Writing a good brief

Employees are only as good as their brief. How to answer the interview so your hire starts sharp.

The brief is not a form to get through. It becomes the employee's mental model of the job: who your customers are, what good work looks like, and where the edges are. Ten thoughtful minutes here saves you fifty corrections later.

How the interview works

Questions are generated for your specific role, not from a fixed list, so no two briefs are identical.
Most questions offer options you can tap; every question also accepts your own words. Enter answers, Shift Enter adds a line.
Anything Verse can safely infer from your onboarding answers, it skips asking.
Some questions are marked optional. Skipping them is fine; guessing wildly to fill space is not.

What strong answers look like

Weak answer	Strong answer
“Customers are small businesses.”	“Mostly cafe and restaurant owners, 1 to 20 staff, not technical, price sensitive, on their phone all day.”
“Friendly tone.”	“Warm but brief. First names. No exclamation marks in bad news. Never call anything an inconvenience.”
“Use your judgment on refunds.”	“Refund anything under $50 without asking. Over $50, or any angry customer, come to me first.”

Things worth telling them

Who you serve and the words those people actually use
Tone rules, with one or two example sentences in your voice
Hard boundaries: spend limits, topics to avoid, who they may never email
Links to examples of great past work, if you have them
When to stop and ask you, in plain terms: “when unsure, ask”

After the brief

Everything you said is saved to the employee's memory, so you won't repeat yourself. The brief is a starting point, not a contract: corrections in chat, feedback on runs, and notes you add to their knowledge all keep sharpening the same model.

Tip

Answer like you're training a contractor on day one. If a human would need it in week one, your employee needs it in the brief.