Innovative design: how to draw up a design brief and specifications?

A design project for a new product or service is launched in your team, to meet the concrete objectives of your customer (external or internal, such as the marketing department). The design specifications document (CDCD or brief ) is the reference document that brings together all the design objectives set out in terms of specifications for the future product or service to be designed.

The CDCD enables the design team to specify and implement the characteristics of the future product or service to be designed, in an evolutionary way, within the design project. The content of the CDCD is gradually refined by the business players involved in the design team. This document brings together both subjective and objective criteria. The CDCD is a dashboard for guiding creativity and for assessing the suitability of concepts in relation to the project's objectives. Drawing up and using the CDCD is an essential step at the start of the design process, enabling us to check the suitability of the concepts generated in relation to the initial objectives. This sheet will help you to :

• formalize and draw up specifications ;

• evaluate and validate specifications ;

• use the specifications as a guide in the innovation process.