Framework: Write Like Engineers Think

Poor: "Make it perform well" Good: "Latency < 200ms p99, throughput > 1000 requests/sec"

Engineers need: Numbers, not adjectives.

Best Practices

  1. Be specific: Not "fast", but "< 200ms"
  2. Be measurable: Success is pass/fail, not subjective
  3. Explain constraints: Why 200ms? What breaks at 300ms?
  4. Acknowledge tradeoffs: "We chose accuracy over speed because [reason]"
  5. Include context: Assume engineering hasn't read your strategy doc. Explain why this feature matters.

Example

Bad: "Build a better search" Good: "Reduce search latency from 500ms to 200ms for queries with < 1M results. For larger result sets, 500ms is acceptable. This unblocks power users on the premium tier (20% of revenue)."

Key Takeaways

  • Specificity prevents rework. Engineers know exactly what "done" looks like.
  • Numbers beat adjectives. Always.