Within your project a BRIEF can best be described as a place to reflect and take stock, to summarise what you have explored, researched and concluded in the Discover & Define phase of your work.

A Brief is simply a brief description of the main goals of the project.

We split this up into three sections that form a simple narrative as we answer these three simple questions:

1) What have I found out that is important to solving this problem?

2) Where do I think the project is going? At this moment right now, what are the most appropriate ways forward in delivering a solution to the user's problems?

3) What do I still need to find out about and what do I need help with?

...or even more simply...

1 What do I know?

2) Where am I going with it?

3) What what else will I need that will help me, and who will help me?

A brief, inevitably, will change over time0 as you find out more and needs of the user become resolved: Do no be afraid to change or adapt your brief in consultation with your user, or even throw it out and start again! A perfectly legitimate result of working hard with a user to resolve their problems can often be that you both realise you are trying to solve the wrong problem: THIS IS GOOD DESIGN!