You do not need a written specification to start. A photo of the site, a hand drawing, a sample product or a few sentences about what it has to become is enough.
The minimum I can already work from is one photo or sketch plus a sentence about what the product is for. Everything else we sort out in conversation.
If you have this information, the quote gets sharper immediately: overall dimensions or the installation site; expected load or weight; material and finish, if either matters; your target date; and whether you need only a model or a full documentation package.
If you have none of that, it is a perfectly normal starting point. In the Full cycle package we write the specification together.
Fill in the briefYou talk to the engineer directly — there is no account manager in between, so the first reply is already technical rather than «let me forward this to a specialist».
If the task is not a fit for me, I will say so in that first reply and, where I can, point you to someone better suited. It saves us both time.