How long should a brief be?

Two to four pages is usually enough. Detail comes later, in discovery, together with the team that will build it.

Should we sign an NDA before sharing the brief?

If the brief contains sensitive information, yes — reputable vendors will sign one before you share details.

Guide · Templates

Write a brief that gets accurate estimates.

A vague brief gets you estimates that are either padded or optimistic — and impossible to compare. You don’t need a 40-page specification. You need nine short sections that tell a vendor what problem you’re solving, for whom, and within which constraints.

By Nythrex EngineeringUpdated 24 September 2026 2 min read

The nine sections

The example company is fictional.
Section	Weak answer	Strong answer
Company & product	“We’re a startup in logistics”	“We run 40 trucks for building-material distributors; we want to sell our dispatch tool to others”
Problem	“We need an app”	“Dispatchers spend 2 hours a day phoning drivers for status updates”
Users	“Everyone”	“12 dispatchers (desktop), ~150 drivers (Android phones, poor connectivity)”
What exists	Not mentioned	“An Excel planner and a BAS ERP with order data; a freelancer built a prototype last year”
Must-haves for v1	30 features	“Driver status updates, live map, delivery photos, ERP order sync”
Can wait	Not mentioned	“Route optimisation, customer notifications, analytics”
Integrations	“Some”	“BAS ERP (orders), Google Maps, SMS provider”
Constraints	“ASAP”	“Pilot with two clients in March because their contracts renew then; data must stay in the EU”
Success	“Happy users”	“Dispatcher phone time halved within three months of launch”

Project brief generator

Company & productWho you are, what the product is, in two sentences.Problem to solveWhat is painful, slow or impossible today? For whom?UsersWho will use it and roughly how many?What already existsSystems, code, designs, data, previous attempts.Must-haves for v1The few things without which the release is pointless. One per line.Can waitGood ideas that don’t belong in the first release. One per line.IntegrationsCRM, ERP, payments, identity, AI providers…ConstraintsDeadline and why, compliance, hosting, tech preferences.How you’ll measure successThe number that should move after launch.

Your brief

Start filling in the fields — the brief builds itself here.

Email it to Nythrex

Vendors can only estimate what they understand. A brief like this gets you comparable estimates — from us or anyone else.

Send it through the project intake

Common mistakes

01Specifying solutions

“Use microservices and Kubernetes” constrains vendors without explaining the need. Describe requirements; let them propose.

02Everything is a must-have

If all 30 features are critical, none are. The estimate balloons and nothing ships soon.

03Hiding the budget

Without a range, vendors guess what you want. You get proposals for the wrong-sized solution.

04Forgetting non-functional needs

Security, performance, languages, accessibility and hosting constraints change estimates significantly.

Frequently asked questions

Free toolProject brief generatorFill in nine fields and get a structured software or AI project brief you can send to any vendor — so the estimates you get back are actually comparable.GuideWhy every estimate is wrongEstimates are forecasts under uncertainty. How to read one, spot hidden assumptions, compare vendors fairly and get forecasts that improve.Guide40 questions to ask an AI vendorDue-diligence checklist for hiring an AI development company: approach, data, quality, security, cost, ownership and team — and what good answers sound like.GuideYour MVP is too bigMost MVPs are too big to test anything quickly. How to cut scope: one user, one job, riskiest assumption first, manual before automated.

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