Decide what the reader should gain
The brief is the working agreement for an article. Start with the audience’s problem and the outcome you want. Identify whether the piece builds awareness, helps consideration or supports a decision.
Set a realistic word target using the supported 50–6,000 word range. More words are not automatically better. A focused product question may need a short explanation; a comparison may need room for conditions and evidence.
Complete the important fields
- Select the roadmap, pillar and cluster.
- Set the working title, angle and search intent.
- Choose one primary keyword and up to five secondary keywords.
- Describe the audience problem and intended takeaway.
- Add required points, claims to avoid and the call to action.
- Supply references and image direction.
- Save before requesting an outline or draft.
Use the four reference groups purposefully: products and pages, approved internal links, evidence sources and future roadmap links. Each URL/title row should help the writer understand why that page belongs in the article.
Review reference titles
A supported public HTTPS page can provide an automatic title after you leave the URL field. If the site blocks reading or the lookup fails, enter a sensible title manually. Saving a link does not prove that its content supports a particular claim.
An unpublished future article may have a title without a public URL. Keep that reference honest; do not invent a link for a page that is not live.
Make revision deliberate
Changing the brief can make existing QA or generation work stale. Save your latest direction, inspect the current draft and rerun the appropriate review stages.
A good final check is to read only the brief and ask whether another editor could produce the intended article without guessing the audience, evidence or next step.