Wistia has been a favorite of ours for a while. We are not the only ones. They have a whole army that is obsessed with binge-worthy shows such as One, Ten, One Hundred, and Brandwagon.
Brandwagon was actually what sparked the idea of a new series. We talk to influential brands and influencers about their strategies for building, launching, and maintaining the best projects.
Who better to be our first guest than the people who inspired it all?
For a closer look at the video production process of Wistia, Chris Lavigne, Head of Production, and Kristen Bryant Strategic Partnerships Manager, Kristen Bryant will be with you. They will show you how to organize a crew and create a promotion strategy.
Chris and Kristen taught us one thing: creative ideation is a crucial part of project planning at Wistia. Here are three reasons Wistia makes sure to have time for brainstorming before any video production begins.
It helps projects to stay on schedule
Wistia doesn’t just use brainstorming for big ideas. It is used to create a detailed concept for each episode, so that they can make a foolproof production and promotion plan.
Chris says, “If you want to release something with an established cadence, it is important to keep on track.” “And you should have ideation sessions well in advance to allow your team time to hit pre-production to make a plan.
Chris explains why it’s important to allow ideas to fail.

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It brings everyone together around the plan
If everyone is on the same page about the project’s meaning, you don’t need to pause work to clarify things mid-project. Wistia spent time creating a clear concept for Brandwagon.
Kristen explains, “As people start to imagine what that means from a company standpoint, it was essential to lock down that concept. I mean what we say when we say, We’re going to shoot a interview-style show featuring fun segments.”
Check out the questions Wistia’s concept documents answered.
It simplifies video production and keeps the scope under control.
Wistia used Brandwagon’s ideation as a strategic tool for making the entire video production process more manageable and repeatable.
Chris says that the container was a key element in helping us plan the project and keep on schedule. It almost resembled our own template or format for the show.
So that scope creep doesn’t occur, this limits the potential length of each episode. This saves time and effort as you don’t need to spend extra hours brainstorming and sourcing resources for each episode once production has begun.
Find out how much Wistia spent on preproduction vs. producing.
Watch What’s the Plan Get a free project template
Do you want to make your projects memorable? The first three episodes of What’s the Plan are now available. to discover:
Good project planning allows for brainstorming, idea development, and even the odd bad idea.
How Wistia organized Brandwagon’s crew and why clarity in roles was crucial to managing workloads, and encouraging better accountability
Why Wistia abandoned the traditional SaaS marketing strategy and turned to media networks for inspiration to create a sustainable strategy to promote Brandwagon
We’ll also share the Wistia lessons learned to create a project plan.
Watch What’s the Plan? now!