Handoff Readiness Brief

Handoff Readiness Brief

Produce a design brief that sets designers up for success - grounding them in user context and constraints before they open the design tool, not after they've gone in the wrong direction.

Required Inputs

Ask the user for these if not provided:

• Feature brief or PRD (even rough notes work)
• Designer's name or team (for personalisation)
• Technical constraints (any engineering limitations already known)
• Timeline (when does design need to be done?)

What Designers Actually Need (and product managers Often Skip)

• The user's goal, not the feature name
• The emotional state of the user at this moment in the journey
• What success looks like - how will we know the design worked?
• Constraints: technical, legal, brand, accessibility
• Edge cases that must be handled
• What we're explicitly NOT solving for

Process

1. Read the feature brief or PRD provided
2. Extract user goal (reframe from feature language to user outcome language)
3. Identify constraints - technical limitations, brand guidelines, accessibility requirements
4. List edge cases the design must handle
5. Define success criteria the design should be evaluated against
6. Write a "not in scope" section to prevent scope creep in design
7. Validate - Confirm every edge case listed is specific enough to design for, and every out-of-scope item is concrete enough to say "no" to

Output Structure

Design Brief: [Feature Name]

User Goal: (in the user's words, not ours) "When I [situation], I want to [motivation] so that I can [outcome]."

Context & Emotional State: [Where is the user in their journey? What are they feeling? What just happened?]

Design Success Criteria:

• [Criterion 1 - measurable where possible]
• [Criterion 2]
• [Criterion 3]

Constraints:

• Technical: [limitations engineering has flagged]
• Brand: [relevant brand guidelines]
• Accessibility: [WCAG level required, any specific requirements]
• Legal/Compliance: [if applicable]

Edge Cases to Design For:

• [Edge case 1]
• [Edge case 2]
• [Edge case 3]

Explicitly Out of Scope:

• [What we are NOT solving in this design iteration]

Reference Material:

• User research: [link]
• Existing patterns: [design system component library link]
• Competitor examples: [links if relevant]

Quality Checks

• User goal is written in user language (not feature/product language)
• At least one edge case covers an error or failure state
• Success criteria are measurable or observable (not "looks good")
• Out-of-scope section names at least one thing that might seem in scope but isn't
• Technical constraints are specific enough for an engineer to confirm