"Unfortunately I wasn't given much choice in this project. " I had already guessed that. Another guess that I have is that the higher-ups have already decided what they want to do and how much they want to pay for it. Usually, there won't be much choice in that, either.

Most of the time, they will expect you to read their minds--if you're a good mind reader, you can save yourself a lot of unecessary work by coming up with what they want the first time--if you aren't practiced at mind reading, a few discreet and diplomatic inquiries may have the same result-


One bit of warning--there will likely be someone among your number who is reporting back to the higher-ups on your progress.   I tell you this as a former management consultant--bad idea to let lower level employees meet without knowing exactly where it is going--usually it is very informal, someone asks someone, "So how's the group progressing?", but it can be much more involved--it is a mistake to think that this is not important to top management--they might seem indiferent to your objectives, and they may not agree with your goals, but if it wasn't important to them, they wouldn't have bothered to set up your group in the first place--