05Process
The brief we ask for, and why it is short
Long briefs describe the deliverable. Short ones describe the problem, and only one of those is useful before the work starts.
- Written by
- WORKINX Studio
- Published
- 16 July 2026
- Read time
- 1 min
A brief that specifies the output in detail has usually done the design work already, badly, in prose. What it leaves out is the thing that would have made the design obvious: what is going wrong now, and for whom.
The questions worth answering
- 01What is the product, in the words a customer would use?
- 02Who is deciding, and what are they deciding between?
- 03What have you already tried that did not work?
- 04What would make this a success, in a way you could tell?
That is a short document, and it is a harder one to write than a long specification, because every answer is a commitment rather than a wish.
A brief is not a description of what you want made. It is a description of the situation that makes something worth making.
