Journal
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The shape of a good brief
A great brief isn't a list of deliverables — it's a shared understanding of the problem worth solving.
Most projects don’t go sideways in the design phase. They go sideways at the brief — when everyone thinks they agree but quietly means different things.
Start with the problem, not the artifact
A weak brief says: “We need a new logo.” A strong brief says: “Customers don’t understand what we do, and our current identity makes us look like a competitor we’re trying to move away from.”
The first is a request for an artifact. The second is a problem — and problems are what design actually solves.
Questions I always ask
- What has to be true in twelve months for this to be a success?
- Who are we not designing for?
- What’s the one thing we cannot get wrong?
The answers rarely fit neatly, and that’s the point. The conversation is the work. By the time we agree on the shape of the problem, the solution is already half-formed.