60% of creative briefs arrive incomplete: what our request data shows

People ask me what ten years of running creative requests has taught us. I usually answer with stories. This time I wanted to answer with numbers. We looked across 5,000 projects, and a few of the results surprised even me.

The numbers

• 60% of briefs arrive incomplete.
• 3 days is the median turnaround for a request.
• Up to 4 revision rounds before a request is approved.
• 97% of work is delivered on time.
• 700+ teams served in 22 countries since 2015.

Source: Workspace Global data from 5,000 projects, October 2026.

1. Most briefs are missing something

Six in ten briefs we receive are incomplete. In my experience it's rarely the big things. It's the copy that's “coming”, the size nobody mentioned, the logo file in someone's inbox, or no word on who gets to approve. Each gap is a question, and each question can cost a day.

That's the single biggest lever any marketing team has over speed. It's also why we put AI into the briefing step of our app: you describe what you need, and it asks for what's missing before the work starts. If you'd rather do it by hand, use this brief template.

2. Three days is the real median

Our median turnaround is 3 days. Quick changes come back faster, in 24 to 48 hours, and landing pages and websites take longer. But if you're planning a typical request, three days from a complete brief is a fair number to plan around. There's a full guide to turnaround times if you need the detail.

3. Up to four rounds of revisions

Requests go through up to four rounds of revisions before they're approved. On our plans you can keep revising until you're happy, so this isn't a limit. It's what actually happens.

What moves a request from four rounds towards one is almost always upstream. A complete brief, one or two references and one person giving feedback. When feedback arrives from five people in five places, every round gets longer and there are more of them.

4. Your file format depends on who you are

This one is simple, and it's worth getting right before the work starts. Non-technical teams, such as founders, marketing leads and comms teams, ask for PowerPoint or Google Slides plus a PDF, so they can edit the words themselves and share a version that can't be broken. Technical teams, such as product and digital, ask for Figma, so design can move straight into build.

Put the format in the brief. You own everything you approve, including the editable source files, so ask for the one your team will actually open.

5. Reliability is a system, not a promise

97% of our work is delivered on time. That isn't because anyone works through the night. It comes from structured briefs, a project manager on every account, art directors checking work before it's sent and a tracker that shows where everything is. I wrote more about how we built that here.

What I'd do with these numbers

1. Spend thirty minutes on the brief. It's the cheapest way to make everything else faster.
2. Plan around three days for typical requests, and work backwards from launch.
3. Name one person to give feedback, and send comments as one round.
4. State the file format you need in every brief.

If you'd like to see how your team's requests compare, book a call. I'm always happy to talk numbers.