Handing AI output to a person to finish is a different brief from hiring someone to start from nothing. The good news: most of the brief already exists, in the output. The bad news: the parts that are missing are exactly the parts the model did not know, and they are the parts the expert needs most. Here is what to include, and what to skip.
Start with the output, not a description of it
Attach the actual thing: the SVG or PNG, the repository or zip, the document, the audio files, the clips. Experts read output faster than they read descriptions of output, and the output is more honest. If there are several candidates (four logo directions, three song takes, two drafts), attach all of them and say which you lean toward and why. Choosing between candidates is often the first task, and your lean is useful data.
Include the prompt, if you have it
The prompt tells the expert what you were trying to get, in your own words, before the model interpreted it. It reveals the intent behind odd choices in the output and saves a round of questions. It also becomes part of the job record, which matters for disclosure later. If the prompt contained anything confidential, redact that part and say so.
Add what the model did not know
This is the most valuable part of the brief and the part most often skipped. The model did not know your customer, your brand's history, the constraint from last week, the reason the previous version failed, or the claim legal said never to make again. The expert cannot know it either unless you write it down. Three to five lines is usually enough:
- Who this is for. The reader, the user, the listener. One sentence.
- Where it will live. A 16 px favicon and a billboard; a phone in bright sun; a podcast intro; a production server with real customer data.
- What must not change. The name, the colour, the API contract, the chorus melody.
- What has already gone wrong. "The last designer made it too corporate." "Users could not find the save button."
Write a definition of done, not a wish
The single most important line in the brief is the one that says what finished means. Vague definitions ("make it professional", "production ready", "sound better") produce vague quotes and disputes. Observable definitions produce accurate quotes and clean approvals.
| Wish | Definition of done |
|---|---|
| "Make the logo look finished" | Direction B as clean vector. Legible at 16 px. AA contrast on white and dark. Mono and reversed versions. 4-page rules PDF. SVG, PNG x3, favicon set. |
| "Get the app production ready" | Auth with roles. Tests for PDF generation with real invoice data. Dependencies and secrets reviewed. Deployed to staging with monitoring. README covers setup and deploy. |
| "Fix the article" | All 9 statistics linked to primary sources or removed. Voice matches the attached style guide. Under 900 words. Intro rewritten to lead with the founder example. Ready to paste into the CMS. |
| "Make the song better" | Take 2 as base. Verse 2 lyric rewritten for meaning and rhyme. Melody re-recorded live. Mix with controlled low end. Mastered to -14 LUFS. WAV and MP3 delivered. |
Five to eight lines. Each one checkable by someone who is not an expert. If you need more lines, you have two jobs; post them separately. If you are not sure how to write one, use the starter for your kind of work and let the expert tighten it at Match. Good experts will.
Say what you can decide, and how fast
Experts get blocked on requester decisions more than on anything else. Tell them what you can decide alone and what needs someone else (a co-founder, a client, legal), and how quickly you can usually answer. "I can answer questions within a day; anything about the claims needs legal, allow three days" is a gift to a person planning their week.
Set a budget you believe, or ask for quotes
If you know what the work is worth, set it. Experts respect a clear budget and will tell you if the definition of done does not fit it. If you do not know, ask for quotes and read the plan that comes with each one: a good quote says what the expert will do, in what order, and what they think is risky. That plan is the first piece of expert work you get, free.
Five things that make good experts skip a job
- No output attached, just a description of it. It signals the requester has not looked closely at what they have.
- "Should be quick." The requester has already decided the work is small before someone who does it has seen it.
- A definition of done that is a feeling. "Make it pop." Nobody can quote against a feeling, so nobody quotes.
- Hidden scope. A logo job whose definition mentions "and the website". Post the website separately.
- Budget far below the craft. Skilled finishing is skilled work. A budget that assumes otherwise attracts the wrong responses or none.
A brief that works, in full
Context: B2B payroll software for firms under 20 staff. Lives mostly as a 32 px app icon and in email signatures. Must keep the name "Ledgerly" and the green. Previous attempt looked like a bank; we want approachable, not playful.
Lean: Direction B, but the counter in the "e" closes up small.
Done: Direction B (or a justified alternative) as clean vector. Legible at 16 px and 32 px. AA contrast on white and #0C1410. Mono and reversed. 4-page rules PDF. SVG, PNG x3, favicon set.
Decisions: I decide alone, usually same day.
Budget: fixed, funded.
How this was made: written by the After AI Work team from briefs that worked and briefs that did not on our own platform. AI tools were used to draft the comparison table; every row was rewritten and checked by a person.