There are times I feel that "there are no real requirements" is the most accurate description. At least, not in the form that developers can actually start to craft a quality running system from. It's all requirements theater; there is nothing specific about it and it's impossible to achieve a linear mapping from high level thought bubbles down to an if branch or error check.

Really; a lot of what I work on day to day can be summarized as 'this thing over there needs to be better, or maybe pink'.

Can't give up though; I'd encourage the author to follow their instincts towards prototyping tools. The quicker you have a running system the user can 'feel' (as the author puts it), the closer you are to a shippable outcome.

And yeah PM's are useless wastes of space, but I'm glad they are there to help the rest of us ineffectually get the next Frankenstein up and limping.