Design briefs act as kick-starters for most design projects in academic and professional settings. Briefs serve as structuring and assessment tool for academic design studio projects. Frameworks for design briefs stated by scholars are reviewed to arrive at a comprehensive summary for the structural components and format of design briefs that can be considered for writing briefs. When writing briefs, it is important to understand the theoretical concepts that help ascertain the nature of a design problem as well as understand the approaches to reframing briefs and thinking in design to be aware of the varied ways an individual may interpret the brief. Writing a "design task" or a "need statement" at varied levels of abstraction, from the very specific and concrete to generic and abstract, has been deliberated based on a research study that focused on "need statement," a component of design brief. The article will discuss the findings of this study undertaken with design students. The work would be of interest to design teachers, students, and practitioners in setting up design briefs and understanding the relevance of design task or need statements in the design process. © 2022 Common Ground Research Networks. All rights reserved.