Why we start with the problem, not the brief

A brief is a useful document. It is also, quite often, a wrong one. Not because the client is careless, but because a brief is usually a proposed solution wearing the costume of a request. Our first job is to look past it.

The brief is an answer in disguise

When someone asks for a new website, they have already decided that a website is the answer. Sometimes it is. Sometimes the real problem is that nobody understands what the business does, and a new website built on the old confusion will not fix that. The brief names a deliverable. The problem is somewhere underneath it.

We ask the awkward questions first

So before we agree to build the thing, we ask why. What is actually not working. What would have to be true for this to succeed. What happens if we do nothing. These questions can be uncomfortable early on. They are far less uncomfortable than delivering exactly what was asked for and watching it fail.

Solving the right problem is the whole game

A beautiful solution to the wrong problem is waste, dressed up. Most of the value we add happens in the first few conversations, when the problem gets defined properly. The making is the easy part once that is clear.

This is what strategy-led means in practice

Starting with the problem is not a process step. It is the difference between a supplier and a partner. It shapes every one of our services, because the service is never really the point. The outcome is.

If you have a problem worth solving properly, bring it to us.

Made in Graphic Ltd is a strategy-led creative and growth partner in London.