Writing a brief that produces a website that works

Most briefs describe pages and features. The ones that produce good websites describe customers, problems and outcomes, and leave the solution to whoever is being paid to design it.

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A good brief states the business problem, who the customers are, what they need to understand and do, what must be preserved from the current site, and how success will be measured. Leave page structures and features to the supplier, and ask specifically who is responsible for content, visibility and conversion.

Describe the problem, not the pages

A brief listing pages and features has already decided the solution, usually based on what the current site has rather than on what customers need.

Describe the situation instead: who your customers are, what they are trying to work out, what they currently fail to understand, and what you want more of. Then a competent supplier can propose a structure, and their proposal tells you something about them.

What the brief should contain

Seven items cover it, and none of them require technical knowledge.

  • What the business does and who it serves best.
  • The business problem the site must solve.
  • What customers need to understand and be able to do.
  • What must be preserved: addresses, converting pages, existing content.
  • How success will be measured, and over what period.
  • Constraints: budget, timing, who is available internally.
  • Who is responsible for content, visibility and conversion.

The question most briefs forget

Who writes the words. It is the most common gap and the most expensive, because a site delivered with placeholder text sits unfinished for months while the owner tries to find time to write it.

Decide this explicitly and put it in the brief. If content is your responsibility, plan for the time. If it is theirs, say so and check what they actually mean by it.

Name what you will judge

Include the measure and the period: enquiries per month, judged after a stated number of months. This protects both sides, because it defines what the project is for.

Without it, the review after launch becomes a discussion of taste, which nobody can win and which tells you nothing about whether the money was well spent.

Questions to ask every supplier

Their answers separate suppliers more reliably than portfolios do, because portfolios only show appearance.

  • Can I edit text and images myself, without paying anybody?
  • Who writes the content, and what happens if I do not supply it?
  • How will the old addresses be redirected?
  • Is being found on Google and in AI assistants part of the work?
  • How are enquiries captured, and where do they go?
  • What happens after launch, and at what cost?
  • Who owns the site, the domain and the analytics accounts?

Leave room for expertise

A brief that specifies everything reduces the supplier to production. If you are paying for judgement, ask for it: describe the outcome and invite a recommendation.

The proposals you get back then become a comparison of thinking rather than of price, which is a far more useful comparison to be making.

How Licheo works from a brief

We ask about the business, the customers and what you want more of, then propose the structure rather than asking you to specify it.

Content, visibility and conversion are all included rather than left as your problem, which removes the most common gap in this whole process.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Redesign and revenue. The other parts:

Questions people ask

What should a website brief include?
What the business does and who it serves, the problem the site must solve, what customers need to understand and do, what must be preserved, how success is measured, constraints, and who is responsible for content and visibility.
Should I specify the pages I want?
Better not to. Describing the pages decides the solution before anybody has thought about it. Describe the customers and outcomes, and let the proposals show you how each supplier thinks.
What is the most commonly forgotten item?
Who writes the content. It is the usual reason a finished site sits unpublished for months, so decide it explicitly and check what a supplier means when they say it is included.
What should I ask before signing?
Whether you can edit it yourself, who writes the content, how old addresses will be redirected, whether being found is included, how enquiries are captured, what happens after launch, and who owns the accounts.
How do I compare proposals fairly?
By what they include and how they think, not by the pictures. A cheaper proposal covering content, visibility and conversion beats an expensive one covering only appearance.

Brief for outcomes

Tell us the business problem and the customers you want. We propose the structure, and content, visibility and conversion are all included.

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