Lately we have been noticing more and more that clients skip the brief entirely. With the new ways of working, many assume that tossing comments over a video call and sharing data is enough. It absolutely is not. Just last week I was working on a project where I headed off in completely the wrong direction – one the client clearly didn’t want. They had neglected to send me a brief and simply spent ten minutes on the phone telling me what to do, admitting they weren’t really sure themselves. The result was that I wasted many days of work and had to start from scratch. That is frustrating for both sides – freelancer and client alike. I had to start over and was left demotivated. The first version still had to be paid for, so the client ended up paying twice. To prevent this, here are some tips for a successful brief.
Once you receive the client’s brief, a re-brief is also worthwhile. This is the process of prioritising and structuring the client’s needs in such a way that the brief gets the best out of the commissioned freelancer or team. The written brief should also be discussed in person. This allows any outstanding questions to be clarified and ensures everyone understands what the work is meant to achieve.
Structure and outline of a brief
First and foremost: every brief must be written down. It must include concrete requirements covering the classic questions of what, when, where and how. Responsibilities must also be clarified: who, when, where and how? The structure should have a clear outline with individual points and clear deadlines. The written brief is short and clear, uses bullet points rather than paragraphs, and is no longer than two A4 pages.
A good starting point is to write down the background to the task – the context of the brief. This explains why the client needs the project in the first place. Perhaps a new competitor has entered the market, prompting a new campaign, or an app needs rethinking. One to two paragraphs should suffice here. This is followed by the task itself: a short description of the project that answers the question of what exactly needs to be done. This should be answerable in a single sentence.
Next come the objectives: concrete business or user-oriented goals that must be achieved as part of the project. Should revenue be increased? Should users find it easier to access their accounts? These points must be formulated concretely and be clearly measurable. Which company objectives should the work fulfil? This is followed by the strategy: the central message or brand statement that is to be communicated – especially important for advertising campaigns or brand work.
The scope of delivery follows: a precise list of deliverables. A concise bullet-point list defines exactly what needs to be produced. How many versions of the concept need to be presented, for example? What ad sizes are required?
Setting deadlines
After the scope comes the timeline. The brief should schedule not just the final deadline but all the milestones along the way: initial client presentations, the final presentation of revised drafts, a check-in if needed, and the dates for final versions and production. Both internal and external deadlines are important. Resources come at the end: ordered links to documents. Define exactly what each is for. Mark what must be read and what is optional. A list of links and documents without any explanation of what to do with them is not helpful. Examples are welcome here to illustrate a point – but always with a clear explanation of why they were chosen.
Of course a client cannot always articulate what they want their project to look like. For this there can be a session where the client removes, swaps and comments on images and objects on a wall, explaining why they kept certain things and not others. This way the client can express their gut feeling for what the project should look like when they cannot put it into words.
It is clear that a brief contains quite a number of essential elements without which the contractor cannot head in the right direction – which can lead to misunderstandings that are entirely avoidable. We say it plainly: No Brief? No Work.