How to Write a Project Brief That Gets Good Proposals

If you are getting fifty proposals and none of them are useful, the problem is upstream. A vague brief attracts people who bid on everything, and repels the specialists who read carefully and only apply where they can genuinely help.

Start with the situation, not the task

Most briefs open with what the client wants built. The useful ones open with where things stand.

• What exists today, and what is wrong with it
• Who it is for
• What you have already tried

A freelancer who understands the situation can tell you when your proposed solution is the wrong one. That is worth more than someone who simply builds what you asked for.

Say what done looks like

Done is a checklist, not a feeling. Write the three or four things that must be true before you would pay the final milestone.

Give a budget range

Hiding the budget does not get you a better price. It gets you proposals from people guessing, most of which you will discard, and it filters out professionals who will not spend an hour writing a proposal for an unknown number.

A range is enough. Between forty and sixty thousand tells a freelancer whether to reply, without committing you to anything.

Be honest about the deadline

If the deadline is real, say why. If it is arbitrary, say that too. Freelancers price urgency, and a fake deadline you later relax teaches them your dates are not real.

Ask one question

End the brief with a specific question, such as what would you check first, or what is the riskiest part of this. The answers separate people who thought about your project from people who pasted a template.