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First — what should we call you?
What are we building?

Pick the closest one. It decides which of the next questions you actually see — most people skip about a third of them.

What form does it take?

Roughly is fine. If it turns out to be something else once we have talked, that is a normal outcome.

What is going wrong now?

The problem, not the solution. What is actually happening today is more useful to us than what you think should be built.

Leave it alone for twelve months. What happens?
Who is it for?

Who sits in front of this thing, and roughly how many of them.

How does this make or save money?

The question most briefs never answer. It changes what we would build first more than any feature list does.

What exists already?

Including the parts you are not proud of. A spreadsheet doing a system's job counts, and tells us a lot.

Who holds the domain, the hosting and the code today?
What has to be in the first release?

Anything you leave as not needed, we will assume is out of scope for now.

When does it need to be live?

We will tell you straight away what we think of the date.

Is that date real, or aspirational?
What is the budget?

Not so we can spend it. So we can tell you honestly whether the thing you have described can be built for it.

Who signs it off?

The single best predictor of whether a project goes smoothly. We ask everyone.

How much of your own time can you give it each week?
Last thing — where do we send it?

Your copy of the brief goes to this address, and so does our reply — usually within one working day.

The only field we insist on. Everything above is optional — a half-finished brief is still worth sending.