I started college as a film major. Part of the program was rotating students through every role it takes to make a movie, and once, it was my turn to direct. At the end of a long shoot day, my small crew and I crammed into a dark closet to watch dailies. In film speak, dailies are the raw footage from each day. You review them to see what needs to be reshot before you strike the set and move on.

And when I was directing, we changed plenty: better light, a different line delivery, and an entire scene where we had to replace the audio. Because we looked at the footage right away, we could adjust as we went instead of finishing the whole shoot and discovering we'd have to scrap most of it.

Sure, we had a script. That was the plan. But the dailies are how we built the movie, one small fix at a time.

What this has to do with your 2027 plan

Spoiler alert: I didn’t become a filmmaker. But since becoming Ei’s CEO, I’ve channeled my film school self to build our strategy, emulating how a filmmaker approaches a movie: write the script, call action, then check the footage early and often. Because when the future stops behaving like the past, how often you look at your work matters more than how good your plan was. Your review rhythm becomes your strategy.

Here's what’s worth borrowing from those nights reviewing dailies:

You look every day. Or close to it. When something isn't working, you find out quickly, while there’s time to make a change.

You look at the mess. Nobody polishes dailies. You watch the raw footage, because the imperfection is where the information lives. A strategy review built on a tidy slide deck is a highlight reel. It shows you what someone wants you to see, not what you might need to change.

You look forward. The question in that closet was never "Who is at fault?" It was "What do we shoot differently in the morning?"

Run your own dailies

Consider thinking of strategy as a set of experiments. What bets are you willing to make this quarter that move you closer to your vision? How will you know if they're working?

Borrow twenty minutes from a meeting you already have, once a week, with the people closest to the work. Bring one strategic experiment and talk through three questions:

1. What did we see this week, and what surprised us? Bring the “raw footage”. Surprises show you where your assumptions and reality have started to drift apart.

2. Is this take working? Keep it, adjust it, or cut it. All three are good answers. A “failed” bet is not a failure; it’s permission to try something else.

3. What do we shoot differently tomorrow? One change, one owner, and a date to look again.

That's a wrap

Our student film didn’t turn out the way the script said it would. It turned out better because we kept looking and adjusting along the way. (Admittedly, still not good. It was college!)

If you try this, I'd love to hear what your first dailies session turns up. And if you’re about to treat your 2027 plan like a finished film, let’s talk. We can help you build the plan and the rhythm for reviewing the dailies.