At Sortlist, we receive an average of 3000 project briefs per month, and our team carefully reads and analyzes each one before sharing it with our service providers.

With years of experience since our launch in 2014, we have gained valuable insights into both successful and challenging briefs.

When approaching an agency or service provider, companies typically submit their own draft brief. At Sortlist, we provide a helpful framework to help you create a comprehensive brief, which we then share with our service providers.

While we provide this valuable resource, it is important that you provide us with sufficient information to ensure that we find you the best match.

So what exactly is a “successful brief”?

To help you in this process, we have prepared a step-by-step guide, complete with examples, on how to effectively complete a comprehensive project brief.

A project brief is a short document that outlines the goals, requirements, and expectations of a project. It acts as a roadmap for everyone involved, providing clarity on what needs to be done, when, and with what resources.

Writing a brief is challenging because it requires us to take the vision we have in our heads and put it out there for someone else to understand.

A company about to embark on a project knows the ins and outs of what they would like to achieve and how they hope to achieve it. However, a third party, who is not as familiar with the company, their values, their goals, etc. would have a hard time gripping the idea of the project just as well.

Think of it this way 🍝:

A customer in a restaurant orders "pasta." They envision a delicious plate of spaghetti bolognese. However, based on their vague request, the waiter mistakenly asks the best carbonara chef to prepare the dish. When the carbonara plate arrives, the customer is disappointed, and both the waiter and the chef are puzzled and disappointed that they couldn't meet their client’s expectations.

Now, let's consider an alternative. If the customer had specifically ordered "spaghetti with tomato sauce mixed with garlic, olive oil, beef meat, and parmesan cheese," and added details like wanting the pasta well-cooked, ready in 30 minutes because they had a train to catch, everyone would have been on the same page and delighted with the outcome.

Writing a project brief to find the right agency is like ordering food in a restaurant. It's important to realize that people can't read your mind or guess your preferences. That's why it's important to be clear and precise about your requirements.

To make sure you get exactly what you want from a service provider, it's necessary to explain your expectations in detail.

Often, clients overlook this aspect of the brief because it may not seem as important as presenting the project itself. However, understanding your company's identity provides the agency with valuable insights that go beyond the project description. It provides context.

When presenting your company, make sure to include:

Take a look at one of our real-life examples:

“We are a medium-sized specialist publisher offering 40+ cross-media media services in agriculture, food, and rural life. One of our brands is "M"!, an ad-free children's magazine for nature-loving kids aged 5 and up. It showcases local nature, environment, puzzles, experiments, recipes, and crafts. "M"! is popular among educators too but is only available by subscription via our website matsch-magazin.de; it cannot be found in hard copy. We would like to generate more reach for "M"! outside our known target groups and think that influencer marketing will have a big impact on the awareness of the magazine.

Here is another example:

“Hello, our company works in the meat sector. We are a family business, and our vision is to become the go-to local neighborhood store, offering exceptional quality products. To achieve this, we are gradually revitalizing our brand, giving it a modern touch and exploring new ways to connect with our customers. As part of our expansion strategy, we are considering launching a sub-brand that embodies a more premium experience. This initiative is designed to appeal to discerning customers and provide them with an upscale offering.”

Although presenting your company may not seem like an obvious element of a project brief, describing the project may be the opposite.

With nearly a decade of experience connecting clients and both marketing and advertising agencies, we have noticed that many elements are often missing in the description of the project or creative brief itself. We have therefore carefully crafted our brief questions to gather the maximum amount of valuable information.

This approach benefits us, the service providers, and most importantly you, to find the perfect match for our clients.

When presenting your project, make sure to include by either selecting our multiple-choice options or providing more information textually:

Take a look at one of our real-life examples:

“We are a fashion company for B2B companies (uniforms, etc.) in the start-up phase. We come from the industry and are currently in the process of legal registration of the company and its name. We have clients in our portfolio, which include medium and large international companies.

We are looking for an agency that can develop at least a first Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with the possibility of future developments within the next month.

We are looking for an e-commerce website that a payment gateway, and a private area for each of our customers. In addition, the website must be responsive and suitable for use on any mobile device. The site should also be able to integrate with the systems of the transportation and distribution companies from which we would buy the goods.

In a second phase, the website should be made possible to integrate with an ERP for SMEs (e.g. Holded) and accounting services. We are looking for a service provider who can also act as a long-term consultant, advising us and being our partner, working with an agile approach.

We are willing to work in phases if necessary and we are quite flexible. Our budget is likely to be less than €20,000 in total, but we are also open to recommendations from the agency.”

Finally, each brief should explain why you are looking to outsource your project and what constraints, expectations, and limitations you may have for your future collaboration.

First, be sure to include in your brief your main reason for outsourcing your project. What can a service provider offer that you do not have in-house?

Be sure to mention if you have worked with a service provider or agency in the past. The reason for this is that the service provider will have an idea if the client already has systems in place for working with external providers.

Every collaboration is unique, just like every client and every service provider. Let us and service providers know:

But just as well, make sure to include in your brief any constraints you feel could affect the collaboration in any way:

When creating a project brief for a particular service provider, customers often submit a PDF document that cannot be modified. This can be a challenge if there are elements they want to change before the collaboration begins. With Sortlist, however, our clients have the advantage of being able to speak with any one of our advisors to alter their projects.

( ❗️ If you are located outside of Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy or Germany, please get in touch with someone from our team via the intercom chat button on the bottom right-hand side of your profile)

Or you can also choose to delete the current project and create a new one.

If your budget changes, you need additional skills, or you need to completely rethink your project, you can easily get in contact with someone from our team and make the necessary adjustments. Our platform gives you the flexibility to update and refine your brief as needed.