Nestbrief
See pricing

FOR ANYONE WHO DESIGNS HOMES FOR PRIVATE CLIENTS

Your client arrives able to answer.

Before they reach you, your client has a real conversation about how they want to live. You get it back as a written Home Brief.

It records what they need. It decides nothing.

Read a sample Home Brief →See pricing

WHAT YOU ACTUALLY GET

A written Home Brief, in their words.

Seven sections, two to four pages. Not a form they filled in - a document built from a conversation. The questions came from people who do this for a living.

WHO THEY ARETHE FACTSRISKSHOW THEY LIVETHE PROGRAMWHAT THEY'RE OPEN TOSTILL OPEN

Three things from a real brief

A disagreement, marked and left open
Rachel is confident current brass is different from 1994 oak-and-brass. Dan's reservation is the category, not the colour - his concern is dating the house the way the original dated.
Neither of them is wrong, and the brief doesn't pick. It's on the list of things to settle with you.
What they've already agreed to give up
If the budget forces choices, their order is already agreed: (1) kitchen and systems · (2) a bedroom she can actually sleep in during the day · (3) entry and deck, which can wait. Dan's basement gym is already out.
They worked that out between themselves, before anyone asked.
A detail that changes the plan
"There's no calm route from the front door to the bed."
She's a nurse on night shifts. She arrives at 7:45am into the school run and needs to get to bed without being pulled into it. That one sentence sets the plan.

And a section for the thing you're probably wondering about

WHAT THEY'RE OPEN TO lists what they haven't decided - where the sleeping space actually lands, whether a wall comes out or opens some other way, how the entry gets solved.

They arrive knowing what matters to them. Not how it should be built.

Read the full sample brief →

HOW IT WORKS

Send a link. Get a brief back.

Step 1

You send it

From your panel, in your studio's name. Your client doesn't sign up for anything.

Step 2

They talk, on their own time

At home, one question at a time. They can stop, think about something for two days, and pick up where they left off. Some of the most useful answers arrive that way.

When there are two of them, it puts questions to each of them by name - so what one of them thinks doesn't quietly become what both of them think.

Step 3

You get the brief

By email, as a PDF or a Word file you can edit.

You can see where they are

Not started · In progress · Done.

The panel shows it for every client you've sent to. Nothing expires - no deadline on the link, and no deadline on the sessions you've bought. If someone leaves it for a week, it's still there when they come back.

"Your first meeting becomes refinement, not excavation."

Dana, architect

WHERE THE LINE IS

It records. It doesn't design.

It's an AI conversation, and we say that plainly. What it does is ask and listen. What it never does is decide.

Three things it will not do, in any session:

It doesn't propose solutions.

If a client says the kitchen feels cramped, it asks what happens in there and when. It doesn't suggest opening a wall, moving the island, or anything else. Those are yours to propose.

It doesn't settle disagreements.

When two people want different things, it hears out both of them properly and puts both positions in the brief. Marked as open, not resolved. You get the full picture, and you decide how it gets solved - or whether it needs to be.

It doesn't give design advice.

No materials, no layouts, no opinions about what would look good. Not once.

WHAT ARRIVES, AND WHAT DOESN'T

They do bring something. It's usually the answer, not the question.

Almost nobody arrives with a written brief. What arrives is a folder of images, a plan somebody drew at the kitchen table, and a set of decisions already made.

A client says they need a home office. What they may need is a quiet place to think - and one of those is a room, the other might be a corner, a window, or a door that closes. That distance is what the first meeting has to close.

AIA's standard agreement puts the program on the owner's side. In practice, you build it. The profession has a name for it: back-briefing.

And when there are two of them it takes longer. Not because couples argue - because what each of them really thinks doesn't always make it to the table, and the one who goes quiet isn't agreeing. You find out in month six.

The time you spend pulling that out of them is time you're not designing. And redesigning.

"I'm not worried about AI. Clients would have to clearly say what they want - and I have never had a client that can do that."

An architect, in a public discussion

YOUR NAME ON IT

Your client sees your studio.

Set your studio name once. Your client sees it in three places:

01The email - sent in your studio's name
02The conversation - your name is there while they answer
03The brief - your name on the document

They get a link from you. You get the brief back.

NestbriefHalstead Architecture
Home Brief
Prepared for your meeting with Halstead Architecture

Your studio name · alongside the Nestbrief logo

WHO BUILT THIS

I've been on the other side of this since I was a kid.

My father ran a business in the trades and I grew up in it. Then I spent eight years as a licensed renovation contractor, watching drawings change late because something about how the client lived only surfaced once there was something to react to.

The profession has a word for the gap: back-briefing. On large projects a separate consultant handles it. On a private house it has never been worth anyone's while.

On a hospital or a museum, that consultant is a specialist who develops the program before the architect starts. On a private house it costs more than the fee. That's the part that changed.

I built this with an architect, and refined it with designers and contractors.

Lahav Meiri
Lahav Meiri
Licensed renovation contractor

PRICING

What it costs.

Single
$49
one client
Try it once
Starter
$200
5 sessions
$40/session
for a solo architect
Most popular
Core
$350
10 sessions
$35/session · save 29%
for a working practice
Scale
$600
20 sessions
$30/session · save 39%
for a busy firm

Prices shown before tax. Sales tax added at checkout.

Running a larger studio? Let's set you up with a plan that scales. Talk to us →

Your client pays nothing
They don't sign up, don't enter a card, and never see a price.
Nothing expires
No deadline on the sessions you buy, or the link you send.
Full refund, no questions asked
On any sessions you haven't used, within 30 days.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions we get

Anyone who designs homes for private clients - architects, building designers, design-build firms. Homeowners also use it directly, and bring the brief to whoever they've hired. If you sit across from someone at the start of a project and have to work out what they want, it's for you.

No. Not once. No materials, no layouts, no opinions about what would work. If a client says a room feels cramped, it asks what happens in there and when. The suggesting is yours.

Then change it. It's your input, not a ruling. It records what your clients said they need - the judgment about what that means, and what gets built, stays entirely with you.

It follows up where it matters, and pushes for the specific over the general. And where an answer stays thin, the brief says so rather than filling the gap. You'll know what's solid and what isn't.

A form gets whatever the client thinks to write down. A conversation asks what they meant, notices what they skipped, and comes back to it. It also puts questions to each partner by name, which a shared form can't do. And there's no meeting around it. They can stop, think about something for two days, and come back - some of the most useful answers arrive that way. With nobody sitting across the table, they answer at whatever length they feel like.

A written Home Brief, two to four pages, as a PDF or an editable Word file. Your studio's name on it. You can read the full sample above.

Open a link and answer questions, at home, in their own time. No account, no software, no payment. They can stop and come back.

As long as they need. Most work through it in one or two sittings, and it saves as they go.

Your panel shows where everyone is - not started, in progress, done. They can pick it up whenever. You can nudge them, or not.

You and your client. We don't sell data, and we don't show one client's brief to anyone else - the sample on this page is exactly that: a sample.

No. Not the ones you buy, and not the links you send.

Unused sessions are refundable within 30 days, repriced to the tier you actually used.

Yes. A single session is the same product as a pack - buy one, send it to a real client, and see what comes back.

A real conversation, before they ever reach you.

They arrive knowing themselves better.

You start several steps ahead - with room to go deeper.

Read a sample Home Brief →See pricing

Want to talk it through first?

Book a call and we’ll walk you through it - how it works, whether it fits your practice, and anything you want to ask. Prefer email? Reach us directly at hello@nestbrief.com.

Have a question?

Or email us directly at hello@nestbrief.com.