Austen
Brief [n] of 10
[Customer] · [date]

Brief approval

Nothing is written until this comes back. This is the cheapest place in the whole process to disagree with us, so please do. Three working days is the target.

Working title

[title]

The reader[Who this is for, in their words. Role, situation, what they already know]
What they want to know[The question the reader is actually asking]
Primary query[The search or assistant query this article answers]
If you did not give us one, Austen suggested this. Change it here if it is wrong.
Why this one[The gap: which competitor covers it, what you have today, why it made the ten]
Angle[The argument this article makes, in one sentence. Not the topic, the position]
Word budget[n] words. This is the contract; the finished article is held to it within 15%.

Structure

#Section (H2)What it covers
1[heading][one line]
2[heading][one line]
3[heading][one line]
4[heading][one line]
5[heading][one line]

Include

[Products, terms, internal links, proof points, anything that must appear]

Avoid

[Claims needing review, competitor names, phrases your style guide bans]

Sources we will use

[URLs, recordings, documents you have given us]

Your decision

OptionWhat happens next
☐Approved as writtenWe start drafting today.
☐Approved with the changes belowWe apply them and start drafting. No second approval round needed unless you ask for one.
☐Rejected, replace itTell us what you would rather have and we send a new brief within two working days. It replaces this one rather than being added to the ten.

Changes

 

Approved by
Name / Title
Date

Three things worth checking before you approve. The angle, because everything downstream follows from it. The structure, because a missing section is much cheaper to add now than later. And the "avoid" list, because anything you add to it saves your reviewer a round.

[Your company name] · brief [n] of 10 · reply within three working days · [email]