The 50-page spec is the agency's job.
Not yours.
Yet I see founders and product managers spend weeks — sometimes months — writing detailed technical specifications before reaching out to developers.
You're doing the work twice.
Here's what actually works:
The One-Page Project Brief
1. Problem (3 sentences)
What's broken? What's the pain? Why does it matter?
Example: "Our sales team uses 4 different tools to track deals. Data gets lost. Deals fall through. We need one system."
2. Users
Who will use this? How many people? What's their role?
Example: "15 sales reps, 3 managers, 1 VP. Mix of tech-savvy and not."
3. Success Criteria (Measurable)
How will you know this worked?
Example: "Sales team spends 30% less time on admin. Deal close rate improves by 10%. Zero data entry errors."
4. Budget Range
Even rough numbers help.
Example: "$40-60K" or "Under $100K" or "Flexible if it solves the problem."
5. Timeline
When do you need it?
Example: "Live by Q3" or "No hard deadline, prioritizing quality" or "ASAP."
6. Constraints
What must we work with or around?
Example: "Must integrate with Salesforce. Must comply with HIPAA. Needs to work on tablets in the field."
That's It
This is all a good agency needs to give you a meaningful response.
They'll ask follow-up questions. They'll propose solutions. They'll create the detailed spec during discovery.
Because that's literally their job.
Your job is to be clear about the problem, the users, and the constraints. Their job is to figure out how to solve it.
Stop writing specs. Start writing problems.
The right agency will take it from there.
What stops you from keeping it this simple?
#ProductDevelopment #SoftwareDevelopment #StartupLife #CustomSoftware
→ scopeforged.com
Philip Rehberger Founder, ScopeForged scopeforged.com
