A digital project brief fits on one page

A digital project rarely starts with a fifty-page specification. What matters is that everyone understands the same thing at the outset. A one-page brief is enough, as long as you answer a few questions honestly.

The seven elements of a good brief

1. The context: who you are, what your business does, why this project now.
2. The goal: what the project must change, in one or two sentences. "Receive more online enquiries" is more useful than "redo the website".
3. The users: who will use it, in which situations, on which device.
4. The scope: the essential features, those that can wait, and what is out of scope.
5. The constraints: budget, deadlines, existing tools to connect, rules to follow.
6. The references: three websites or apps you like, and why.
7. The success criteria: how you will know the project has reached its goal (an indicator, a usage, feedback).

What not to try to freeze

A brief is not a contract set in stone. It evolves with prototypes and feedback. Above all, it gives everyone common words and avoids misunderstandings.

Write down what you do not know yet

Flag the open points: "we do not know yet whether we need an app", "our data is spread across several files". These areas of uncertainty are valuable: they show where to prototype and validate first.

Then, a method

Once the brief is written, our project method unfolds the steps: needs discovery, solution proposal, prototype, first version, improvement and launch. If you already have the beginnings of a brief, send it to us: we will reply with a first approach.