The Ultimate Time-Saving Hack: Stop Writing Endless Documentation.
Hello, this is Shogo Harada, CEO of Linnoedge, reporting from Vietnam.
Let me ask you straight:
“Aren’t you tired of writing specifications?”
“When this button is clicked, the screen transitions like this, and the data is processed like that…” You have a clear vision in your head, but to convey it to a development company, you end up creating mountains of documentation. That task alone can eat up days, sometimes weeks.
And after all that effort to communicate your needs, you look at the final product and freeze. “…Wait, this isn’t what I meant at all.”
In those moments, does a “forbidden wish” ever cross your mind? “If only I could just say ‘Make it look good’ and they’d actually get it. How much easier would life be?”
Actually, that’s not an impossible dream. Today, I want to talk about the “smart way to slack off”—liberating yourself from the curse of tedious spec-writing to create a masterpiece based on an order as simple as “a pinch of salt.”
Moving with “Intuition,” Not Just “Carelessness”
Jumpei Mitsui, a LEGO Certified Professional, once said:
“By the time you think, it’s already too late.”
He doesn’t mean “do things randomly without thinking.” He means “reducing the ‘lag’ between thought and conclusion to as close to zero as possible.”
Let’s use a cooking analogy. Imagine a veteran chef at your favorite restaurant. They don’t measure salt with a spoon every single time. The moment they think, “It needs a bit more salt,” they’ve already flicked their wrist.
To an outsider, it looks “random.” But when you taste it, the seasoning is perfect. This isn’t because they aren’t thinking. It’s because they have a massive database of experience—thousands of dishes made, failed, and corrected—stored in their brain. Their intuition reaches the “correct answer” faster than conscious thought.
Business and system development are the same. If you stop every time to hold a meeting about “exactly how many grams of salt to add” (the specs), the delicious pasta (the business opportunity) will get soggy and overcooked. What the modern era demands isn’t a massive, heavy blueprint; it’s this “chef-like intuitive judgment.”
Are You Still Making Them Follow a Recipe (Document)?
“I get what you’re saying. But we aren’t IT pros,” I can hear you saying. You’re absolutely right. This is where many clients struggle.
You are pros in your own business—retail, logistics, services. You aren’t pros in system architecture. That’s why you lack the criteria to decide “how the system should be built,” leading to anxiety.
- “When there’s 0 data, do we show a blank space or ‘No results’? Please define every error message.”
- “That ‘Back’ button wasn’t in the requirements. Implementing it will require a change request and a budget review.”
“You’re the pros! Just use common sense and make it work!” You want to scream it, don’t you? But in traditional development, “what’s in the specs” is everything. People use documentation as a shield against risk. By the time you’ve finished refining the specs, the market has moved on. The “food” never reaches the customer while it’s hot.
So, what’s the solution? Do you study development yourself for 10,000 hours? Of course not. The answer is simpler: “Borrow the intuition of a partner who has already put in those 10,000 hours.”
The Choice to Have Your Own “Private Chef”
This is the true value of our “Linoedge Lab Development.” Until recently, offshore development was seen merely as a way to cut costs. But Linoedge is different.
For us, Lab Development is like “having your own team of private chefs.”
A chef at your regular spot knows your tastes perfectly. Your hated ingredients, your preferred steak doneness, your mood that day. That’s why “I’ll leave it to you” works.
A “Linoedge Lab (Dedicated Team)” is the same. We aren’t just coders; we are partners who share the context of your business. “Next month’s sale is coming up. Make that input screen snappier so the staff doesn’t get stressed.” A random contractor would ask, “What do you mean by ‘snappier’? Please provide a spec.” A long-term Lab team says: “Understood. You mean the inventory tablets the floor staff uses. We’ll optimize the cache processing to speed up the loading. How about we change the layout like this?”—and they show you a mockup.
There is no “lag.” You don’t need to write the perfect spec.
Bridging the Gap with “Pictures”
You might worry: “Won’t it take forever to sync our thinking?” “A pinch of salt” means different things to different people. That’s why at Linoedge, we lean heavily into “AI-driven Mockup Creation.”
This is the ultimate weapon against misalignment. Traditionally, people try to align through “Requirement Documents”—walls of text and static diagrams. It’s impossible to imagine a “user-friendly screen” through text alone. This is why the tragedy of “This isn’t what I thought it would be” happens at the end of a project.
Linoedge is different. Once we hear what you want to achieve, we use AI to build a “living prototype” (mockup) before we even start coding.
It’s like a chef offering you a “tasting spoon.” “Is this the screen image you had in mind?” “Ah, I want this button to be a bit bigger.” “How about this then?” “Exactly! That’s it!”
We finish this exchange before a single line of production code is written. By using AI, we create mockups at incredible speeds. This minimizes the risk of “not knowing until it’s built” and prevents costly do-overs.
Seeing one picture is faster than 100 emails. This is the secret to our speed and the reason we don’t make our clients write specs.
Throw Away the Thick Documents
Thank you for reading this far. If you are currently struggling to choose a development partner or stuck in a project that won’t move, please remember this:
“You don’t have to decide everything perfectly by yourself.”
You don’t need a perfect document. Just bring your passion—”I want to create this kind of world” or “I want to make this process easier.”
We, the “Chefs of System Development,” will take that energy and use the latest AI tools and our years of experience to serve up a five-star course meal.
Stop wasting time writing specs; spend more time talking about the future of your business. We would be honored if you chose Linoedge as your partner in that journey.
It doesn’t even have to start as a “business talk.” Why not start with a casual chat about what’s bugging you lately? I look forward to meeting you in Ho Chi Minh City someday. I’ll take you to my favorite restaurant. (By the way, my recommendation this week is…)
Summary
- “Too late if you think”: Not a lack of thought, but using experience-backed “intuition” to reduce decision lag to zero.
- A team that understands “A pinch of salt”: Having a “Lab (Dedicated Team)” that shares your context drastically reduces the need for documentation.
- “Tasting” with AI Mockups: Visualizing ideas with AI before development starts ensures “Thinking Synergy” and prevents rework.
Author Profile: Shogo Harada CEO of Linoedge. Operates IT offshore, SaaS, and consulting businesses between Tokyo and Vietnam. Believes in “Systems over Spirit,” structuring cross-border businesses that often lack transparency. Committed to delivering “Reproducible Quality” rather than relying on individual skills.
▼ Want to bounce some ideas off Shogo? I’m happy to be your sounding board to find where the “lag” is in your business.
Shogo Harada’s 15-minute Meeting
Link:https://b-book.run/@shogo