If you’re asking someone to work for you, help you or advise you, it turns out that being specific about what success looks like is an obvious way to get better results.
If everyone can agree on what success looks like, you’re more likely to achieve it.
And yet…
And yet we prefer to say, “I’ll know it when I see it.” We’re vague, murky or even contradictory about what we want.
The reason is simple: If you write a great spec, we get to blame you if it doesn’t work out.
The vagueness is a way to hide.
If you don’t know what you want now, what makes you think you’ll know what you want later?
On the hook. That’s the most effective place to be.