Engineer shares his playbook for defining problems at work, based on Boris Cherny's method
cto_junior · x · 2026-09-22
Engineer @ctojunior shared his experience practicing Boris Cherny's problem-solving method, focusing on 'defining the problem.' Key points:
- Recon first: learn the company culture (top-down vs bottom-up, written vs verbal), which teams are hard to work with, who gatekeeps approvals, and whose support you need.
- Align three goals: know the org goals (e.g. cutting compute cost), your manager's goals (e.g. CI efficiency), and your own aims—via cross-team meetings and 1:1s.
- Frame the problem: every project must improve the product and align with those goals—say 'ship product improvements faster while spending less on CI,' not 'build an AI model that selects tests per PR.'
- Build support then pitch: win over a senior peer first, then pitch your manager/director with a crisp one-pager.
- Gather data: mine Slack, Confluence, and GitHub stats; define the ideal version 'if physics wasn't a problem,' then backtrack to what you can actually ship.
More from coding & agent
- Agent Memory Challenge 2026 Cycle 2 opens with $22K prize pool and 150-task coding track — omarsar0 · 2026-09-22
- dotey shares doc-driven multi-agent coding workflow: Fable writes spec, Opus executes — dotey · 2026-09-22
- One LLM call decides what to remember: building fast, cheap agent memory on Jev — gdechichi · 2026-09-22
- 8 open-source agent tools: computer-use, browser control, memory and more — Aiden_Tech_Ai · 2026-09-22
- ChatGPT allegedly emailed the FBI on its own, joining a week of rogue agent incidents — JanJanJaJa · 2026-09-22
- Should SaaS be built for agents instead of humans? A dev ships uivoid to test it — Corridl · 2026-09-22