Project overview: the first step to the perfect design brief
There are several steps involved in the creation of a design brief. If you want to get it right, the best way to start is by defining the project overview. This will help you to have a quick reference to understand what the project is about and what the basics requirements are.
The main goal of this exercise, is to create a short document that you can hand to someone who is not involved in the project and they will understand what it’s about straight away.
At HolaBrief we decided to break the project overview into 4 different sections. Let’s check them out!
1. About the project
Here you should focus on more generic questions in order to get a general understanding of the project. Think of it as an ice breaker! More open questions that lead to deeper insights will come later on in the briefing process.
This section should cover:
- Why are we doing this?
Talk about the real motivation behind the project or company. Try starting with the company background and their reason for being in the business and move to the main problem your customers are facing. Understanding the why will help you think more strategically. - What’s the problem the problem/service is trying to solve?
This is more about the scope of the project. Are you redesigning something that already exists? Or are you starting from the scratch? Don’t create a list of deliverables, that’s coming a couple of steps later, just outline the product or service. That will do for now.
2. Do’s & Dont’s
Even the craziest projects have some do’s and dont’s (in this case go crazy would be a Do). The objective of this section is to avoid basic mistakes that are usually the result of miscommunication during the briefing phase.
Even though every project is totally different, we could say that some common examples of Do’s would be: follow the brand guidelines (classic) or keep away from the last campaign.
Regarding the dont’s, try looking at the big picture and list those key items that can help to avoid last minute pivots. You could say don’t use X color, for example, but only if there is an strategic reason behind (X color is the main color of the parent company and we want to avoid any sort of connection).
Remember, this section is not about personal preferences, is about clarifying those little details before they become big problems.
3. Deliverables
Depending on the type of project the deliverables could be more or less useful in your case.
If the project is about defining the brand strategy, you will probably focus on understanding the problem, finding the right solution and then defining the deliverables. So in that case this section might not be very interesting at this stage. You can always come back to this section later on.
But if the project is more tactical, meaning the whole strategy is already created and now it’s about creating the logo, website, app, etc., this section could be handy to make sure everyone is aligned and there are no unpleasant surprises in the future.
Just try listing things like: brand strategy document, brand guidelines, stationary, responsive website, etc.
4. Deadline
This is probably the most self-explanatory section of the project overview exercise and also the most important one.
When setting a deadline be fair with everyone in the team and keep in mind that at this stage of the project deadlines are an estimation. They will depend on the number of revisions, the time the client takes to give feedback and/or provide materials, etc.
But that shouldn’t be a problem as long as the briefing process is open, collaborative and transparent. And that’s exactly why we created HolaBrief, so happy briefing!
This article is written as part of a collaboration between HolaBrief and Let’s talk branding.
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