What is a project brief?
Definition: A project brief is a document that outlines the scope, objectives, timeline, and deliverables for a given project. It should communicate key project details with all stakeholders involved and help them meet expectations, goals, and requirements for successful completion.
While a project plan details how a project will get done, a project brief defines the who, what, when, where, and why.
As the project manager, it is essential to create a project brief at the onset of an engagement, before your team assembles for an internal kick-off meeting.
The elements, length, and format of the project brief depend on the size and complexity of your client's project. See how the project brief is different from a design brief by reading more about design brief here.
Key components of a project brief
- Project name and overview – Title & brief project summary (it should help answer the ‘why’ for the project)
- Goals, objectives, and deliverables – Set up SMART goals, OKRs (objectives and key results), and trackable deliverables
- Scope of work – Write down crucial project activities
- Timeline for completion – Include project milestones and final deadline
- Required resources & budget – Be specific with resources needed and budget allocated
- Roles and responsibilities for each team member – Specify who is involved in the project and what their responsibilities will be
Example of a project brief

Project name and overview:
Content production for a new service line a company X has developed.
Company X introduced a new service line 30 days ago. The goal of this project is to promote this line with SEO and content production.
Goals:
- Increase the number of monthly organic visitors by 25% in the next 6 months.
- Increase the number of active users for the new service line by 300% in the next 6 months.
Objectives and deliverables:
- Publish 10 blog posts per month.
- Publish 50 glossary pages per month.
- Promote content on social media.
Scope of work:
- Keyword research;
- Keyword prioritization;
- User research and interviews;
- Topic ideation;
- Analytics setup;
- Hiring writers or agency;
- Content QA;
- Content publishing;
- Tracking & reporting.
Timeline:
- Planning: Week 1 & 2
- Research: Week 2 & 3
- Content production: Week 4 onward
Required resources & budget:
The total available budget for the project: $300,000
Roles & Responsibilities:
Content manager: Aya S.
- Perform target audience analysis
- Ideate topics
- Create content briefs
Writers:
- Jeremy
- Lena
- Stela
SEO team:
- Perform keyword research
- Write URLs, meta titles, and meta descriptions.
- Optimize content for search engines and publish it.