As a product manager, a well-written brief often fills the gap between your idea and the finalized product. It helps communicate the vision of building a product that caters to the customer’s needs. 

Is drafting an effective design brief hard? Not really.

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Here are some best practices you can follow:

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1. Analyze the Problem:

The beginning of the brief should delve deep into the user pain points that you will address and the problem you want to solve. Focus on how your product 

- solves the gap between needs and their fulfillment and;

- adds value by making the user’s life easier

For example, suppose you are creating a digital wellbeing app, the user pain points are easily terminated focus sessions or app timers. Some other problems could be the ability to track the screen time of all your devices at once. These are the problems that you could present your solution to while also creating value for customers.

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2. The company’s background:

Explain the company’s mission and history. It enables the designers to understand what they will be working on and helps them grasp the vision behind the product. Another point that can be included in the brief is the brand guidelines. These guidelines help you convey the brand language, style, and value that is embedded in your product and design.

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3. Understand Your Audience:

Conduct user research to recognize your target audience. The demographics and consumer behavior data can help in understanding the problems, needs, and desires of the users. The data can also include responses regarding the user’s digital usage and online presence.

This data helps in understanding the issues users face with similar products, which aids in creating a flawless product that connects with them and solves them.

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4. Define the end goal:

Explain the exact requirements and expectations of the final product. Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. This helps the design team focus more on the precision of the expected outcomes without confusion.

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5. Highlight Content Requirement:

Provide ample information and insight about the text and pictures required for the process. In a design brief, the content involved should be planned alongside every other process to avoid hindrances in the future and also provide direction. The requirements can be an overview instead of being descriptive. The tone, voice, and design style of the brand need to be highlighted clearly.

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6. Budget and Timeline: 

Set your budget well in advance considering factors like expected deliverables, assets and team size. A well-defined timeline and a known budget help the designers use resources efficiently and work effectively.

For example, if the deadline is due in a month, the team would effectively work on the project with a plan to fit in the time frame provided.

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7. Consider Existing Assets and Constraints:

Always consider and list all the guidelines, styles, standards and technology to be used in the project. Establish a realistic timeline for each stage of the design process. Highlight the constraints that have to be kept in mind to save time and to ensure a smooth work progress. This helps in keeping the design as close as possible to the established frameworks.

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8. Use references (as much as you can):

Provide references to websites, designs, elements, or any other well-described references for the idea written in the brief. Ensure that the references are not vague so they don’t confuse the team. This helps the design team understand the concept with a visual reference point and adhere to the vision behind it.

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9. Keep it concise:

A design brief should always be short but informative. Long paragraphs surrounding the concept won’t do it. Maintain conciseness and clarity that can be easily understood quickly. An easy-to-understand effective brief ensures a flawless execution that creates value for your users/customers.

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