UGC Handbook / Lesson 09 of 14 / Chapter III: Creators

Brief creators without making them sound like ads: a content bank, not a script

Canyon, co-founder of Sideshift, has seen creator briefs fail in both directions.

One founder says "go download my app and like make content about it." The creator opens the app cold and has no idea what problem it solves.

Another founder sends a 50-page brief. In Canyon's words on Superwall: "nobody wants to read that."

Between those two is a one-page document that gives a creator proven formats, one problem to frame, and the numbers to know what worked. This lesson builds it.

Two ways a brief fails

Too little. Canyon's description of the empty brief: a creator "seeing it from an outside lens" doesn't know "what the core value prop of that product is, what's that viral moment that I can lean into, what problem are you solving." Content made from that starting point is generic.

Too much. The 50-page brief fails for the opposite reason. Creators "open it up and see how overwhelming it is" and skip the whole thing. His rule: "keep the creator brief short and sweet," with information "people can just act on right away."

The balance the operators actually run. Yiannis, a machine-learning scientist who says his accounts did about 300 million views last year, told Superwall the teams he works with "do very strong briefs and they leave some leeway for creativity." His split: "80% of the post you have to respect a structure, 20% you can explore." The brief should be "very, very strict on where they have freedom versus where they have to follow a structure."

Julian Alvarez of Jungle called it "a delicate balance" and landed on the same answer: give examples of videos that performed and hooks that worked, then leave room for the creator's own style.

Structure is not the enemy of authenticity. Vagueness is.

The brief is a content bank, not a script

A script tells one person what to say in one video. A content bank gives every creator a menu of formats that already won, so they can pick one and make it theirs.

What a bank contains. Nicole, who built Glam Up and Sprawl and says she was running 100 million monthly views, mostly YouTube Shorts, when she handled UGC (user-generated content) herself, described hers on Superwall. For every viral format: "I have the content idea, I have the content details, I have the example videos, I have maybe audios for it, and then I have a script." The script goes line by line with the emotion for each line ("do a sarcastic tone here," "roll your eyes here") and the shot: long, medium, close-up.

Host Joseph Choi's summary: "it's not just the lines, it's like the stage directions." Nicole films example videos herself so creators "can copy off of me."

Where a bank starts. You don't need Nicole's library on day one. Canyon's version: if you have viral videos on your own account, or from earlier creators, "link those videos" so new creators "already have a few formats that they can run with."

Cedric of Pepai, whose app hit $100K in revenue in 70 days, gives creators a guide of what has worked for others and then trusts them: "you know your audience the best." Joseph Choi's observation: "once you have winning videos, then you can just show those as the brief."

Three winning videos and one written-out format is a bank. It grows every week.

Frame the problem, not the feature

This is the part of the brief that decides whether the video sells or just entertains.

The cost of getting it wrong. Lesson 01's Coconote case is the reference: the pdftobrainrot spike produced about 3,000 trial starts and roughly $25,000 on 100 to 200 million views, the founders said on Superwall. Their takeaway: a "novel tool" gets views; it doesn't convert to paying customers.

The brief's job. Canyon's most important brief field is "who do we actually want to target." A product pitched to anyone produces content Canyon calls "bland": it "doesn't feel like it's meant for anyone." So the brief names the person and the problem, in the creator's audience's words, before it mentions a feature.

Show, don't announce. Phoenix, who has run 40 creators at once, described the mechanic on Superwall: show "some magic moment" of the product, build interest in the comments, and "don't give away too much of that sauce ... so it doesn't feel like a paid advertisement."

Marcus Burke, who has run ads for apps for 14 years, said the selling in the formats that work is "quite subtle": the app is on screen, but the video isn't saying "download this app." People "ask for it in the comment section, which then drives additional engagement."

His qualifier matters: he calls that content "relatively low intent and relatively untargeted," made "to gain virality." So the down-funnel numbers, not the views, decide whether a format stays in your bank.

Write this at the top of every brief:

Feed conversion data back to creators

A brief is a starting document. What keeps creators making content that sells is knowing what sold.

Coconote's model. Zack Hargett kept the creator team small on purpose, borrowing Brian Chesky's line: "we want to build the Navy SEALs, not the Navy." He met every creator one-to-one. The point of that time, in his words: "enabling them with what creative actually works and letting them know what converts."

How they knew: a video at 20 or 30 million views spikes on identifiable days, so they could measure what those days did down funnel.

Why this beats a longer brief. Sub Club host David Barnard raised the failure mode: pay creators on views and "they can really rack up the bill doing just funny TikToks that get attention, but then don't convert." Zack's answer wasn't a stricter script. It was time spent showing each creator which of their videos produced trials and which didn't.

Julian Alvarez put it as "give them feedback wherever feedback is warranted." Feedback needs numbers per creator, which is why each creator posts with their own link (Lesson 03).

Do this before the first creator posts

1. Write the problem line. Fill in the blank above. If it names a feature instead of a problem, rewrite it.
2. Name the person. One sentence: who is watching, what they've already tried, what they say when they complain about it.
3. Pick 3 winning videos from your own account or your niche (Lesson 01's search). For each, write what's fixed (hook, length, shot order) and what's free.
4. Write the soft CTA rule. App on screen, name not spoken, founder or creator answers "what app is this?" in the comments.
5. List the rules in 5 lines or fewer. Mention us, don't mention competitors, anything legally required for your category.
6. Set the feedback date. Every two weeks, send each creator their own clicks, installs, and trial starts. Bring the three best-converting videos into the bank.