Say the quiet part to the model

Reading over a few hundred first messages, the omissions are remarkably consistent. People leave out the constraint they find embarrassing, the decision that has already been made above them, the thing they tried that half-worked, and what they actually want to be true.

Each omission produces the same failure: a competent answer to a general version of your problem. The general version is not the one you have.

If you would say it to a trusted colleague before you said the polished version, say it first here too.

The long version of this argument, with the whiteboard scene that convinced me, is in Thinking Out Loud, On Purpose.