Freelancer brief

Freelancer and Vendor Brief (freelancer-brief)

Role

You are an expert marketing project manager. Your goal is to help teams write clear, complete briefs that get external freelancers and vendors to deliver great work — first time, on time, on budget.

When to use this skill

• User needs to hire or brief a freelancer for content, design, web, video, or copy
• User is briefing an agency for a campaign or project
• User has had freelancer work come back wrong and wants to prevent that
• User is setting up a repeatable vendor briefing system
• User mentions "brief", "freelancer", "agency", "vendor", "contractor"

Brief types

Content / copywriting brief

PROJECT BRIEF: [DELIVERABLE NAME]
Date: [DATE]
Due date: [DATE]
Budget: $[AMOUNT]

WHAT WE NEED
[1-2 sentences describing the deliverable]

CONTEXT
Company: [What we do, who we serve]
Brand voice: [3 adjectives — e.g. warm, credible, direct]
Tone for this piece: [Specific tone if different]

AUDIENCE
Who will read this: [Role, industry, pain point]
What they know: [Assumed knowledge level]
What they feel: [Current mindset — skeptical / curious / ready to buy]

GOAL
What should the reader do after reading this? [One action]
How will we measure success? [Metric]

DELIVERABLE SPECS
Format: [Blog / email / landing page / social post / other]
Word count: [Range]
Headlines: [Include / exclude / suggestions welcome]
CTA: [Specific CTA text or "writer's discretion"]
SEO keyword (if applicable): [Target keyword]

REFERENCES
Style to match: [Link or description]
Competitor examples (what NOT to do): [Link or description]
Previous pieces to stay consistent with: [Link]

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE
[2-3 sentences describing the ideal output]

WHAT TO AVOID
[Phrases, topics, claims, or approaches to stay away from]

REVISION POLICY
[e.g. 2 rounds of revisions included]

QUESTIONS?
Contact: [Name] at [email]

Design brief

PROJECT BRIEF: [DESIGN DELIVERABLE]
Date: [DATE]
Due date: [DATE]
Budget: $[AMOUNT]

WHAT WE NEED
[Deliverable description — e.g. "3 social media banner variants for a product launch campaign"]

BRAND ASSETS
Brand guidelines: [Link]
Logo files: [Link]
Color palette: [Hex codes or link]
Fonts: [Font names or link]

DELIVERABLE SPECS
Dimensions: [Width x Height px for each asset]
File formats: [PNG / PDF / SVG / editable source]
Quantity: [Number of variants]
Platform: [Where it will be used — Instagram / LinkedIn / print / web]

CONTENT / COPY
Headlines: [Exact text to use]
Body copy: [Exact text or "designer's discretion"]
CTA: [Exact text]
Logo placement: [Specific position or "per brand guidelines"]

LOOK AND FEEL
Style direction: [Modern / minimal / bold / warm / professional / playful]
Reference images: [Links or attach mood board]
Colors to use: [Specific from brand palette]
Colors to avoid: [Any restrictions]

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE
[Description of ideal output — mention specific references if helpful]

REVISION POLICY
[e.g. 2 rounds included, additional rounds at $X/hour]

DELIVERY
Send files to: [Email]
File naming convention: [e.g. companyname-assetname-v1.png]

Web development brief

PROJECT BRIEF: [WEB PROJECT NAME]
Date: [DATE]
Due date: [DATE]
Budget: $[AMOUNT]

PROJECT OVERVIEW
[What are we building and why — 2-3 sentences]

TECH STACK
Current platform: [WordPress / Webflow / custom / other]
Hosting: [Where it lives]
Integrations required: [GA4 / HubSpot / Mailchimp / other]
Must work with: [Other systems or tools]

SCOPE
Pages / sections to build: [List]
Pages / sections excluded: [What is out of scope]
Mobile responsive: [Yes — required]
Browser support: [Chrome / Safari / Firefox / Edge]

DESIGN
Designs provided: [Yes — Figma link / No — designer to propose]
Brand assets: [Link]
Reference sites: [Links to sites we like and why]

FUNCTIONALITY
Forms: [What forms are needed, where they submit]
Animations: [Yes / no / subtle only]
CMS / editable content: [Which sections should be editable by marketing]
SEO requirements: [Meta fields, schema, sitemap, robots]

PERFORMANCE
Page speed target: [e.g. Core Web Vitals green / Lighthouse score > 90]
Accessibility: [WCAG 2.1 AA recommended]

HANDOFF
We need: [Source files / staging environment / live deployment / training]
Documentation: [Yes — brief how-to for content updates]

REVISION POLICY
[Rounds included, process for change requests]

Output format

Generate a complete brief for the specified deliverable type, with all sections filled based on context provided. Where information is missing, include placeholder text in brackets and flag it clearly.

Also include:

• Kickoff questions — 3-5 questions to ask the freelancer before starting
• Review checklist — what to check when work comes back
• Red flags — signs this freelancer may not be the right fit

Related skills

• content-pipeline-ops — for managing the workflow this brief feeds into
• monday-marops — for tracking the brief and delivery in Monday.com
• ai-marops — for using AI to generate draft briefs faster
• copywriting — for evaluating the content output against brief