What it is.
Joe Kurian, Slate's co-founder and CPO, embedded the whole template in the post, so you paste it into Google Docs, Notion, Word, or Markdown and start using it. A filled B2B SaaS example sits underneath.
The fields go past the usual keyword and outline pair: search intent, awareness stage, content goal, must-cover People Also Ask questions, internal links, and named owner, reviewer, and approver. A refresh trigger field states up front what would make the page need updating.
The example brief targets 1,600 to 1,900 words and asks for a 40 to 60 word answer-first summary, which are the two numbers a writer needs. This is Slate's own template and Slate sells content tooling.
What you get.
- A full brief you paste into Docs, Notion, Word, or Markdown.
- A worked B2B SaaS example, filled in, under the blank template.
- A refresh trigger field, so the page has a stated reason to be revisited.
- Separate owner, reviewer, and approver fields, so every brief has a named person at each step.
- A 40 to 60 word answer-first summary spec for the opening.
How to set it up.
Paste the template into your docs tool and delete the fields your team genuinely never uses.
Fill primary and secondary keywords, then write the search intent in one sentence before you touch the outline.
List the People Also Ask questions the page has to answer, because that list drives the H2s.
Set the word count against a target the results page supports; the example brief uses 1,600 to 1,900 words.
Write the 40 to 60 word answer-first summary yourself, since it is the passage an assistant is most likely to lift.
Name the owner, reviewer, and approver, and set the refresh trigger before the brief leaves your hands.
Use cases
Brief a writer once
Paste the template into your doc tool and fill the fields before the kickoff.
Show what good looks like
Hand over the worked example alongside the blank one.
Set the refresh field early
Record the refresh trigger while the brief is being written.
Best for
Briefs written by different people
Two writers filling in the same fields produce drafts you can compare.
Working with freelancers
A filled example removes the back-and-forth about what each field means.
Content that has to age well
The refresh trigger field is the cheapest version of a maintenance plan.