Most of the briefs that land in our inbox suffer from the exact same problem: they read like a letter to Santa Claus.
"We want a modern, clean, minimalist website that generates a lot of leads and is SEO-optimized."
That's not a brief. That's a given. No agency is going to pitch you an "outdated, cluttered, ugly site that scares away customers."
A real brief doesn't talk about HEX colors or "wanting to look like Apple." A real brief answers the only question that matters: What business problem are we trying to solve with this investment?
Send a generic brief, and you'll get generic proposals and generic results. Here is the antidote.
The 5 Elements of a Brief That Actually Works
Forget the 20-page documents that nobody reads. A good brief is surgical. You only need to make five things crystal clear:
| Key Element | What They Usually Write (Wrong) | What You Should Write (Right) |
|---|---|---|
| The Context | "We want a new website." | "Current site loads slowly and bleeds mobile sales." |
| The Audience | "Small and medium businesses." | "Logistics CFOs tired of using Excel." |
| Competitors | "We are unique in the market." | "We compete with X and Y, who use boring corporate blue." |
| Constraints | "Make it look pretty." | "Must integrate with HubSpot and be hosted on AWS." |
| Metrics | "We want more sales." | "Increase conversion from 1.2% to 2.5% in 3 months." |
The Context (The "Why")
Don't tell us what you want to build. Tell us why you're willing to pay for it right now. Is a major industry event coming up? Is your current site loading so slowly that you're bleeding sales? Did your business model pivot? Context dictates technical priorities.The Audience (Don't say "Everyone")
Define your ideal user, and more importantly, define their biggest objection to buying from you.The Competitive Landscape
Share 3 direct competitors. Not to copy them, but to understand the baseline of your industry and find where to break the mold. If all your competitors use corporate blue and stock handshakes, there is your first massive advantage.Technical Constraints
This is where 90% of projects fail. Be brutally honest about what already exists in your infrastructure and cannot be changed.The Success Metric
Define how you will measure the project's success before writing a single line of code. "We want to increase the pricing page conversion rate from 1.2% to 2.5% in 3 months" is a real goal.
Our Official Template (Ready to Use)
We know starting from a blank page is hard. That's why we've prepared an interactive Google Docs template with the exact structure we demand from our clients before kicking off any high-level project.
# WHAT YOU'LL FIND IN THE TEMPLATE:
- 1. Business Context (Objective, Situation, Budget)
- 2. Audience (Key Problem, Objections)
- 3. Competitive Landscape (Direct Competitors & Differentiators)
- 4. Functional Requirements (CRM Integrations, APIs)
- 5. Success Criteria (KPIs and Baselines)
It's short, fluff-free, and gets straight to the point.
💡 The secret trick: Notice that the link ends in
/copy. When you click it, Google Docs will automatically prompt you to make a private copy in your own account. No one will see your drafts, and you'll have an editable file in 1 second.
How to use it?
- Fill it out before asking for quotes: It will force you to align your internal team before talking to outsiders. It is the best clarity exercise you can do.
- Use it as an agency filter: Send it to 3 agencies. The agency that gives you a quote without asking critical questions about this document is an agency that is guessing. Work with the one that challenges your answers.
Your brief doesn't have to be a literary masterpiece; it just needs to be a clear map. Duplicate the template, fill it out honestly, and get ready for the best web project of your career.
