A product launch brief has a date that doesn't move and a product that's often still changing. So it has to be clear about what's fixed, what's still being decided, and the one thing people should understand the first time they hear about it.
Below is a full example for a made-up company, written in the eleven sections of a one-page creative brief. The shaded notes are the places a product launch brief needs something a standard brief doesn't. If it's close to what you're working on, you can start from this example and change it.
Quill shared budgets launch
Quill is a budgeting app with about 200,000 people using it on their own. For two years the most requested feature has been sharing a budget with a partner. It ships on 2 November, and it's the first thing Quill has launched with a paid campaign.
Couples who argue about money have no neutral place to look at it together.
Couples keep using a shared spreadsheet or nothing, and the users who asked for this find out about it by accident. A competitor ships the same feature and gets the credit.
Couples who moved in together in the last few years and still split things with transfers and IOUs. One of them is the “money person” and is tired of always being the one who brings it up.
“Budgeting apps are for one person. Talking about money with my partner turns into a fight.”
“We can both just look at it, and it isn't a big conversation every time.”
One budget you can both see, so money isn't one person's job.
Each person keeps their own accounts private and picks what to share. Both people see the same numbers update at the same time. It's included in the current subscription at no extra cost.
The launch date can't be shown before 26 October. Bank partner names can't appear. The couples shown can't all be the same kind of couple.
A 30 second launch film with 15 and 6 second cuts. App store screenshots and preview video. An email to current users on launch day. A launch page. Paid social in 4:5 and 9:16. A press kit with product shots.
Kickoff 21 September, concepts 2 October, client review 7 October, production 12 to 23 October, final assets 28 October, launch 2 November.
The One-Page Brief is free and there's no sign-up. It checks your brief for the usual problems, and you send it as a link so people can comment on the section they mean and approve it with their name.
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A weekly note on account planning for agency strategists. One thing that changed, the tension in it, and what I'd do Monday. The first part of every issue is free.
Written by Cody Simmonds. I also write The Rationale, a weekly note for agency strategists.