What this does
This is BriefFlow's core differentiator. Most tools stop at "assigned." BriefFlow adds one more checkpoint before execution starts: does the person doing the work actually understand it? A task can't move into In Progress until every current assignee's understanding of it has been reviewed and approved.
Why it exists
Assigned does not mean understood. Left unchecked, a mismatch between what a manager meant and what an assignee heard usually isn't discovered until the work is already built the wrong way — after days of effort, not before. Understanding closes that gap by making the assignee's interpretation explicit and reviewable before they start.
Before you begin
You must be an assignee on the task to submit understanding for it, or hold review permission to approve/request clarification on someone else's submission.
Submitting your understanding (assignee)
- Open a task you're assigned to.
- In the Understanding section, select Submit My Understanding (or Resubmit if you're revising after clarification was requested).
- Under My Understanding, write what you believe you're being asked to deliver — in your own words, not a copy of the description.
- Under Proposed Approach, describe how you intend to implement and test it.
- Optionally note any open questions or dependencies.
- Select the submit button to send it for review.
Reviewing a submission (manager)
- Open the task and find the assignee's submission in the Understanding section.
- Read their My Understanding and Proposed Approach.
- Select Approve if it matches the intended work — the assignee is now cleared to move the task into In Progress.
- Or select Request Clarification, enter specific feedback on what's missing or wrong, and select Send Request.
What happens next
If approved, the assignee can move the task into In Progress. If clarification was requested, the assignee sees your feedback alongside their original submission, revises it, and resubmits — the reviewer sees the new answer next to their own original feedback, not as a blind resubmission.
Revision history is preserved
Every submission and resubmission is kept, not overwritten — so there's a full, honest record of how the understanding evolved, not just the final approved version.
Outdated understanding
If the task's brief changes materially after your understanding was approved — a changed description, acceptance criteria, or similar — your approved understanding is automatically marked Outdated and you're asked to resubmit against the new brief. This is what keeps "approved" meaningful even as tasks evolve; an approval against a task that no longer exists in that form isn't real approval.
Multi-assignee tasks
When a task has more than one assignee, each one submits and gets reviewed independently — one person's approval doesn't clear the task for the others, and one person's outstanding clarification doesn't block someone else who's already approved. The task can only move into In Progress once every current assignee is approved. The task detail page shows this as an aggregate, e.g. "1/2 Approved."
If you're assigned to your own task
Self-owned tasks still go through submission and review — you write your understanding as usual, and it's reviewed by whoever holds review permission for the project (not silently self-approved).
Tip
Understanding is where the most useful early disagreements happen. A vague or copy-pasted submission defeats the point — write what you'd actually tell a teammate if they asked you to explain the task in your own words.
Common issues
I can't submit understanding. Confirm you're actually listed as an assignee on the task, not just able to view it.
My approved understanding suddenly shows Outdated. The task's brief (description, acceptance criteria, etc.) changed after you were approved. Review the current brief and resubmit.