GuidesHow to2 min
How to write an innovation brief
One page, not a deck: the stuck job, the unknown, what you already tried, the kill rule, and what you will not fund.
A good brief gets you an honest scope — or an honest no. A bad brief is a vision story, and every shop will invent a different product so they can win the bake-off. Write it the way the person who does the job would write it at 11pm, not the way a strategy deck would write it on a Monday.
SINLE Innovation Agency will not start a Spark without this page. The stuck job, the unknown, what you already tried, the kill rule, the nos. One page. Attach a sample of last week’s work. We would rather decline a fog than invent a product you did not ask for.
If you cannot write the job in one line, you are not briefing innovation work. You are shopping for a workshop. Stop and write before you book a call.
Do not include
A competitive landscape nobody asked for. “AI-powered.” Three horizons. A request for 12 weeks of workshops. If you need those, you are not briefing innovation work. You are briefing a slide.
A brief you can copy
Fill six lines and stop. Job: dispatch still lives in a sheet and WhatsApp. Unknown: whether a cell-side log will be used on night shift. Who: the shift lead, and she can say no. Tried: three tools, still the sheet. Kill: if fewer than four of six leads use it for two weeks, stop. No: no chatbot, no second product.
Attach five redacted rows from last week. That attachment is worth more than a vision slide. If you cannot fill a line, that line is the brief — write “we do not know” and do not pretend.
The sequence
Do these in order. Skip a line and you are back to a workshop.
- 01
The job in one line
Who does what today, where it waits. No adjectives.
- 02
The unknown in one line
If a competent team would be unsurprised by Friday, you need builders, not a lab. Say so.
- 03
Who feels it
Title, and the person who can say no. “The business” is not a user.
- 04
What you already tried
Name the tools and the unofficial spreadsheet. That is the requirements document.
- 05
Attach evidence
A redacted export beats a persona slide. Five real rows beat a journey map.
- 06
The kill rule
Date and number: hours, scrap, adoption. “We’ll know” is how hobbies get funded.
- 07
The nos
Unsupervised sends, medicine, a brochure, a second product this quarter. Write the edge.
- 08
Send the page
You want a scope or a no within a business day. You do not want a 40-page counter-deck.
Keep these
- A brief is a page. A deck is a delay.
- Evidence of last week’s work is worth more than a vision narrative.
Do this before you spend
- 01Draft the six lines on one page. No deck.
- 02Attach a redacted export from the real work.
- 03Send it and ask for a scope or a no within one business day.
Send the page. If it is fog, we will say so. If it is a job, Spark turns it into a written yes, a reshape, or a no.
Questions
- What should be in an innovation brief?
- The stuck job, the unknown if any, who feels the pain, what you already tried, a kill rule, and what you refuse. One page. Attach a sample of the real work.
Next how-to
- How to hire an innovation agencyA hiring sequence: name the job, ask six questions, compare two scopes, walk away from a pitch. Built for companies that need a system they can keep.
- How to find the job worth fundingWalk the work. Score waits, rework, and hero jobs. Fund a constraint with a user — not a whiteboard of ideas.
- How to read a statement of workThe lines that have to exist: what ships, what is out, when the card runs, who owns the repo, and how you cancel. If they are missing, it is a pitch.
Next
Send the one-page brief.
We reply with a scope or a no. Spark is $750 if the path is still unclear. You keep the note either way.