Before our first workshop with a new client, we ask them to write a brief. Not a long one. A single page, seven questions, answered in plain sentences. Some clients are surprised. They’re hiring a studio, after all, and writing briefs sounds like our job.
Writing the final brief is our job. But the first draft has to come from inside the business, because the most useful thing it reveals isn’t the answers. It’s whether the people around the table actually agree on them.
Why one page
Long briefs hide disagreement. A twenty-page document can describe three different websites at once without anyone noticing. One page forces choices, and choices are what we need before we can design anything.
It doesn’t need to be polished. Bullet points are fine. Typos are fine. Three honest sentences from the person who runs the business are worth more to us than a page of finished copy from someone who wasn’t in the meeting.
It also shows us how decisions get made. If the brief comes back in a day, signed off by one person, we know the project will move quickly. If it takes three weeks and four rounds of comments, we plan the review stages around that, and we’re glad we found out before design started rather than halfway through it.
The seven questions
Why now? What’s changed in the business that makes the current site a problem this year?
Who is the site for? Name the two or three types of visitor that matter most, in order.
What should they do? One main action for each, such as book a call, buy, apply or get in touch.
How will we know it worked? A number you already track, and where it stands today.
What must not change? Your search rankings, a URL structure, a booking system, a CRM connection, a piece of the brand people already recognize.
Who decides? One name for content, one for final sign-off.
What would make this project a failure? Be specific.
The failure question gets the most honest answers. People who struggle to describe success can almost always describe what they’re afraid of.
What good answers look like
A weak answer to question two is “everyone.” A strong one sounds like this: “Operations managers at mid-sized manufacturers who are comparing us with two competitors, and then their finance director, who needs to see certifications and case studies before signing.” We can design for that person.
A weak answer to question four is “more traffic.” A strong one is “We get around 14 demo requests a month from the website. We’d like 30 within six months of launch.” That gives everyone a baseline, a target and a reason to set up tracking properly before launch, not after.
Question five matters more than people expect, especially if the site already connects to other systems. If leads flow into a CRM, bookings sync with a calendar, or the site was built quickly with AI tools and is already taking orders, we need to know on day one. Those are the things that break quietly during a rebuild.
Question six is often the hardest. Naming one person for sign-off can feel political. But when final approval is shared between five people, the site gets redesigned in review, and the result is usually a compromise none of them wanted.
What we do with it
We read every brief before the workshop and mark where answers are vague or where two people have written different things. The workshop then spends its time on those gaps, not on introductions. By the end of the first week, we turn your page into our written brief: the same seven answers, sharpened, plus scope, platform, timeline and the numbers we’ll report against.
Both sides sign it. From then on, every design decision can be checked against it. When someone in review asks for a bigger logo or another slider on the homepage, the brief lets everyone ask a simple question: does this help the visitor named in question two, or just the person in the room?
Write yours before you talk to anyone
You don’t need to be working with us to use this. Answer the seven questions before you speak to any studio, and send the same page to each one. You’ll get better proposals, easier comparisons and, often, a clearer idea of what you actually need. If two of your colleagues answer the first question differently, that’s a conversation worth having before anyone sends a quote.
If you’d like the seven questions as a document to share with your team, ask on your first call and we’ll send you the version we use.
