Pre-Kickoff Brief

Before we get started.

This brief helps me show up to your kickoff prepared. We spend the session doing the actual work, not collecting background.

Set aside around 20 minutes. Rough and honest is more useful than polished and vague. Your responses come straight to me.

Which engagement are we starting?

Product Validation

You're about to commit real resources to a new direction and want to validate before building.

Product Evolution

Your product works but users work around it. Time to modernize the experience and build a design system.

Context

Your business and your users.

Start with the basics. This sets the frame for everything that follows.

Fill in what you can. Anything left blank we'll cover at kickoff.

Company name Required

Your name and role Required

Your email Required

Where are you right now? Required

Funding stage, team size, and how long you've been in market. Rough is fine.

Who are your main competitors?

Names and URLs. Include ones you're losing to and ones you're not worried about yet.

Your users

Who uses this product or site today?

Job titles, company types, industries. If there are multiple user types, describe each briefly.

What do users actually say about the experience?

Complaints, support tickets, NPS comments, things you've heard on calls. Direct quotes are gold. Gut feel counts if hard data doesn't exist.

What research or data exists on your users?

Interviews, analytics, heatmaps, surveys, NPS scores. None is fine. Just be honest so we know what we're working with.

Product

Your product.

What exists, what's broken, and what's still an open question.

Fill in what you can. Anything left blank we'll cover at kickoff.

Product or site URL

Live product, staging, or existing site.

What are the known problem areas?

Flows or parts of the product your team already knows are broken or underperforming. Even if you don't know why yet.

Validation-specific

What's the core assumption you haven't tested yet? Validation

The belief your product direction depends on. The thing that, if wrong, changes everything. The first thing that comes to mind is usually it.

Any existing concepts or directions? Validation

Wireframes, decks, Figma files, whiteboards. Anything showing where your thinking has landed. Links are fine.

Evolution-specific

Does a design system or component library exist? Evolution

Figma file, Storybook, shared token library. None is fine. It just affects where we start.

How does engineering like to work with design? Evolution

Sprint cadence, design review process, Figma vs. code preferences. Anything that affects how we collaborate day-to-day.

Artifacts

Files and access.

The stuff I'll need before I can do anything useful. Links where you can. I'll follow up on anything that needs a proper handoff.

Fill in what you can. Anything left blank we'll cover at kickoff.

Relevant files and documents

Figma files, analytics dashboards, prior research, brand guidelines, past designs, competitive analyses. One link per line.

What access will you need to set up before kickoff?

Analytics, design tools, project management, Slack. List what I'll need and who to contact to get it sorted.

Brand assets

Logo files, font licenses, color references. A Figma link or Drive folder is fine. Nothing formal yet is also fine.

Almost done

Stakeholders and success.

Last section. The most important one to be honest about.

Fill in what you can. Anything left blank we'll cover at kickoff.

Who's at the kickoff and who else has influence?

Names and roles. Flag anyone with strong opinions or final say. Better to know now than discover it later.

What does success look like at the end of this engagement? Required

Be specific. "It feels better" isn't enough. Name the outcome, metric, or decision that would make this worthwhile.

Anything you're uncertain or concerned about?

Worries about scope, timeline, internal buy-in, or whether this is the right investment right now. These are better surfaced here than three weeks in.

Before we get started.

Your business and your users.

Your product.

Files and access.

Stakeholders and success.

Brief received.