest.

Now the portfolio brief its self felt like it was going well, for a few days. Then we got stuck on the mixing of the breakfast (Ready Brek Porridge was the brand). Clogged down and clumpy, we just couldn’t see what the SMP should be, and when we found something, often we changed it 5 mins later. It got to a point two days before hand-in when, it felt like rather than just nailing the SMP to hang our work onto, we were nailing it to hang the rope around our necks too. 

24 hours before the deadline, what did we have? Let’s call it “Fuck All with a Migraine”. Lots of ideas and a whole lot more scamps but nothing to bring it together and not really much in terms of execution possibilities. Completely stuck, we still handled in a sleepy answer to the questions of the brief 24 hours later. We didn’t get much of a score, but the fact we managed it was really impressive, (according to the comments). What were the takeaways?

1. Nail the SMP 
2. Do it as soon as possible and try and stick with it 
3. Make it simple 
4. Show it to someone 
5. Have calls with partners and teammates all the time. 

The 5th point needs more elaboration I think. I’ve had a few different experiences with different partners and I have to say, when working online, I find it best that Zoom calls are not just for meetings, but more of a recreation of the in-person effect. If you’re coming up with ideas, then jump on the phone with your partner and just do it together. For me and Terry, it was clear that we really enjoyed working in that way, and it defo moved our ideas forward, making it possible to complete our brief in a unified way. I found that without enough time together, we ended up on different pages and spent more time than we needed bringing those pages back together again. 

I learned a lot from both the successes and failures of the brief. I really hope the next one goes a little smoother but never the less, it was a fruitful experience and I know Terry and I are going to take it with us moving forward. So that was my first portfolio brief. It went horribly. I think that’s the point.