There's a Japanese proverb, “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” What it doesn’t mention is that action with an ambiguous vision is also a nightmare. 

As you progress towards building something there's less and less room for ambiguity until there's none. It's not possible to make something vaguely, which people often don't discover until they try it.

That's why hours spent clarifying the vision for a project at the beginning saves weeks of pointless meetings and re-work later. It’s not enough for one person to have a vision. You need to document the simplest set of success criteria possible, and the whole team need to get it.

An example. When Kibuo Ibe — an engineer at Casio — broke his mechanical watch, he was inspired to create a shockproof alternative. 

His success criteria could not be simpler: 10, 10, 10: 

The watch should have a 10 year battery life
Survive a drop of 10 meters onto concrete 
Be water resistant to 10 bar (100m)

They tested the concrete drop very scientifically — by throwing prototypes out of a 3rd floor bathroom window at the office.

2 years ago Casio sold their 100,000,000th G-shock. Good things come from clear, simple briefs. Drive ambiguity out early, and reap the benefits!

See this post on LinkedIn