A great brief is the single highest-leverage thing a client can bring to a project. Most clients have never written one. Here is exactly what to include.
When a project goes wrong, the client usually blames the studio. The studio usually blames the brief — or the lack of one. Both are often right. In our experience, the single biggest variable between a project that runs smoothly and one that does not is whether we started with a clear shared understanding of what success looks like. And that starts with the brief.
What a Brief Is Not
A brief is not a wishlist. It is not a list of features you want. It is not a description of the aesthetic you like. These things belong in a brief eventually, but they should not lead it. A brief that starts with 'we want a website that looks clean and modern with a hero video and three sections' has confused the output with the outcome. We would much rather receive a brief that starts with 'we are losing potential clients at the proposal stage and we think our digital presence is partly responsible.'
“Tell us what needs to change in your business. We will figure out what needs to change in your digital presence.”
The Six Things Every Brief Should Answer
- What is the business problem or opportunity this project should address?
- Who is the primary audience, and what do you know about how they make decisions?
- What does success look like in concrete, measurable terms six months after launch?
- What constraints exist — budget, timeline, technology, internal stakeholders?
- What has already been tried, and what did you learn from it?
- Who on your side has the authority to make final decisions?
A brief that answers these six questions honestly — even imperfectly — gives a good studio everything it needs to do exceptional work. It removes ambiguity, aligns expectations, and creates a shared definition of success that both sides can return to when decisions get hard. It also tends to surface the real problem, which is often different from the one that was originally presented. That discovery, early in the process, is worth more than any deliverable.