Session runbook

Permanent URL: /session-runbook/.

4. Session runbook

Before (by the day before)

1. Confirm the buyer is coming. Ask who signs off on tools for shoots. If it's someone else, invite them or move the date.
2. Get the material: brief, shot list, product list, talent, locations, shoot dates. Whatever they have, however messy.
3. Set up: a clean workspace; load their sources; run cq-diagnose to pre-list the open questions.
4. Pick the three biggest risks: the gaps most likely to cause a reshoot. Lead with these.

During (30 minutes)

Minutes	What happens
0 to 3	Frame it: "We'll build the plan for [shoot] together. You keep it either way." Confirm who decides
3 to 20	Build the plan on their shoot: cast each shot with product, talent and location; walk the open questions, biggest risk first; ask "Is this right?"
20 to 27	Questions (below). Listen more than you talk; write down their exact words
27 to 30	Next step: put a date in the calendar with the same buyer before hanging up

Questions:

1. Walk me through your last shoot, brief to final images. Where did it go sideways?
2. When did you last reshoot or miss a shot? What did it cost in days or money?
3. Where do the brief and shot list live today, and how many people touch them?
4. How many shoots or drops a month or season? Is that going up?
5. Who decides on a tool like this, and who else would need to see it?
6. What have you tried (sheets, Asana, Monday, Airtable)? Why did it stop working?
7. If this ran your next shoot, what would have to be true for you to keep using it?

After (same day)

1. Send the plan and recap within 2 hours: the plan, the open questions, and the agreed next step with its date.
2. Log one line on the scoreboard: buyer present? Own work used? Dated next step? Best quote. Three yeses means qualified.
3. Champion-only call? Ask them to bring the buyer to a second session; don't count it yet.

Counts as a next step (dated, with the same buyer): a second session on their next real shoot; a Founding Access pilot on a named shoot with a start date; the buyer bringing another decision-maker to a dated session.

Doesn't count: "Send me more info" or a deck; "Let's reconnect after the launch" with no date; a next step with only the champion.