# The one-page brief

> Goal, success, scope in and out, limits, testable assumptions, names and a change rule: one page a sponsor can sign.

- Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md)
- Module: What a project is, and the one-page brief
- Lesson 3/32, ~24 min
- Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/the-one-page-brief

## A brief nobody can sign

**Alex Tutor:** Quick recap: the physics launch is a project, and its goal is a change for learners, not things built. Success has two parts: delivery by a date, and the change afterwards.

**Leo:** I need the launch on one page by Friday. Something I can sign, so we stop re-arguing it every week.

**Danylo:** I have the brief from the programming course launch. Swap the subject and done?

**Sofia:** It's mostly things to build, a team list and "budget: to be agreed".

**Alex Tutor:** Then it's decoration. A **project brief** exists for agreement: sponsor, budget owner and expert sign one page and read it the same way. What does this one leave open?

> **Exercise:** Danylo's old brief, with the subject swapped: "Physics launch. Goal: 40 lesson plans, a diagnostic test and a landing page by 1 February. Team: Vira, Danylo, tutors. Budget: to be agreed." Which problems would stop Leo, Hanna and Vira from agreeing on it?

## Ask before you write

**Alex Tutor:** Before writing, ask each of the three what they need. Real goals and limits rarely sit in the request.

**Sofia:** Leo, why physics now and not next autumn?

**Leo:** Last spring families asked for physics and we turned them away. I want us ready before the exam peak, not halfway through.

**Alex Tutor:** That's the goal and why now: physics exam learners study with Klasna this spring. The date, 1 February, serves that goal.

**Hanna:** My condition: one cash ceiling, 600,000 UAH for everything spent before opening. It's our own planning number, not a market price.

**Vira:** Mine: no opening with fewer than 8 tutors who passed a demo lesson I watched. Not six, not "we'll train them later".

**Alex Tutor:** Three people, three conditions. Which step found them?

> **Exercise:** Before writing the physics brief, what is the most useful first step?

**Alex Tutor:** So the **success criteria** fit in two lines. Delivery: open on 1 February with 8 demo-tested tutors, within 600,000 UAH. Result: 120 physics packages bought by 28 February.

> **Exercise:** **True or false:** "Open Physics on 1 February" is the goal of the project.

## Limits and guesses

**Sofia:** The date, the ceiling and the eight tutors are all fixed. Are they the same kind of line?

**Alex Tutor:** The date and the 600,000 are **constraints**: limits you plan inside. Roman from tutor operations adds one: strong candidates teach at school, so they're free only evenings and weekends.

**Alex Tutor:** An **assumption** is something the plan treats as true that nobody has checked. Klasna pays tutors 430 UAH per delivered lesson. Will physics tutors accept that?

**Vira:** Good physics teachers are scarce. I wouldn't bet on it without asking.

**Danylo:** And I assume our booking flow sells a physics package without new code. Not checked either.

**Alex Tutor:** Unwritten assumptions break projects quietly. Write them down.

> **Exercise:** Which of these lines from the physics brief are **assumptions**, not constraints?

## Assumptions you can test

**Sofia:** So I write "tutors will accept the rate"?

**Alex Tutor:** Make it testable: a number, a check, a date. "At least 8 qualified tutors accept 430 UAH per delivered lesson; Roman asks the first 15 candidates by 6 November."

**Danylo:** Then mine: "A physics package sells through the current booking flow; I run a test purchase by 16 October."

**Alex Tutor:** If a test fails, you learn it in October, not January. A false assumption found early is just a plan change.

> **Exercise:** Which assumption is written so that the team can **test** it?

## What is out

**Alex Tutor:** Now **scope**. In: the exam curriculum and practice material, the diagnostic test, the landing page, tutor recruiting and demo lessons.

**Danylo:** And out? Someone has already asked me for a physics simulator in the app.

**Sofia:** Marketing wants cheaper group classes too, and Vira mentioned olympiad students.

**Vira:** I mentioned them. I didn't say this spring.

**Alex Tutor:** That's why the out list matters most: each request named there is an argument you won't have in January. Out means not this project, not never.

**Alex Tutor:** Marketing worries: does “out” kill their idea?

> **Exercise:** **True or false:** putting group classes on the brief's out list means Klasna has decided never to offer group physics classes.

## Names, risks, rules, one page

**Alex Tutor:** Last parts. You lead; Leo is the **project sponsor**. He signs, and only he can move the date, budget or scope.

**Sofia:** Main risks in one line: tutors found too late, Vira's curriculum review slips, the landing page is late.

**Hanna:** And how do changes reach us? No surprise expenses in January, please.

**Alex Tutor:** Write the rule: date, budget or scope changes go to Leo as a short written note; he answers within two working days. Inside the brief, you decide.

**Alex Tutor:** Try the rule on a real request.

> **Exercise:** In November marketing asks to add cheaper group classes to the launch. The brief lists them as out. Who decides, and how?

**Alex Tutor:** And one page only. Longer means you're writing the plan, which comes later. The brief must be clear enough that Leo, Hanna and Vira sign the same thing.

> **Exercise:** Match each line of the physics brief with the part of the brief it belongs to.

**Alex Tutor:** Back to scope for one last step: the out list is yours to write.

> **Exercise:** Requests are already arriving: a physics simulator in the app, cheaper group classes from marketing, and olympiad students Vira once mentioned. Write the **out list** for the physics brief in three lines. Each line names one thing that is out of this project and, in a few words, why or when it could come back.

**Leo:** Send it Friday. If I disagree with a line, I'll comment on it instead of calling a meeting.

**Alex Tutor:** In the case you'll write the whole physics brief yourself.

- Previous lesson: [Goal or outputs: what success means](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/goal-or-outputs.md)
- Next lesson: [Case: the brief for the physics launch](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/physics-launch-brief-case.md)

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