In commercial design and strategy work, an RFP is not a proper brief. It’s a wish list from the client. A proposal? That’s a pitch—a sales tool aimed at convincing a selection committee that, based on limited interaction, your team might be able to do the job. If you're awarded the work, the first real task is aligning the team and figuring out what actually needs to be done.
And too often, we skip this step.
We jump into projects without a true kickoff, without a shared definition of success, and without converting everything we’ve learned into a clear, compelling design brief. It’s a common failure—and a costly one.
At a time when organizations invest heavily in designing better customer experiences, they often fail to inspire or align the teams actually delivering that experience. This is where a well-crafted brief becomes a leadership tool. It doesn’t just clarify what to build—it builds momentum, ownership, and creativity.
Why the Brief Matters (More Than Ever)
Now, in the era of AI and agentic design, the brief has more power than ever before. Generative systems—from image models to creative agents—amplify whatever context they’re given. That means a strong brief can launch dozens of meaningful directions in seconds. A vague one just produces noise.
And yet, many teams still fumble around a basic issue: we don’t agree on what terms like goal, objective, strategy, or tactic even mean. Management books and HBR articles vary wildly. So here’s a ladder of definitions that have served me—and my teams—well:
GOALS
Big-picture outcomes. The “what,” not the “how.”
Example: Become a market leader in sustainable transportation.
OBJECTIVES
Measurable, specific, and time-bound steps toward your goals.
Example: Increase EV adoption in key urban markets by 20% this year.
STRATEGIES
The “how.” Your approach to achieving the goal.
Example: Educate consumers about long-term cost savings and partner with local governments for incentives.
TACTICS
The specific actions, tools, or campaigns you’ll use to fulfill the strategy.
Example: Launch a targeted ad campaign, host community demos, roll out a referral program.
In a well-run team or company, every tactic supports a strategy. Every strategy serves a goal. And every role, especially junior ones, should clearly understand how their daily work ladders up to something bigger.
This clarity isn’t just good operations—it’s the foundation for creativity, alignment, and now, for AI-assisted workflows.
Closing Thought
AI gives creative teams more leverage than ever. But leverage is dangerous without direction. A great brief is the new superpower. It aligns people, activates tools, and lets ideas scale—faster, smarter, and with more impact.
Would love to hear how others are using briefs in the age of AI.
Check out the draft of my “goal ladder” visualization—thinking it could be a useful Trello-style web app for strategic planning.
