Assumption Tax - Assertiveness as the Ultimate Filter for Makers and Innovation

We’ve all been there.

You hand off a "simple" feature request. You use words like "fast," "clean," and "intuitive." You think you’ve been clear. Two weeks later, the engineering team presents a solution that looks nothing like what you imagined.

You feel frustrated. The engineers feel micromanaged. The stakeholders feel ignored.

Most people call this a "communication breakdown." I call it the Assumption Tax. And it’s the most expensive tax your product and your life will ever pay.





The Invisible Gap

In Product Management and Innovation, there is a dangerous space between what a customer or client says and what a maker builds. We fill this space with a silent, deadly ingredient: Assumptions.


We assume "fast" means page load speed; the customer meant the checkout flow. We assume "past the curve" means a slight overlap; the designer meant a total intersection.


Why don't we catch these gaps earlier? Because we are often too "polite" to be precise. We pay the Assumption Tax in the form of re-work, missed deadlines, and lost trust.


The "Totem" Experiment

To see the Assumption Tax in action, I suggest you try a quick experiment with your team or a group of colleagues. Give them this specific set of geometric instructions:

  • "Draw a square."
  • "Draw a circle inside it."
  • "Draw a triangle where the corners are past the bottom curve."

The result? Ten different people will likely draw ten different "products."

Despite hearing the exact same words, their mental models will be miles apart. The instruction "past the curve" is the culprit. To some, it meant a millimeter. To others, it meant the bottom of the page.


In a drawing activity, this is a fun lesson. In Product Management, this is a 100x cost multiplier. ## Why Politeness is a Liability


As PMs or aspiring makers, we often fear that asking for a third level of clarification makes us look "slow" or "difficult." We want to be the "easy-to-work-with" PM but staying silent when a requirement is vague isn't being "nice", it's being negligent. 


True professional kindness is Assertiveness. It is the courage to say:

"I want to ensure I don't waste the team's time. When you say 'simple,' exactly how many clicks are we talking about?"


Assertiveness as the Ultimate Filter

Being an assertive PM doesn't mean being loud or bold. It means being a filter for ambiguity. Your job is to ensure that no "Subjective Adjectives" ever make it to a developer's desk.

  • "Fast" becomes "< 200ms TTFB."
  • "Simple" becomes "Max 3 steps to completion."
  • "Large Scale" becomes "1 million concurrent users."

It’s a Life Skill, Not Just a Job Skill

This isn't just about JIRA tickets. The "Invisible Gap" exists in our personal lives, too.

How many arguments start because we assumed our partner knew what "help with the house" meant? How much stress is caused because we didn't assertively define what a "successful weekend" looked like to us?


When you master the art of navigating the Assumption Tax, you don't just build better products; you build better relationships and a more focused life.


The PMCompass Challenge

In your next meeting, identify one Subjective Adjective. Stop the conversation. Assertively ask for a definition.


Stop assuming. Start aligning.




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