This is a super complicated topic as the thread here demonstrates. It all comes down to the quality of communication that managers have cultivated with their di

This is a super complicated topic as the thread here demonstrates. It all comes down to the quality of communication that managers have cultivated with their direct reports. Great communication means that DRs a) understand many of your assumptions and don't require that everything be explicit, and b) that they feel comfortable asking you to clarify as required. A phone call as opposed to async writing is a great way to get to the ambiguities in your ask that matter to the people who will perform the task. Exhaustively writing out all assumptions to defend against all interpretations is simply a symptom of a pathological org or team.