What a good brief looks like

The best projects we have worked on started with a short, honest brief. Not a long one: a short one, with the uncomfortable parts left in.

Start with the decision

Ask what will be decided differently once the work exists. A new website is rarely the goal. A hiring plan, a funding round or a launch date usually is, and it shapes every choice that follows.

Name the constraint

A fixed date, a fixed budget, a system you cannot replace. Say it on page one. Constraints are cheap to design around and expensive to discover in week nine.

Say who will say no

Every project has a person who can stop it late. Put their name in the brief and invite them to the first review, not the last.

• What changes when this is done?

• What can we not change?

• Who has the final say?

• What have you tried already?

• What would make this a failure?