You Discover a Material Ambiguity Halfway Through the Work

You’re halfway through the assignment when you discover the brief can mean two different things—and both are reasonable. Do you pick one and keep moving?

The situation

A monthly customer report asks for “active customers.” The CRM treats anyone with an open contract as active. Finance treats only accounts billed in the last 90 days as active. The definition changes the headline number materially.

Your manager is unavailable for the next two hours. The report is due later that day.

The move

Do not ask for permission on every reversible detail.

But do not silently choose a plausible interpretation when the choice changes:

• meaning;

• stakeholder commitment;

• scope;

• or a hard-to-reverse result.

Check the available artifacts first. If they do not resolve a material decision, surface the tradeoff with a recommendation.