Really interesting to read the responses so far! I am reminded of a story that I was taught during University about briefing individuals to do work for you. The story was about the brief that Michelangelo was given to paint the Sistine Chapel. It illustrates how important a brief can be to ultimately getting exactly what you are looking for.
Here are the possible briefs that the then Pope could have given to Michelangelo:
Brief 1: Paint the ceilingThis leaves all the decisions to the painter, and while he is talented, has no direction or inspiration. Why is he painting this ceiling and who will see this ceiling? Does anyone care? More than likely, because Michelangelo was an extremely talented artist, he would have painted something incredible...but would it have been the Sistine Chapel? Maybe not.
Brief 2: Paint the ceiling using certain coloursThis could likely be worse than the first brief. Not only does it not give direction or inspiration, but the person briefing then hamstrings the artist and potentially limits his creativity.
Brief 3: We've got cracks in the ceilings - can you fix them?Yikes! Not only are they not providing direction, but they are devaluing his painting to mere patchwork. I don't think you would get the best painting possible with this approach - do you?
Brief 4: Please paint biblical scenes that includes some or all of these elements: God, angels, demons, Adam, Saints, the Devil. Closer - The brief provided direction, without necessarily telling Michelangelo what to paint. It gives him a territory to work within and a subject, but then you leave the creativity to him.
Those are all possibilities, but then this is the brief that Michelangelo was actually given (allegedly).
Please paint of ceiling for the greater glory of God and as an inspiration and lesson to his people. This brief is both inspiring and provides direction for what he should paint. They didn't limit what or who he should paint, but contextualised it and gave him an area to paint within. Additionally, the second part gave him inspiration that his painting mattered because it would be a lesson for people who came to see the chapel.
Take the story with a grain of salt - more of a learning exercise than anything, but reading the above, I wonder how many would brief in vague ways, in excruciatingly detailed ways that neglects the overall purpose, or in uninspiring ways that leaves the designer unaware for how precious the job actually is!
Why don't we brief golf courses (and judge them for that matter) based on what purpose (hopefully grand) they fulfil, rather than defaulting to micro-detailing (or no detailing!). Surely WHY a golf course is built is more important than WHAT is built?!
Two notes: I'm working on my brief at the moment
Also, I took a lot of the details from the Michelangelo brief here:
https://www.slideshare.net/stevenstark/the-brief-for-the-sistine-chapel