How to Draft a Bot Development Brief: Important Advice for Clients

Bots are quite useful to businesses. However, developers and business people often speak different languages. You need to make sure that your bot developer understands what you want from them. And so, you should be using a brief that would help bridge the gap between you and the specialist. 

A brief is basically the framework that contains all the key information about the project. But what does a developer need from it? Let’s discuss. 

Who Are You? Key Information About the Company

All businesses are quite unique. Therefore, for your bot to actually fit your company, include all the key information about it in the brief. It is particularly important to describe your product or service. However, your aims and values are noteworthy too.

Additionally, knowing your brand is very useful to a developer. It can affect the way the bot is going to interact with customers. A brand book can also help with the appearance of the bot. Provide the information that would let the developer make a bot just for your company.

Your target audience also matters a lot, both from the perspective of your regular activities and the bot. It affects how the bot addresses that audience. After all, Gen Z and Boomers tend to have different preferences and purchasing behaviors. Make sure that your brief tells the developer who the bot will be interacting with. And it does not have to be customers — it could be employees! They also need to be described if they are the target audience.

If you want a bot for a specific event, discuss it in detail in the brief. Whether it is seasonal and recurrent or a one-time affair also matters.

Generally, make sure that the developer knows who you are and what you do — with the bot and without it.

What Do You Need the Bot for? Brief Your Developer on Key Challenges

Bots can do a lot of things. Do you need all of them? It is possible, although it would also increase the budget. But most likely, you have specific challenges in mind. Share them in the brief.

Here, some communication with the developer may help a lot. You might not know all the features that a bot can have or all the challenges it can address. Some research could be useful, of course, but you also have your developer! Ask them to help. Explain what concerns you have and learn if they can be solved with a bot. 

After the discussion, condense the information into an easy-to-read list. Use sub-headings in your brief to demonstrate which areas of business you hope to automate with the bot. For example, this section of the brief can look like this.

1. Customer support
   1. Answering FAQ.
   2. Redirecting to human agents when the question is not from FAQ.
   3. Gathering information about customer questions.
2. Marketing
   1. Content creation.
   2. Competitor monitoring.

This is just an example. Bots are very versatile, so look into your options before making a decision!

Set the Deadlines and Milestones

A brief, naturally, must include deadlines and milestones. This will help you manage the process and assist your developer by providing feedback. 

Optimism is an occupational hazard of programming. Feedback is the treatment.

Kent Beck, software engineer

If you are having trouble determining the milestones on your own, remember to communicate with the developer. They can provide information about the crucial steps in developing a bot. 

Remember that after the bot is created, follow-ups are necessary to ensure its ability to function. Use the brief to set the deadlines for solving critical issues with the bot post-launch. 

As you use the bot, you may also better understand how bots work. That means knowing how to improve your bot! The developer you were working with will gladly help you. 

Specify Your Budget and Other Conditions

Budgeting for bots can be complicated. You can negotiate with multiple developers simultaneously to try and understand what price is reasonable. Let the developers know what your maximum budget is and figure out what features you can get for that price. 

Sometimes, it means that you have to sacrifice some of the features you wanted but cannot afford. Remember that you can always make the project of your bot an ongoing one. Maybe this time, you cannot add voice recognition, but you will be able to a little later.

Naturally, there is also the cost of maintenance and potential future costs if you want to add features. All of those belong in the brief and must be specified to avoid confusion. 

You can also include the number of revisions during the stage of the bot’s creation, legal concerns, and other considerations. If you think that something is important, put it in the brief.

Ask Questions: What Does the Developer Want from the Brief?

Creating a brief is not very easy. It needs to have enough information but not too much. It needs to be concise yet detailed. And it definitely needs to be helpful to the developer.

Keep in mind that not all developers are alike. Some of them may want to know more than the information we have discussed. Consider asking your developer what they need from you. They might come up with things we did not include in this list.

In turn, you can also receive some questions from the developer. Answer them honestly, and your communication is bound to improve. 

In Conclusion

In summary, a brief contains all the important information for the developer to create the perfect bot for you. Make sure that they know what you are and what you want. Deadlines and budget are other important things to share. And the key to a successful brief is communication! Make sure that you talk to the developer (or, better yet, multiple developers), and you will have what you need.

Remember that Insolvo freelancers can help you if you post a task!