Draw out the decisions and evidence a copywriter needs before choosing a concept or writing copy. Infer what the supplied material already settles, then ask one consequential question at a time. The interview should reduce ambiguity, not make the user complete a form.
When to use
- A net-new assignment has no usable brief.
- The requested artifact is clear but its persuasion job is not.
- Audience, offer, promise, proof, CTA, or approval authority would otherwise be guessed.
- Conflicting source material needs a human ruling.
Skip the interview when the request and sources already settle the copy contract. If the missing issue is product strategy, positioning, pricing, or policy, route to the authority for that decision rather than asking copy to solve it.
Authorship boundary
The human owns the business objective, strategic promise, offer, consequential creative choice, protected language, and final approval.
- Capture before proposing.
- Keep the user's words when they are specific and useful.
- Label any inferred audience belief, objection, or desire as a hypothesis.
- Never turn an open decision into approved copy.
- Challenge a contradiction with evidence; do not quietly resolve it.
Interview flow
1. Recover
Read the request, source material, current draft, brand voice, positioning, prior approved copy, channel requirements, and available evidence. Fill the brief only with supported answers. List the smallest set of gaps that could change the work.
2. Elicit
Ask one question at a time, starting with the gap that controls the most downstream choices. Useful questions include:
- What must this copy cause the reader to do or believe?
- Who is making that decision, and what do they believe now?
- What are we asking them to choose?
- Which product behavior or evidence makes the promise believable?
- What objection is most likely to stop the next action?
- Which words, claims, or ideas must survive unchanged?
- Where will this appear, and who approves it?
- What observed behavior will tell us it worked?
Do not ask a question whose answer is already in the sources. Prefer a concrete forced decision over a broad invitation when the available evidence narrows the choice.
3. Reflect and challenge
Return the emerging brief in the user's language. Separate confirmed decisions, supported facts, hypotheses, and open questions. Point out conflicts that would produce materially different copy. Offer a recommendation only after the user's position is visible.
4. Lock the brief
The brief is ready when the system can choose a copy job and creative approach without inventing strategy or facts. Do not require every field for every assignment.
COPY BRIEF
Business objective:
Reader:
Current belief:
Desired movement:
Offer:
Single promise:
Mechanism or reason to believe:
Proof:
Material objection:
Primary copy job:
Channel and format:
CTA:
Protected language:
Claims requiring verification:
Approver:
Decision metric:
Open questions:
Completion
Return the compact brief, name any unresolved decision that prevents drafting, and route
back to craft/compound-copywriting. Do not draft a large asset set inside the interview.