I was having a conversation with a friend recently who was feeling frustrated at work. As a materials engineer they had, yet again, found themselves in a situation where they would be flown out to another plant location to inspect an issue "with the material". In their experience, however, the majority of the time "there's an issue with the material", there’s actually an issue with the process and problem solving steps being taken around the usage of the material.

This got me thinking about whether I have a rigorous, methodological approach to solving problems in my own life and work. In my career as a programmer, a space canonically ripe for solving problems, I can’t recall a single time I’ve consciously followed a formal, systematic approach to solving a problem (at least, while working independently). Instead, my process has just been to throw myself at the problem and to give it my all until either I or the problem breaks down (ie, until I need a break.)

You could call this the brute force methodology of problem solving. Is that actually a methodology of problem solving? In the world of programming, it certainly is, and it is usually the most inefficient way to solve a problem.

Reflecting back on this, and not recalling any other methodologies, I did some research. When I think back to my education, I don't remember coming across any sort of linear structured system, a series of steps, basically, that would help me approach a problem. The closest thing I can think of is The Scientific Method and Brainstorming. I’m not sure if that qualifies, at least in my situation.

So I started looking around online to learn about "real problem solving methodologies". Here’s a short list.

• 5 Whys
• 8 Disciplines
• Six Sigma / DMAIC

Learning more about these methodologies made me realize that I have done some problem solving when doing incident reports. But beyond that, actual problem solving in my day to day doesn’t really happen. I don’t think I was necessarily promised that I would be solving interesting problems in my career (although perhaps there is an unspoken, inferred expectation that you should be, sometimes?). And yet, in this sad turning point of reflection, I wonder if I had imagined that would be the case. If I was, it might be that I would be more educated in official ways of problem solving.

The methodologies above, at least explained as they are on wikipedia, seem common in manufacturing settings where large quantities of something are being produced and flubs are being minimized. I’m not sure how that kind of problem solving is relevant to me. I’m certainly not following those steps in my day-to-day.

And if I’m not problem solving, what am I doing?

Quite literally, in my work I simply have a set of tasks or tickets. It might sound pedantic, but I don’t see a task as a problem that I need to solve. Instead, a task is one or more actions I need to take to resolve something. I almost always know how to do it, aside from learning some bit of context or a domain that’s new to me. But otherwise, I go and I execute.

If I’m solving tasks and tickets, what am I doing?

I’ve always known that in 99% of my work, I’ve been a cog in some kind of a machine. But until putting it into writing, I hadn’t really thought of myself as an instrument employed in solving someone else’s problems. But is there more to it than that? A company makes money solving some kind of problem. Now, I’m seeing that I’m an arm, an appendage, I’m something in the greater machinery of someone else’s problem solving. Yes, I’ve always known I was working for someone else, but somehow, I never thought about where that put me in the spectrum of solving problems.

I think that sometimes, we expect meaningful work to go hand-in-hand with solving interesting problems. But now, I’m wondering more broadly about problem solving, and if any part of that will act as a meaningful star that guides me through working life. What’s more, I think I’m seeing now that to be problem solving is to be one star in a constellation of something far greater than the individual can achieve.