A content brief with a job to do

A brief should reduce the number of decisions a writer has to guess. Topic and word count are not enough. Describe the reader’s situation, what they need to decide and what evidence the page can offer.

Start with the question in plain language

Write the question as someone might ask it in a conversation. “How do I know whether the welcome email helped?” is more actionable than “onboarding content strategy.” A broad subject can support many pages, but a particular task gives this page a boundary.

Set the evidence before the structure

List what is available: product documentation, a reproducible example, a verified quotation, a real process or an observed result. Mark missing information explicitly. Do not ask a writer to make a confident conclusion out of evidence the team has not collected.

A useful example can be hypothetical if it is labelled. It should explain the method, not masquerade as a client success story.

Choose the next useful action

The next step might be applying a checklist, using a calculator, opening documentation or deciding that a product is not suitable. Not every article needs to lead straight to a sales form. The next step should follow from the task, not interrupt it.

Review before assigning

The generated template is a starting structure, not research. Replace its general prompts with actual sources, boundaries and examples. Check whether the existing pages already serve the task. Then choose an outcome from the measurement note that can tell you whether the work helped.