Start with the task your visitor needs to complete
A website brief is most useful when it describes a customer task. A restaurant may need reservations. A retailer may need product discovery and checkout. A professional service may need visitors to understand the offer and request a conversation. Choose the primary task, then describe what a successful visit looks like.
List your audiences and their questions
Separate first-time visitors from returning customers, partners and job applicants. Write down the questions each group needs answered. This creates a better basis for navigation than copying the menu of a competitor. If the website serves more than one language, identify who will write and approve each translation.
Take stock of the content
List the pages, product information, photography, brand assets and documents you already have. Mark what is ready, what needs editing and what is missing. Assign someone to approve content. A design can move forward with a clear content plan, but missing information needs to be visible in the schedule.
Separate essentials from later improvements
Write features as actions: a customer can book a time, a staff member can update a product, or an editor can publish an article. Mark which actions are required for launch. Keep a second list for later improvements so the first release stays focused. For payments, delivery and external tools, record the providers you already use rather than assuming every integration is available.
Describe ownership after launch
Decide who edits the website, who approves changes and who handles support. Include the editing tasks your team should perform independently. Ask for the handover, access arrangements and maintenance responsibilities to be defined in the proposal.
Bring the brief together
Your first brief can be a short document with six parts: business context, visitor tasks, content status, essential features, integrations and timing. Include links to existing assets, but never passwords. Use the Build.krd project planner to organize a starting point, then review the scope before design begins.