The best wayfinding briefs are rarely long. They are specific about who arrives, what those people are trying to do, and what the building makes difficult. Most of that information already exists inside your team - the work is gathering it.

What to have ready

Floor plans, even old ones. We will walk and verify everything on site, but plans let the first conversation happen at the right level of detail.

A plain list of arrival types: staff, visitors, deliveries, after-hours. Each one enters differently, and each one needs a different first decision made easy.

The complaints. Where do people actually get lost? Reception teams, security and facilities staff already know every failure point - their stories are worth more than any audit.

Brand assets and any naming rules. Wayfinding has to speak the same language as the organisation, down to whether a space is a “level” or a “floor”.

What you do not need is a solution. Naming sign types and quantities too early narrows the thinking before the site has been read. Bring the problems; the system is our job.