How to brief a design firm so the quote means something.

A brief is the problem, honestly told

The best briefs we receive aren't specifications — they're honest accounts of a problem: who has it, how badly, what's been tried, what winning would measurably look like. A brief that prescribes the solution ("we need an app and an aluminium enclosure") quietly hires the studio to decorate a decision instead of testing it. Tell us the disease and your constraints; let the diagnosis be part of the work.

What to include

The user and the moment of use, as concretely as you can. The commercial frame: price ambitions, volumes, channels, and the deadline with its reason attached — "trade show in March" changes decisions that "ASAP" doesn't. Hard constraints, labelled as hard: standards you must meet, platforms you must fit, things legal has already vetoed. What exists already — prototypes, research, failed attempts (failed attempts are gold; they're paid-for evidence). And the honest state of belief: what's proven, what's assumed, what keeps you up. Budget range too — not because studios price to it, but because scope has to be designed to it, and pretending otherwise wastes everyone's first meeting.

What to leave open on purpose

The form, the architecture, the feature list beyond the essential — anything a Prove loop can answer cheaper than a committee can debate it. A good studio's first deliverable is often a sharper version of your own brief; if the firm you're talking to doesn't push back on at least one of your assumptions, you've hired an order-taker with a portfolio.

What the brief buys you

Comparable, honest quotes — because scope is quotable when the problem is clear. Faster starts. And a paper record of intent that survives personnel changes on both sides. Ours get answered with a scoped first loop and our straight read, which is exactly the deal described on our contact page: two paragraphs is plenty, and the strategy practice exists for the briefs that need building before they need answering.