Creating a user performance brief: An action research study

Background: Establishing client needs during the formative stages of a project (before design commences) is becoming an increasingly important role for the facility manager (FM). With knowledge of the organisation and the functional and technical imperatives of a process or service, the FM can play a key role in the creation and development of the initial performance based brief that can guide the design team. A number of pre-design processes and activities are being developed that work through client strategic and organisational issues and organise the client's needs and requirements into an agreed performance brief before the design team becomes involved. Tapping into the knowledge and experience of stakeholders through their involvement in pre-design workshops is a common feature of many of these project inception approaches.