Rubric v1

How a brief is scored

Five dimensions, scored independently against a fixed ladder. Only what the brief actually says is scored — not intent that can be inferred, not context the team already shares, and not information that is probably true but is not written down.

The ladder

Every dimension uses the same six rungs: 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100. Nothing in between. A brief that meets every clause of one anchor and part of the next scores the lower one — the anchor it has fully met. From 40 upward each rung assumes everything below it is also present, so a brief missing something lower scores at the lower level.

Objective clarity

what the work is for, and what should change because of it

0
No objective of any kind. The brief names a deliverable ("we need a video", "let's do a campaign") and nothing about why.
20
A direction only, with no stated change: "raise awareness", "build the brand", "get the word out", "increase visibility".
40
A named business or communications goal, but no link between the work and anything an audience would do or think differently.
60
A clear goal and a stated change in what the audience does or believes, though the connection between this work and that change is asserted rather than explained.
80
A specific objective, the change it should produce, and where that change sits in the wider journey or decision the audience is making.
100
All of the above, and the objective is bounded: the brief says what this work is deliberately not trying to do, or which adjacent goal it is not responsible for.

Audience specificity

who this is for, in enough detail to make a creative decision

0
No audience is named at all.
20
A demographic or category label only: "millennials", "B2B decision-makers", "students", "our customers".
40
A demographic plus a role or context, but nothing about what those people currently do or believe.
60
A described segment with at least one current behaviour or held belief stated.
80
A specific segment, their current behaviour or belief, and the barrier, tension, or trigger that this work has to act on.
100
All of the above, and the brief says where and in what mindset the audience will encounter the work, or names who is explicitly out of scope.

Message substance

whether there is something to actually say

0
No message content. The brief specifies format, channel, or tone and nothing about what is being communicated.
20
Adjectives or tone words standing in for a proposition: "premium", "fun", "bold", "trustworthy", "disruptive".
40
A stated claim, but one generic enough that a direct competitor could make it unchanged.
60
A specific claim with at least one supporting fact, feature, or proof point behind it.
80
A specific and ownable claim, supported by evidence, with a stated reason the audience should find it credible.
100
All of the above, and the brief states what the audience currently believes instead, or names the single thing to take away if they remember nothing else.

Constraints

the real boundaries the work has to live inside

0
No constraints stated. No deliverables, formats, dates, budget, or mandatories.
20
A deliverable named without specification: "a campaign", "some social", "a landing page".
40
Deliverables and formats listed, with timing, budget, and mandatories all absent.
60
Deliverables, formats, and a deadline, with budget or legal/brand mandatories still missing.
80
Deliverables with specifications, timings including any fixed external date, a budget or budget range, and the known mandatory inclusions.
100
All of the above, and the brief says what has been tried before, what is off-limits, or who signs off.

Success metrics

how anyone will know whether this worked

0
No measure of success stated.
20
Success described only subjectively: "it should feel premium", "we'll know it when we see it", "make it land".
40
A metric named with no number, no baseline, and no timeframe: "increase engagement", "drive traffic".
60
A named metric with either a target or a timeframe, but not both, and no baseline.
80
A named metric with a current baseline, a target, and a measurement window.
100
All of the above, and the brief says how it will be measured, or what result would count as a failure.

The overall score

The mean of the five dimension scores, rounded. It is computed from the five scores after the fact — the model that reads the brief is explicitly forbidden from producing a total, a percentage, a grade or a verdict, so the number cannot be talked up or down in the same pass that assigns the dimensions.

Ready to brief
80 and above
A creative team could start on this as written.
Needs work
55–79
Workable, but a team would stop to ask questions before starting.
Not ready
Below 55
Enough is missing that the work would likely be redone once the answers arrive.

What a score is not

A low score is not a judgement of the brief’s author or of the idea. Most briefs are written early, by someone who knows things they have not yet had reason to write down; the score measures what is on the page, and the gaps are the parts still in someone’s head. The questions exist to get them written down, which is why they are phrased to be forwarded as they are.