The half-answered brief: what to start on anyway

A client has just answered sixteen questions out of twenty. The instinct is to wait for the last four, or to ask for all four at once.

Both are wrong, and the second is worse: a message asking for four things looks like the whole form again, and it gets postponed.

First, an observation that changes how the situation reads: sixteen out of twenty is not a failure, it is the normal case. A client who answered sixteen questions has done the work. The four missing ones are almost never four random oversights.

The three reasons a question gets skipped

There are three, they are not handled the same way, and only one of them costs days.

What they do not have. The vector logo, the domain access, the high-resolution photographs, the copy. They cannot answer because they have to go and get it, often from a third party: the previous supplier, the printer, the nephew who built the site. This is the one that takes a week, and it takes it whatever you do.

What they have not decided. The colour, the tone, two pages or three. They could answer in ten seconds, they simply have not chosen. Very often because the question offered too many options, or none. "What sort of feel?" is a question somebody can think about for six weeks.

What they did not understand. They skipped it because it contained a word they do not have: "output format", "audience", "variants", "source file". This one looks like indifference and is a wording problem, so it is yours.

Working out which of the three, before writing anything, decides everything else.

Usually only one of the four actually blocks

This is the most useful point in this article, and it holds up almost every time.

Take the four missing answers and ask one question about each: could this answer make me throw away what I am about to do today?

Out of four gaps, the answer is yes for one, sometimes two, almost never for all four. The vector logo blocks the final layout, not the structure. The Contact page copy blocks nothing at all. The choice between two blues does not block the mock-up, it blocks the export.

So you start, on everything that does not depend on the blocking gap. And you start without guilt: waiting for all four means letting a job sleep for ten days over an answer that would not have changed the first day's work.

What you must not start, on the other hand, is anything that would have to be undone if the answer goes the other way. The test is the same one, applied honestly: if you catch yourself thinking "well, worst case I'll redo it", the answer is yes and that is the one to wait for.

How to ask for the one that blocks

One message, one request, and the reason.

There is one thing I need to move forward: the logo as a vector file (.ai, .eps or .pdf). Without it I cannot get to the layout. I'll carry on with the rest in the meantime.

Three things work in that message and none of them is style. The request is alone, so it gets handled in one go rather than planned. It says why, so it does not read as a formality. And the last sentence removes the anxious urgency: the client learns the project is moving, which is exactly what they never know, as in what your client cannot see.

For the other three, wait. They will come back in the next round, grouped, at the point where they matter. Three separate requests over five days cost four times what one costs, for the reason set out in how many rounds of feedback to plan for.

What never to do: fill it in for them

Even when you are sure. Even when the client told you on the phone. Even when it is obvious.

An answer you wrote on their behalf is an answer you will reread in six weeks believing it came from them. It is the one case where a written record is worse than none: it carries the authority of a client's answer without being one, and nobody will remember the difference.

If the information came from a call, ask the question again, properly, and let them answer it.

If the same question is skipped by three clients

Then it is no longer the client, it is the question. Three different people skipping the same box are not three careless people.

What to fix, in order of effect:

• An open question becomes a list. "What sort of feel?" becomes five options to tick, with "other" at the end. The response rate changes overnight.
• Add "a rough answer is fine". Half of all non-answers are people who do not want to answer wrongly. "A ballpark works for me" unblocks a question somebody was stuck on out of conscientiousness.
• Split double questions in two. "Which formats and for which media?" is two questions, so one of the two gets answered, usually the easier one.
• Take your vocabulary out. "Source file" becomes "the file your designer used to make it, not the final image".

On what a form should contain and the mistakes that make people abandon one: what a brief form needs.

The next round rather than a chase

One last thing, about the mechanism rather than the message.

The four missing answers are not a chase: they are a second round on the same job. The difference is not cosmetic. A chase reopens the form, so it puts what has already been answered at risk, and you end up with two versions of the same thing. A second round adds questions and leaves what the client already said frozen.

That is what lets you, in three weeks, reread exactly what was answered on day one, without having to take anybody's word for it.

Frequently asked questions

Should you wait for a brief to be complete before starting?

No, and waiting costs days for nothing. Ask one question about each missing answer: could it make me throw away what I am about to do today? Out of four gaps, that is yes for one or two, almost never for all four.

Why does a client skip certain questions?

For three distinct reasons: they do not have the information and must go and get it, they have not decided yet, or they did not understand the question. The third looks like indifference and is a wording problem.

How do you ask a client again for something missing?

One request per message, with the reason, and a sentence saying the rest is moving. Four requests at once look like the whole form again and get postponed.

Can you fill in an answer on the client's behalf?

No, even when it is obvious and even when they said it on the phone. An answer written for them carries the authority of a client's answer without being one, and in six weeks nobody will remember the difference.

A question everybody skips: what do you do?

Rewrite it, do not chase it. An open question becomes a list to tick, add "a rough answer is fine", split double questions in two, and take your trade vocabulary out.