How to write an app brief in one page (with a template)

A good app brief is one page. It states the problem, who has it, the one job the product must do, your budget and your deadline. Studios quote more accurately from that page than from a forty-page specification, because it tells them what matters.

The template

• 1. The business, in two lines. What you sell, to whom, and roughly how big you are.
• 2. The problem. What is slow, lost or done twice today. Give one real example from last month.
• 3. Who will use it. Each kind of user and about how many: staff, customers, drivers, managers.
• 4. The one job. If the product did a single thing well, what would it be?
• 5. What it must work with. Payments, accounting software, an existing website, languages such as Arabic or Urdu.
• 6. Budget and deadline. A range is fine. So is "I do not know, tell me what is realistic".
• 7. How you will know it worked. Fewer calls, faster orders, fewer mistakes. Pick one.

What should I leave out?

Screen designs, a feature list of fifty items, and technology choices. Those are answers. The brief is for the question. If you already have sketches, attach them, but say which parts are fixed and which are ideas.

Should I share my budget?

Yes. Without a number, three studios will quote three different products and you cannot compare them. With a number, each one tells you what it can do for that amount, and the differences become visible.

What do I do with it?

Send the same page to two or three studios. Compare what they ask you, not only what they charge. The studio with the best questions usually builds the best product. What to ask on the first call covers the rest.

If you do not want to write it at all, tell us or Nur how the business runs and we will write the first draft with you. That part is free.