Before the day · Page 25
Six ways a brief goes wrong (1 of 2)
For you only
I keep a list of the ways briefs fail. All six examples below are invented. The patterns are not.
The smuggled solution. "How might we build an AI chatbot that answers our customers' billing questions?" The solution is inside the brief, so the room is not discovering, it is order-taking. You invited eight thinking people and used them as one prompt. Name the moment instead: "How might we help a clinic receptionist answer a patient's billing question at the front desk, with a queue building behind them, in under two minutes?" Maybe a chatbot wins the day. Maybe a one-page cheat-sheet generator beats it. Now you get to find out.
Two problems in a trench coat. "How might we help couriers plan their route and submit proof of delivery faster?" Two challenges joined by an "and". Teams either split their six hours across both or quietly pick different halves, and the pitches stop being comparable. Cut at the "and" and run the better half. If both really matter, that is what multiple challenges are for.
The metric wearing a brief. "How might we increase week-two retention by 20%?" Retention is your goal. No user has ever woken up wanting to retain. Find the user behaviour underneath the number: "How might we help a new user who connected her bank on Tuesday open the app again on payday and see what she can safely spend?" Build for her. The metric follows, or it does not, and the user test will give you the first hint which.