The Anatomy of Briefs That Deliver

I've argued elsewhere that most creative projects fail before execution even starts, that the talent is rarely the problem, it's really improper documentation that is to blame. (If you want that case, it's in The Brief Behind the Brief.) This is the practical companion: what actually goes in each brief, the ways they tend to fail, and my foolproof tips for a successful briefing.

Firstly, let's make sure we're referring to the right thing. The first brief to focus on is typically referred to as the marketing brief or strategy brief. Call it the campaign brief if it's a campaign.

The greatest hits of getting it wrong

I've watched briefs fail in roughly the same nine ways, over and over, across very different companies. Roughly in order of how often they happen:

• No clear business goal or strategy underneath the work.
• No defined budget, which means “budget” becomes a surprise everyone discovers later, usually loudly.
• The wrong team, or the right people with no defined roles. This is where I get evangelical about a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed). It is not glamorous. It will save your project's life.
• No defined goals or outcome, so “success” is whatever mood the stakeholder is in on launch day.
• No accounting for risks and roadblocks you could see coming if you bothered to look.
• No single clear owner. This is the quiet killer underneath all the others. When everyone owns a project, no one does. It just sort of happens to you.
• Not considering your audience's key drivers. I mean truly knowing them, audience interviews are super accessible nowadays, so no excuses.
• Not tracking metrics, what are we even here for again?
• No retro, so you make the same mistakes again next quarter with full confidence.

What I actually do instead

My method isn't complicated, which is sort of the point.

• I run an alignment call before anything gets designed, and I send the questions over beforehand. This is the part people underestimate. Ambush stakeholders with “so what's the real goal here?” live on a call and you get improvised answers that sound confident but may be pointed at the wrong target. Send the questions ahead and people show up having actually thought.
• I start with a robust brief, then tailor it down based on how many resources we're actually putting in. A scrappy two-week sprint and a flagship campaign don't need the same brief, but they need to have asked the same questions. You scale the answer, not the thinking.
• I use standardized templates. A consistent structure saves time and makes sure nothing critical gets dropped. It also makes the whole thing repeatable, which, again, is the entire point.

And if you take exactly one thing from all of this: a clear objective tied to a business goal, and a budget range you're willing to commit to. Those two things, decided up front, prevent about 80% of the pain. Everything else is negotiable. Those aren't.

For the case on why all of this matters, especially now that AI is tempting everyone to skip it, read The Brief Behind the Brief.