How to Brief a Design Agency: Eight Sections of a Working Brief
Process · April 15, 2023
A working brief answers eight questions: business context, the problem, the audience, success metrics, scope, visual direction, technical requirements, and timeline with budget. Two pages are enough for all eight. The template below lists what each section contains and gives example wording.
Key takeaways
- A brief names a business problem; "we need a new website" is a solution, not a problem.
- Success metrics are written with a baseline and a target, for example form submissions per month from N to M.
- Uncertainty is stated explicitly: an open question in the brief is resolved during discovery.
- A brief is the start of a conversation, not a binding specification.
Brief length
Briefs fail at both extremes. A long document buries the actual requirements in corporate language, while a one-line message leaves everything undefined until the project is already under way. A structured brief of up to two pages covers the necessary sections and nothing more.
Eight sections of a brief
| № | Section | Content | Example wording |
|---|
| 1 | Business context | Business model, customer type (B2B or B2C, enterprise or SME), market, company stage | "B2B distributor of industrial equipment, sales through account managers" |
| 2 | Problem | The business problem behind the project; a new website is a solution, not a problem | "Prospects cannot tell from the homepage what we do, and deals stall at the first call" |
| 3 | Audience | Job titles of decision makers, company size, digital literacy, primary device | "Procurement managers at mid-size manufacturers, mostly on desktop" |
| 4 | Success metrics | A measurable result with a baseline and a target | "Increase contact form submissions from N to M per month" |
| 5 | Scope and deliverables | Pages or features; open questions stated explicitly | "Catalogue, product page, request form; unclear whether a client account is needed" |
| 6 | Brand and visual direction | Brand guidelines, or an explicit statement that there are none; three to five reference sites with a note on what is liked in each | "Guidelines attached; references: site A for typography, site B for the catalogue layout" |
| 7 | Technical requirements | CRM, payments, existing back end, internal tools, hosting and stack preferences | "Integration with the existing CRM; hosting in the client's cloud" |
| 8 | Timeline and budget | A hard deadline and its reason; a budget range | "Launch before the trade show; budget range attached" |
The success metrics section connects the brief to the KPI agreement made during discovery. The method is described in How We Measure Project Success.
What a brief is not
- A brief is not a solution document: a list of pages in a fixed order says what, but not why.
- A brief is not a request for proposal or a legally binding specification.
- A brief is not a company history; it describes the project context.
- A brief is not a list of competitor features; it starts from the users' problems.
Brief and discovery
Every Bang Digital project starts with discovery, and discovery is included in the project price. The brief is the input to discovery: questions left open in the brief are resolved there, together with the domain model and the success criteria.
Related reading: How to Choose a Digital Agency, How We Measure Project Success, Services.
FAQ
What should a design agency brief include?
Business context, the problem the project solves, the target audience, success metrics, scope and deliverables, brand and visual direction, technical requirements and integrations, and the timeline with a budget range.
How long should a brief be?
Up to two pages. The brief should be specific about the problem and honest about constraints, and leave room for the agency to propose the solution.
What if I do not know the exact scope?
Say so in the brief. The scope is clarified during discovery; at Bang Digital discovery opens every project and is included in the price.