Your next project deserves a one-page brief

You send the same idea to three suppliers. You get three quotes, three budgets and three different visions of the project.

One includes a full customer portal. Another suggests a form. The third starts with a workshop. Comparing them is difficult: each supplier has filled in the blanks differently.

Before approaching a studio, take one page to explain what you need. You do not have to know how the software will be built. You should be able to explain what needs to change in your business.

Start with a real situation

“We want a customer portal” already describes a solution.

“Our team responds every day to customers asking about the status of their case” opens a more useful discussion. How many enquiries? What information is missing? At what point do customers get worried?

A portal may be the right answer. A notification sent at the right moment may also deserve consideration.

Bring a recent example. An anonymised case and an account of its journey will help explain the need faster than a long feature list.

Six points to put on the page

Here is a template to reuse, illustrated by a fictional case tracking project.

1. The current problem. The team interrupts casework to answer status enquiries. Record the volume and time spent before the project starts.
2. The people involved. Customers want to know the next step; case managers need to update it easily.
3. The desired outcome. Reduce status enquiries and time spent answering them, without increasing the work required to keep information current.
4. The initial scope. Show the case status and next step. Online payments and messaging can wait.
5. The constraints. State the available budget, the deadline and its reason, existing tools, required data and access rules.
6. Decisions and acceptance. Name the decision-maker, the person who will use the tool and the real situations you will use to assess the first version.

If you do not have an answer, say so. A visible uncertainty can be investigated; a hidden assumption can easily find its way into a quote.

A deadline means making choices

Wanting everything by a given date leaves little room for discovery. Yet a project can uncover data that is hard to retrieve or ways of working that differ from what you imagined.

Explain what matters most: meeting the date, staying within a budget or covering a specific need. The supplier can then propose explicit trade-offs.

For a new idea, a test with potential customers can be the first step. For an internal tool, begin by observing the work of the people who will use it.

Use the brief to compare proposals

Read each quote with your page beside it. Can you find the problem, the expected outcome and the limits of the first version?

Also ask what happens after delivery: who hosts the tool, who fixes problems, who can access the code and data, and which costs will continue.

The page does not replace a contract or design work. It creates a shared starting point for the conversation, then helps you see whether the proposal actually meets your needs.

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Bring this page, even if it is incomplete. We will help you clarify the problem and the next useful step. Book 30 minutes.