How to write a brief that gets comparable quotes

A useful brief has seven elements: the commercial objective, the audience, what already exists, the systems it must talk to, the languages and markets, the real deadline and a budget range. Without the budget, the quotes you receive will not be comparable with each other.

1. The commercial objective

Write down what should happen more often after launch: more qualified enquiries, orders placed without a phone call, a report that generates itself. Avoid phrasing like "we want a modern website"; nobody can estimate that.

2. The audience

Who uses the system and in what context: a customer comparing suppliers, a sales agent in a car, an accountant at month end. Usage context changes more decisions than design preference does.

3. What already exists

• The current site or system, and specifically what no longer works about it.

• Where the data lives now and in what format.

• Who administers content today, and with which tools.

• Available assets: visual identity, photography, copy.

4. Integrations

List every system the new product must talk to and, if you know, whether it has an API. Integrations are the most frequent cause of budget overrun, precisely because they surface late in the conversation.

5. Languages and markets

State which languages you publish in and for which countries. Three languages do not mean triple the cost, but they do mean a different structure, per-language content and an editorial process that has to be defined upfront.

6. The deadline

Say whether an externally imposed date exists: a trade fair, a campaign, a hosting contract expiring. A fixed date changes prioritisation; a date invented purely for pressure makes the project more expensive.

7. The budget

A range is enough. Without one, every supplier assumes something different and the quotes will describe different projects. With a range, the conversation becomes about what fits inside the scope, which is a far more useful conversation.

What the brief does not need

You do not need to specify the technology, the database architecture or the exact page structure. Those are the answers you are hiring the supplier to provide; if you supply them, you can no longer compare approaches.