Someone has to define that project. It might as well be you.

When leadership passes ambiguity down the chain, the person who fills the void wins.

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Your team just got assigned a “critical” project from a very senior leader in the company. There’s excitement, buzzwords are flying, and the timeline is aggressive.

There’s just one problem: nobody can tell you what they actually want.

You ask questions. Product is confused. The answers contradict each other depending on who you ask. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on a deadline someone promised without consulting anyone from the team.

This scenario is so common in some companies it barely registers as a dysfunction anymore. It’s just... how things work. But here’s what most engineering leaders miss: this chaos isn’t something t…