What is a Briefing Note?

Briefing notes are used to keep decision makers informed about the issues they are responsible for. The demands of business these days are such that senior officials must constantly learn and retain information about an enormous range of topics and issues, which change rapidly.

A briefing note is a short paper that quickly and effectively informs a decision-maker about an issue, and are typically written for those senior-level decision-makers who, have to keep track of many, often unrelated issues and may not be familiar with the issues, and for whatever reason, need a capsule version of the key points and considerations about an issue

A well-prepared briefing note quickly and efficiently fills a person in on an issue. Briefing notes typically include some or all of the following sections, a concise statement of the issue, proposal or problem. The details the reader needs in order to understand what follows typically, the history of the topic. The current status describing the current situation, who is involved, what is happening now, the current state of the matter, issue, and situation.

A summary of the important facts, considerations, developments essentially everything that needs to be considered now, including options which are observations about the key considerations and what they mean. Finally conclusions summarising and highlighting what the reader needs to know.