A good brief is the fastest way to good training. Get it right and the project moves quickly, costs less and lands closer to what you pictured. Get it vague and you end up in rounds of revisions. Here is what to put in a brief for an instructional designer, and the mistakes worth avoiding.
Start with the problem, not the course
The most useful thing you can give a designer is not a topic, it is a problem. Instead of "we need a module on manual handling," say "injuries are up in the warehouse and we think people are not following the lifting procedure." That tells the designer what success looks like and lets them recommend the right solution, which may be smaller and cheaper than a full course.
What to include in your brief
You do not need a formal document. A clear email or a short call covering these points is plenty:
- The behaviour you want to change. What should people do differently after the training?
- The audience. Who are they, how many, what do they already know, and what devices do they use?
- The business reason. What is driving this? Compliance, an incident, a system change, onboarding volume?
- The content you have. Policies, procedures, slides, an expert who knows the topic. Note what is ready and what is not.
- Constraints. Your deadline, your budget range, your LMS, and any branding or accessibility requirements.
- How you will measure success. Completion is the easy one, but think about the behaviour or result you care about.
Be honest about budget and deadline
It feels natural to hold these back, but sharing them early helps. A designer can shape the scope to fit a real budget, and flag early if a deadline is not realistic. Holding them back usually leads to a proposal that misses, and another round of back and forth. If you are not sure what is reasonable, our guide on custom eLearning cost gives you a starting point.
Name your subject-matter experts
Most projects rely on people inside your organisation who know the content. Tell the designer who they are and roughly how much time they can give. A good designer will run focused sessions that respect their time, but they need access to get the detail right.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Briefing a format instead of an outcome. "Make it a video" or "make it gamified" boxes the designer in before they understand the problem.
- Handing over a 90-slide deck and saying "turn this into eLearning." Raw content is a starting point, not a brief. The designer's job is to shape it.
- Skipping the audience. Training for new starters is very different from training for experienced staff. The designer needs to know.
- Too many cooks. Decide who signs off before you start, so feedback comes back clear and consistent.
What happens after the brief
With a clear brief, a designer can scope the project, recommend an approach and give you a firm quote. From there, most projects follow a clear path from design to build to review. You can see how we work on our approach page, and what we deliver on our instructional design page.
Not sure where to start? A free Health Check is a low-pressure way to talk through your problem and turn it into a clear brief.