What to include so studios can quote properly, with a structure you can fill in during an afternoon.
Vague briefs produce vague quotes, and vague quotes turn into variation charges. An hour spent writing a proper brief buys you comparable quotes and a project that stays on budget.
What to include
- What your business does, in two sentences, for someone who has never heard of you.
- What the website must achieve. Be specific: 'generate enquiries for commercial plumbing work in Auckland' rather than 'a professional online presence'.
- Who the site is for. The actual person, their situation, what they are worried about.
- A rough page list. Best guess is fine, it is a starting point.
- Anything it must integrate with: booking systems, accounting software, payment providers.
- Who will update the site after launch, and how technical they are.
- Your budget range. Yes, really.
- Your timeline, and whether there is a hard date driving it.
Three or four examples, with reasons
Include a few sites you like and, more usefully, say why. 'I like this one' tells a designer nothing. 'I like how this one explains pricing on the homepage' tells them a great deal.
Include one or two you dislike as well, with reasons. Knowing what to avoid is as useful as knowing what to aim for.
What you do not need to specify
- The technology. Describe the outcome, and let the studio propose how.
- Exact page layouts, unless you have a genuine constraint.
- Design details like colours, unless you have brand guidelines to follow.
Brief the problem, not the solution. If you specify the solution, you get the solution you specified, which may not be the one that works best.