You can’t specify your way to great design
There’s a famous parenting book called Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, in which a mother realises something important: no matter how long her list of rules for the children, they always found something she hadn’t thought to ban. Like eating the flowers off the dining-room table. The lesson applies directly to design: you cannot write an exhaustive list of requirements that covers every eventuality. There will always be gaps, and trying to close them all just makes the document longer and less useful.
What actually works is goal clarity. When everyone involved understands what the work is trying to achieve, they have a compass to navigate the decisions that no requirements document could anticipate. High-priority requirements still matter; they should be called out clearly and kept separate from the lower-level detail. Mixing the two dilutes the things that genuinely determine success. And where you need to cover a range of situations, broader framing works better than long lists: “consistent with best practice” or “in line with the agreed goal” covers far more ground than any checklist ever could.
The practical upshot is to communicate your goals clearly, keep essential requirements short and prominent, and build in regular checkpoints to confirm that what’s being built still matches what was intended. That approach will take you further than any specification document.
