How to create a perfect brief? Tips

When you want to work with an outside agency to create a new website, system or online store for you, already during the very first conversations, the agency will ask you to fill in a document containing questions about the implementation process and your plans about it.

That’s what a brief is for. The information included in a brief will help the agency to understand your business and what product they can offer you. The brief allows developers and project managers to know what they need to do to deliver you the finished product.

Budget

Being open about the price you are willing to pay for the services of the agency will help to estimate how they can use that budget to develop the best product for you. With the higher budget, the agency will know that they will have more time to polish the product, and with the lower budget they could be able to include fewer modules while maintaining their quality.

The complexity of the project should be taken into account, because, for example, it will be more expensive to develop a system with a lot of modules than with few. The budget should give the agency a sense of the project’s scope.

Deadline

After you set the budget range the deadline will define how long the development of the project will take. Using this information the agency then will evaluate if they would have enough time to finish the project within the proposed budget and timeframe.

Be realistic when setting the deadline. Some projects will take weeks to finish, others can take months. If the date is important to you, let the agency know so they can adjust their schedule to it.

Information about the company

Often companies underestimate the importance of company information. But the agency needs to know their client to deliver the product that will suit him the best. Including the company's profile helps to understand the company and their needs that in the long run will positively affect the project design and functions.

While describing the company you can also include information about your customers. The defined target audience will help the agency to understand how your potential customers may use your website or store. In case of dedicated system add information about the company’s industry and its size. Such specific information will indicate how many employees will use the system and what modules it will need to have.

Goals and expectations

Usually, companies want to develop new stores or systems when they have some specific goals for it in mind. The brief is the perfect place to put them. Goals and expectations help the agency to understand what aspects of the project they need to pay more attention to. Precise goals will show which modules are more important for the client. Describe in details what actions you want your customers to do in your store or what processes you want to automate with the dedicated system. The more details you include in the brief the better suited the finished product will be.

Setting clear goals and expectation will help not only the agency but also the client. Thanks to defined expectations you could assess if the project was executed in accordance with your plans and how well it would fit your company.

The detailed and well-thought brief will allow you as well as the agency to understand the complexity and scope of the project. The good brief shows that the client knows what he wants and it makes the agency’s work much easier. Creating a brief full of details you can be sure that the agency will deliver the product that you expect them to.

You still don’t quite know how to deal with the brief? Do not worry. Contact us. We will help you take the first step.