They told the creative: “Make it happen.” He replied: “There’s no brief.”

This might be the most sleep-disrupting issue for any creative! Why just the creative, you ask? Why not project managers or business developers too? Because those departments are usually kept up at night by other things: onboarding the client, transferring money, delivering on time, closing a project — and that's it. Obviously this article is targeting me! Why, dear project manager and business developer, should an unclear brief be what keeps you up at night? Why shouldn't you upload it to Asana without first confirming whether you truly understand it or not? Because quite simply, an unclear brief will cause problems in everything that already keeps you up: onboarding the client, transferring money, on-time delivery, closing the whole project. So what's the solution? The plan, my friend, is this — answer these questions and you'll know if you have a brief worth sharing. First: do you know what they want? The campaign scale? The budget? Second: what's the delivery date? And the actual campaign launch date? Third: did you truly understand the message? Did it stir questions in you and feel like an exciting challenge? Did you feel you understand what they want and are genuinely excited about the idea?