A project brief template
that becomes the production plan.

A fixed set of fields you fill for every new project, so no job starts without the same answers. A useful one has ten: background, objective with a success measure, audience and key message, deliverables with specs, scope in and out, references and constraints, budget, timeline, people with the decision maker, and client inputs with risks. The fixed shape is the point: an empty field is a question you have not asked yet.

Short: 'Background: regional bakery opening a second shop. Objective: 300 pre-orders before opening day. Audience: families within two miles. Deliverables: 3 vertical videos, 6 posts, one A2 poster. Out of scope: website. Budget: agreed range. Timeline: final files 20 March, two review rounds. Decision maker: the owner. Client provides: product photos and opening-day offer by 1 March. Risk: late photos.'

The brief says what and why: the objective, the deliverables, the budget, the date and who decides. The plan says how, who and when: the steps for each deliverable, the owners, the dependencies and the dated reviews. Write the brief first and get it agreed, then build the plan from its deliverables list. Keeping both on one board means a change to the brief visibly moves the plan.

Rewrite what the client said into the ten fields and leave the unknowns visibly empty rather than guessing. Then send the client the gaps as questions, usually budget, decision maker, deliverable specs and what they owe you. A vague request answered with a precise brief shows you what the client actually wants, and it protects you when they change their mind later.

One page, or one screen of a board. Long enough to answer the ten fields, short enough that the client actually reads it before agreeing. If a field needs more than a paragraph, such as detailed specs or brand guidelines, link or attach the detail and keep a one-line summary in the brief. A brief nobody reads is not an agreement.

One named person on the client side who has the authority to approve the work and the budget, plus the project owner on yours. Write both names in the brief. Storyflow has no approval button, so record the sign-off itself on the board, such as a dated note of the decision maker's written confirmation, before the plan is built on it.

It can draft one from what you give it. Paste the client's email or describe the job and Storyflow's AI lays out the brief and the project board, so you can see at a glance which fields the client never answered, most often budget and decision maker. It reads the open board plus up to five documents you attach, such as an RFP. The AI proposes and you decide; its edits apply with one-click Undo.

With two lists: what is in scope and what is out. The in-scope list is the deliverables with specs; the out-of-scope list names the likely extras, such as extra revision rounds, new formats or a website. Agree the number of revision rounds in the brief too. When a new request arrives, it is either on the list or a priced change, and both sides can see which.

They overlap. A project brief covers any job: deliverables, scope, budget, dates and people. A creative brief is a project brief for creative work with more on the idea: the insight, the key message, the tone and the references. For a campaign, use the creative brief template; for a website, an event or a production with many deliverables, the project brief template fits better.

Yes. Turn on sharing and send a view-only link: the client opens it in a browser with no account and sees the latest version when they reload. To comment they sign in, and anyone a paid member invites joins free. Many teams keep a working board private and share a client board with the brief, the deliverables, the dates and what the client owes.

Not during early access. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $7.99 a month billed annually ($9.99 monthly). A free plan launches before the end of 2026, and anyone a paid member invites to a board joins free. For a free option today, the ten fields on this page work in any document.