A brief is not a formality; it is the first draft of the project. Whatever is missing from it will be filled in by the team's best guess, and guesses drift.

What a useful brief contains

  • The goal — what should be different after this exists
  • The audience — who it's for, and what they already know
  • The constraints — budget, timeline, formats, must-haves
  • References — one example you love and one you don't

The last item matters most. Showing what you dislike narrows the field faster than any adjective, and it saves a round of revisions.