How a good briefing makes for better collaboration

Begin the briefing with the reason for the project: why is this assignment needed right now? This provides context and helps to understand the "why" behind the investment. Is it a completely new platform, a further development of an existing environment, or a visual (re)design? A clear reason gives meaning to the assignment and helps make more focused choices in approach.

• Reason for the project: Name factors such as a new direction, changing technological requirements, or the expansion with a new service.
• Bottlenecks or opportunities: What no longer works in the current environment, for example, outdated functionality, limited scalability, or low user satisfaction? For a new project: what opportunities exist, such as reaching a broader audience or improving the user experience?

Delivery tip: Share strategic documents, such as a vision document or strategic plan. This helps to understand the broader context and ambitions of the organization.

Goals form the core of the project and guide all choices made in the process. A clearly defined goal makes it clear what the end result must be, and concrete KPIs provide tools to measure progress. Consider main goals such as increasing brand awareness, recruiting new members, or increasing engagement with your target audience.

• Main goal and success criteria: What do you want to achieve with the digital project? Consider goals such as strengthening brand awareness, attracting new donors or volunteers, or increasing engagement with your mission.
• Conversion goals and KPIs: Define key conversion goals, such as registrations, information requests or campaign participation. In addition, add KPIs that measure success, such as the number of new signups, returning visitors or engagement in specific actions. Both conversion goals and KPIs help monitor project progress and keep the focus on the desired results.

Delivery tip: Share KPIs, previous goals and results so we can assess whether an extensive discovery phase is needed and better understand what the project should contribute to.

A clear picture of the target audience helps us develop a proposal that meets the key needs and expectations of your audience. Describe the characteristics of the target audience, such as age group, location and any specific preferences. In addition, briefly mention your organization's market position and what differentiates you from competitors.

• Primary and secondary audiences: Describe demographic characteristics, needs and interests.
• Market position: What is your current position in the market, and how do you want the new environment to contribute to it?
• Competition and inspiration: Name inspiring examples or competitors and explain what is attractive about their approach.

Submission Tip: Provide customer surveys or market research for a complete picture of the target audience and market position.

The visual style and corporate identity determine the look and feel of every digital project. By clearly identifying in advance which visual elements are important, you ensure that the design fits well with your organization's identity.

• Corporate identity guide or brand documentation: Indicate whether an existing corporate identity guide, logo files or brand documentation is available. This ensures that the visual elements remain consistent with the brand identity.
• Preferred style: Describe the desired look and feel as specifically as possible. Consider specific colors, fonts and imagery. Where possible, include examples of other environments that reflect well what you envision. This helps make style preferences clear.

Delivery tip: If available, share corporate identity guides, logo files and examples of environments that match the desired style. This will help us understand the requirements and better assess how to incorporate them into the plan of action.

Content plays a crucial role in your digital environment and provides strong interaction with your target audience. A good content strategy ensures a consistent, engaging message and supports your goals.

• Content creation: Is there sufficient capacity to produce content on an ongoing basis? Is this handled internally, or is outside help needed?
• Content source: Will the content come from an existing site, or will everything be redeveloped? Also indicate in what form the existing content may need to be migrated.
• Imagery: Indicate if an image bank is available or if new imagery is needed.
• Content optimization: Indicate whether SEO research has been done on popular content, especially if findability is important.

Delivery Tip: For an existing environment, an overview of content structures or sitemaps can help better align the proposal with content needs. For a new project, a list of requirements and sample content can be valuable to provide direction.

Functionality plays an important role in a digital environment. A clear overview of the required functions helps ensure that the environment is well aligned with user needs and prevents unexpected requirements from slowing down the process.

• Basic functionalities: Consider standard functions such as user registration, search functionality and contact forms.
• Specific functionalities: Define unique features that enhance the user experience, such as a step-by-step configurator, interactive maps or a personalized user environment.

Delivery Tip: Examples of other environments that reflect the desired functionalities well help us better understand expectations.

The technical requirements are very important for the platform. By clearly defining the required links to other systems, a good integration plan can be created.

• External systems and integrations: Specify systems to be linked, such as a customer relationship management (CRM) system, a payment platform or payment service provider (PSP), or e-mail marketing software.
• CMS preferences: Indicate if there are any preferences or requirements for a CMS.
• Technical requirements and certifications: Specify if any certifications are required, such as ISO 9001 or ISO 27001, for the project to meet quality and security standards.

Delivery Tip: If there is an existing environment, share an overview of the systems used. This helps us properly assess the technical integration in the proposal.

An accessible digital environment is essential to not exclude anyone, especially if you have a broad or diverse audience. Depending on the needs of your users, it may be important to include accessibility standards.

• Accessibility Level (WCAG): Specify the minimum WCAG level you want to maintain (e.g. WCAG 2.1 AA), especially relevant for organizations with a broad target audience.
• Audience-specific requirements: Are there any specific accessibility requirements, such as for people with visual or motor impairments?

Submission Tip: If available, share accessibility guidelines or previous studies so that we can consider accessibility requirements in the proposal.

A secure digital environment protects user data and complies with applicable laws and regulations. It is important that security is structurally guaranteed and can be tailored to specific requirements within your organization.

• Data security: Describe specific security requirements, such as access policies, data encryption and other measures needed to protect data.
• Privacy Policy and AVG: Specify how the environment must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG), for example, by clarifying what personal data is processed and the source of this data.
• Periodic audits: Determine if there is a need for regular security audits or penetration tests (pen tests) to structurally ensure the security of the environment.

Delivery tip: Make the privacy policy and other relevant documentation available so they can be incorporated directly into the security plan.

Sustainability is becoming a priority for more and more organizations. Define how the platform should contribute to broader sustainability goals. Choosing sustainable design principles and hosting reduces ecological impact.

• Sustainable design choices: Specify whether design choices should contribute to a smaller ecological footprint, such as through optimizations for faster load times.
• Environmentally conscious hosting: Is green hosting required?

Delivery tip: If relevant, please provide the sustainability policy.

The budget sets the boundaries for the project and allows choices to be made in line with the objectives. Transparency about the budget helps us make the best use of available resources and makes it easier to evaluate different proposals for quality.

• Available budget: Provide an indication of the total budget and any reserves for maintenance or further development. Also consider ongoing costs such as costs for SaaS subscriptions, hosting and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Project scope: Describe whether the project is for a completely new digital environment, an extension of an existing environment, or just a visual design, for example.

Good planning ensures that expectations are clear and the project stays on track. By specifying milestones and deadlines, we can create a realistic schedule and all stakeholders are informed in a timely manner.

• Project timeline and milestones: Describe the timeline and critical deadlines so we can fine-tune key moments.
• Key feedback moments: Name critical moments for feedback and input from stakeholders, such as concept presentation, testing phase or delivery. This ensures that they stay involved and the project runs smoothly.
• Deadline flexibility: Indicate if there are fixed deadlines, such as due to an event, or if there is room for adjustments.

A clear decision-making process helps to align expectations among all parties and ensures that choices are well balanced. This promotes transparent and fair collaboration, so that all parties have clarity on the priorities and criteria on which the final selection will be based.

• Number of parties and selection criteria: Indicate how many parties are submitting proposals and what criteria are important in evaluating the proposals, such as price, technical expertise or creativity.
• Stakeholder overview: Specify key stakeholders involved in the project, such as project managers, department heads or external partners, and their role in decision moments. This helps align expectations and promotes streamlined communication.
• Length of decision-making process: Describe the expected lead time of the decision-making process and any approval rounds.

A thoughtful briefing is the foundation for any digital project. By clearly setting out goals, target audience, technical requirements and schedule, we ensure that all parties involved are on the same page from the beginning. This prevents misunderstandings, makes collaboration more efficient and increases the chances of an end result that fully meets expectations. With a good briefing, you not only lay the foundation for a successful project, but also for a long-term and fruitful collaboration.

Although this article seems comprehensive, every step towards a clear briefing is already valuable. It is understandable that a complete answer is not always available on every part. In that case, we can further develop the briefing together, so that there is always a strong starting point for a focused and achievable project plan.