Jacob Reimann, Client Partner at digital tech agency, Engine6 says when it comes to briefing design and marketing agencies, the devil really is in the detail.

In our offices, we work direct with brands and with leading creative and marketing agencies to build a diverse range of websites and applications (we'll call them both sites for the sake of brevity), from simple sites like ours to complex web applications that do some pretty clever stuff.

Some of these projects started with a thorough brief that went into a lot of detail, while others began as a couple of basic ideas drawn on the back of a napkin. What’s interesting is that the quality and detail of the initial brief in fact had little bearing on the final outcome of the project. It was also interesting to read some of the more detailed briefs and compare them to the final live site which very rarely did exactly what was initially specified.

All this illustrates some simple truths which are however important to understand when approaching a digital project, namely that:

• You will not know everything at the beginning of a project even if you think you do
• You will not know exactly how much work will be involved
• You will now know exactly what your users will want
• You will not know how complicated integrating XYZ technology will be
• You will not know exactly what features will be in the site on launch Requirements, deadlines, technology and customers change

And the two most important truths are that:

- Creating marketing campaigns, websites, web applications and anything else with a load of unknowns is risky

- The less this risk is not effectively mitigated, the more likely that projects will partially or totally fail.

So if the brief can’t cover all the assumed knowns, the known unknowns and unknown unknowns (thanks Donald), then clearly something else is needed to bring certainty (and sanity) to projects.

This something is a project delivery process that assumes all of the above, has risk mitigation and a relentless focus on delivering a product that will be most useful to the largest number of users within the available timeframe and with budget or resources at its heart.

So what does this kind of process look like, and how does it differ from what you may be used to?

The key difference is that a project of this type will begin with an inception/scope definition phase of around 10% of total budget and will include:

User research

Collaborative mapping out key user journeys achieves a clear understanding of desired user behaviours. This involves:

• Identifying user personas, needs and goals
• Stakeholder interviews and workshops
• Desk-based research and analysis

Scope definition

Capturing of overall project scope (including known requirements, ideas and wish list of all features) as a set of ‘user stories’ mapped out and agreed with project stakeholders.

These contain just enough detail to be measured in terms of likely effort, such that they can be quantified in ‘points’ and a firm decision taken about whether or when each feature should be included depending on the available timeframe, budget and available resources.

This approach also allows the ready incorporation of change during later development phases (i.e. by swapping one planned feature with different/revised feature of a similar size).

Technical workshops

Designed to achieve a clear understanding of the key technical considerations – specifically the final technology platform selection, integration points, technical unknowns etc.

The full process is a lot more involved, but essentially delivers:

- A shared understanding of the actual effort required to deliver desired features

- A shared understanding of the potential risks

In conclusion

So here we have the simplified highlights of a process that recognises the six truths we covered earlier, mitigates the risks inherent in project delivery. Most importantly, it puts YOU the client in the driving seat, and gives you full control over the project and the budget and the timeframes.

And I hope it's shown why fretting over the finer, varient points of a brief isn't the most productive use of your time. In our experience, structure is everything.