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The Working Specification

Richard Rumelt · 25 May 2026

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  1. Our reading

    A working specification deliberately resolves ambiguity so that design work can begin.

    Their wordsPhyllis’s working specification was a deliberate resolution of ambiguity into an actionable description. It was the bridge from “we don’t know” to “we are building.” Her specification passed on to the engineers a simpler problem—not one that was easy, but one that was solvable. With that assumption in place, design work could begin.

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