A project brief is a one-page document that sets scope, deliverables, and deadlines before client work starts. Here's a full worked example you can adapt.
Edin Abazi5 min readDefinition
Project brief is a short document that states what a project is, why it matters, what's needed, and when it's due, so everyone involved starts from the same page.
Why it matters
A brief lines everyone up before work starts. Nulab says a well-defined brief significantly affects project success because it aligns expectations and minimizes misunderstandings. Canva describes the same document as something that keeps a team focused, aligned, and on track from start to finish.
Here's what that looks like in client work. A studio quotes a five-page website. The client, who never said otherwise, pictured ten pages plus a blog. Nobody notices until the first review, and by then the design is done. The studio either eats the extra work or has an awkward conversation about money. One paragraph in a brief would have caught it on day one.
A brief isn't only an internal document, either. For client work, it's the thing you write and hand back to the client to confirm. That makes it a small shared agreement, written before work starts rather than paperwork filed afterward.
Two opinions shape how we think about briefs:
- Short enough that clients read it, complete enough that nobody asks what the project is. If it runs past a page, it's turning into a project plan.
- Build it from the client's own words. Don't send a blank template and wait. Clients describe work better in a messy email than in form fields they dread. Take the request as it comes, ask only for what's missing, and write the brief yourself. If you want the design-specific version, our guide to writing a creative brief clients will actually fill in covers it.
This is also why an AI account manager is useful here: the slow part of a brief is chasing missing details, not writing them down.
Don't just take our word for it. Pick 10 projects. Count revision rounds and clarifying emails per project before you require briefs, then count again for a month after. If the numbers don't drop, change the brief.
How it works: what goes in a project brief
A project brief answers four questions: What is the project? Why does it matter? What's needed (deliverables, scope, inputs)? When is it due, and who signs off? Everything else is detail under one of those.
The parts of a brief
Sources like Nulab describe the brief as an overview of goals, scope, and deliverables, a blueprint rather than the full construction plan. In practice, these are the parts that earn their place:
| Part | Answers | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| Background | Why does it matter? | The problem or opportunity, in two or three sentences |
| Goals | Why does it matter? | One to three outcomes you could check later |
| Scope and exclusions | What's needed? | What's included, and what is explicitly not |
| Deliverables | What's needed? | The actual things you'll hand over |
| Target audience | What's needed? | Who the work is for |
| Inputs from the client | What's needed? | Content, logins, brand files, decisions they owe you |
| Timeline and milestones | When is it due? | Start, key checkpoints, final date |
| Roles and approver | Who signs off? | Who works on it, and the one person who says yes |
| Budget or resources | What's needed? | The limit or the agreed fee, if relevant |
Not every project needs every row. A small request might be four lines. The exclusions row is the one people skip and regret.
Example: a cafe website brief
This is an illustrative example, the kind of everyday project you'd brief. A small cafe wants a new website.
- Background: The current site is outdated and doesn't show the menu on mobile.
- Goal: Let customers find the menu, hours, and address in under 10 seconds on a phone.
- Included: Five pages (home, menu, about, catering, contact), a contact form, basic search setup.
- Excluded: Online ordering, a blog, photography, copywriting for the catering page.
- Client supplies: Menu as a PDF, logo files, 10 photos, opening hours, by the end of week one.
- Timeline: Design review in week three, launch on a fixed date.
- Approver: The owner, one person, via a single approval.
Notice the ten-page surprise from earlier can't happen now. The scope line says five pages, and the client has agreed to it in writing.
When to write it
Write it early, but not before the project is real. PRINCE2 practice treats the brief as a short, high-level overview created at the start-up stage. Notion frames it as something you write after buy-in and before detailed planning. For a client team, that means after the client says yes and before anyone opens a design file.
The mechanics for a client team usually run like this:
- A request arrives, often as a rambling email. Email intake can turn it into a structured request without asking the client to learn a new tool.
- You ask for what's missing: the deadline, who approves, what's out of scope.
- You write the brief in one page, using the client's wording where you can.
- The client confirms it with a single click through approvals, and then work starts.
You can do all of that by hand, and plenty of teams do. Or let Dora ask the client for what's missing and write the brief for you. Your first client is free, forever, so you can try it on a real project.
Related terms
- Creative brief: the design and messaging slice of a project brief, covering tone, audience, and brand direction.
- Project plan: the detailed execution roadmap (tasks, owners, dates) that follows the brief.
- Project charter: a formal document that authorizes the project and gives the project lead authority.
- Scope of work: the agreed boundaries of the job, which the brief summarizes in a few lines.
- Client portal: the shared space where briefs, files, and approvals live so clients aren't hunting through email.
- Change request: what you raise when the work moves outside the brief, so the brief stays the source of truth.
Often confused with
Project brief vs project charter. The brief aligns the team around the core idea. A charter formally authorizes the project and grants authority. Small client jobs rarely need a charter, but nearly all of them need a brief. PRINCE2 places the brief at the very start of a project, before the heavier management documents.
Project brief vs creative brief. A project brief covers logistics and business goals. A creative brief zooms in on design, messaging, and brand.
Project brief vs project plan. The brief says what and why. The plan says exactly how, task by task.
FAQ
How long should a project brief be?
About one page. It should be long enough to cover goals, scope, deliverables, and dates, and short enough that the client actually reads it. If it's growing past a page, move the detail into the project plan.
Who writes the project brief?
Usually the team delivering the work. They draft it from the client's request, then the client confirms it before work starts. That keeps the brief in the client's words while the team makes sure nothing is missing.
Is a client brief the same as a project brief?
Mostly. A client brief is the project brief seen from the client's side: their request, goals, and constraints. The team turns that into the working brief, with scope, deliverables, and dates filled in.
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